Editing 32nd Division (Star League)

{{infoBoxStateUnit
| image    = 
| nickname = 
| parent formation = [[VIII Corps (Star League)|VIII Corps]]
| formed   = [[2579]]
| year     = 2596
| unitname = 32nd Division
}}

==History==
The '''Thirty-Second Division''' was part of the [[Star League Defense Force]] Regular Army. The Thirty-Second and her sister [[division]] within the provisonal [[VIII Corps (Star League)|VIII Corps]], the [[31st Armor Division|Thirty-First Armor Division]] were cobbled together in or around [[2579]] as part of the formation of [[Task Force MAILED FIST]], the Task Force assembled to implement [[Operation MAILED FIST]] - the Star League intervention in the [[Rim Worlds Republic]] civil war. <ref name="H:RWp131"/> Confusingly, over the same period of time [[General]] [[Amalthia Kinkaid]], the Commanding Officer of the SLDF operation against the [[Taurian Concordat]] was standing up a new provisional corps, designated [[XI Corps (Star League)|XI Corps]], which also contained a [[31st Division (Star League)|Thirty-First Division]] and [[32nd Division (XI Corps)|Thirty-Second Division]].<ref name="H:RWp142">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 142, "Taurian Concordat Front (Jump-Off - 2585)"</ref>

The timing of the Rim Worlds Republic civil war was unfortunate for the Star League, and when the SLDF was finally charged with intervening the only forces available were two reserve [[corps]] stationed on [[Terra]] and those divisions being mustered from new recruits and trained up. As a result, the provisional VIII Corps lacked a backbone and was bolstered through the formation of the [[2nd Marik Auxiliary Corps]], which added six line regiments from the [[Free Worlds League Military]], and three regiments from the [[Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces]] mustered together as the [[Lyran Auxiliary Corps]].<ref name="H:RWp131">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 131, "False Starts (2579-81)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp152">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 152, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (Jump-Off - 2587)"</ref>

===Bucklands===
By [[2582]] the Rim Worlds Republic had been in a state of civil war for seven years. The Star League had initiated Operation MAILED FIST in mid-[[2581]], but the SLDF plans had been forced to change after a deep raid by the [[4th Amaris Fusiliers|Fourth Amaris Fusiliers]] had managed to strike at the [[Lyran Commonwealth]] interior world of [[Alarion]].<ref name="H:RWp132+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 132-133, "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp132+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 132-133, "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref>

The result was the reorganisation of the SLDF forces and their auxiliaries into three battlegroups, each responsible for the pacification of one of the three provinces that made up the Rim Worlds Republic.<ref name="H:RWp133">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 133, "Island Hopping (2582-2590)"</ref> [[Bucklands]] and the [[2nd Amaris Fusiliers|Second Amaris Fusiliers]] were the first targets of the battlegroup assigned to pacifying the [[Finmark Province]], and the SLDF deployed VIII Corps - still predominantly an infantry corps - to the battle for Bucklands.<ref name="H:RWp133+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 132-133, "Alarion (December 2581)"</ref>

VIII Corps planners thought that Buckland's broad plains would give them an advantage over the Rim Worlds Republic military forces stationed on the world. This proved incorrect, as the light armor forces within the Second Fusiliers proved very adept at evading SLDF patrols, repeatedly slipping past patrols and pickets to strike at weak points within the SLDF positions. The sheer tenacity displayed by the Rim Worlds defenders - a unit the SLDF was notionally supporting with their campaign to restore [[First Consul]] [[Gregory Amaris]] to power - was a shock for VIII Corps, whose infantry-heavy forces frequently found themselves on the retreat despite the numerical advantage the SLDF enjoyed on paper. The net result was an indication of what the SLDF would find happening on numerous other worlds within the Republic - an extended seven-month campaign before Bucklands was pacified and the defending forces finally broken.<ref name="H:RWp133">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 133, "Helbrent to Nightwish (July 2582 - November 2584)"</ref>

===Finmark===
By late [[2584]] the SLDF changed tactics again; a number of major [[Rim Worlds Army]] units had been destroyed or captured, and the focus for the campaign had shifted to capturing worlds of strategic importance, but the campaign was slowed by the greatly increased resistance offered by the RWA and local civilian populations, prompted by atrocities performed by the [[Draconis Auxiliary Corps]] when they captured [[Nightwish]] in mid-2584. [[Archon]] [[Viola Steiner-Dinesen]] of Battle Group Finmark assigned VIII Corps to the conquest of Finmark in [[2586]];<ref name="H:RWp152"/> the resulting campaign was actually something of a relief for the beleaguered SLDF, as it was one of the few stand-up fights to occur during Operation MAILED FIST, unmarked by the more extreme defensive measures many other planetary campaigns were marked by.<ref name="H:RWp134+">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 134-135, "Arlina to Viborg (December 2584 - September 2588)"</ref>

The battle for Finmark saw one of the seven corvette-class [[WarShip]]s operated by the Rim Worlds Army crippled and then boarded by SLDF troops, and was the first time the SLDF had encountered any of the small RWA WarShips in combat.<ref name="H:RWp135">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 135, "Newtown Shoals: Sharks Among Minnows (January 2588)"</ref> On the surface of Finmark the loyalist [[5th Amaris Dragoons|Fifth Amaris Dragoons]] put up a valiant and determined resistance against the far more numerous SLDF forces, selling themselves dearly before being defeated by VIII Corps.<ref name="H:RWp134+"/>

===Edirne===
The next campaign for the Thirty-Second was the first campaign in which they would operate independently; the Thirty-Second was deployed to secure the world of [[Edirne]] in [[2589]]<ref name="H:RWp153">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 153, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref> in the face of opposition from local militia and partisan forces.<ref name="H:RWp155">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 155, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref>

===Zertarum and Battaraigi===
For the campaign on [[Zertarum]] in [[2592]]<ref name="H:RWp139">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 139, "Bitter Harvests (2591-2596)"</ref> the Thirty-Second was deployed alongside the Thirty-First Armor Division again, with VIII Corps capturing the system and then remaining in place as the local garrison until the Thirty-First was redeployed for the invasion of [[Cryfder]] in [[2593]]; the Thirty-Second then went into action again in [[2594]] for the conquest of [[Battaraigi]]. In both cases the Thirty-Second faced only local militia and partisan forces.<ref name="H:RWp153">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 153, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref><ref name="H:RWp155">''Historical: Reunification War'', p. 155, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"</ref>

===Apollo===
General Isaacson planned the operation to secure [[Apollo (planet)|Apollo]], the capital world of the Rim Worlds Republic. Isaacson took command of the naval elements of the operation, while operational command of the ground operation was passed to Archon Steiner-Dinesen, who lead the landings and the assault on Terra Prime, whilst Duke Selaj was made her second in command and given responsibility for the military strike to secure the island estates within which Gregory Amaris had sheltered for the better part of twenty years.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

The Archon's force made slow progress in their assault, landing on the 21st of March [[2596]], having to deal with conducting an assault in the midst of the monsoon season against the combined forces of the [[7th Amaris Legionnaires|Seventh Amaris Legionnaires]] and [[8th Amaris Dragoons|Eighth Amaris Dragoons]] bolstered by well-prepared defenses that included bunker complexes and gun emplacements. The weather heavily favoured the outnumbered defenders, while the various battles turned the ground outside the city into a quagmire, bogging down the SLDF units and sapping morale. The weather also prevented the SLDF from making use of AeroSpace forces much of the time, and it was only with the addition of those forces commanded by Duke Selaj that real progress began to be made.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

Duke Selaj had managed to easily defeat the forces besieging the Amaris' estates, only to find Amaris himself to be unpleasant, hostile, and thoroughly ungrateful for his rescue; Amaris regarded Selaj as a provincial minor lordling from the [[Free Worlds League]], despite the far greater wealth and and population of the [[Principality of Regulus]], and bitterly resented the time taken to rescue him and the poor conditions he considered himself to have lived in... conditions far more opulent than most of his citizens or the soldiers of the Task Force had endured. Despite the difficulties in dealing with Amaris, Duke Selaj was able to send his troops and liberated Amaris loyalists to join the forces outside Terra Prime.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

On the 24th of March the Archon initiated a plan to draw the RRA defenders out; making sure that she was highly visible, she led the Fourth Royal Guards on a sweep around the city, in the hope that she would prove a signficant enough target to tempt the defenders into an attack. The plan was that when the RRA attacked, the Free Worlds, Amaris Loyalist and VIII Corps units nearby would arrive to reinforce the Fourth, trapping the defenders in a three-jawed trap. The Seventh Legionnaires and Eighth Fusiliers responded as hoped, moving out to attack the Archon's forces, but a communications glitch meant that the other units didn't receive the signal to spring into action, leaving the Fourth in locked combat with both rebel units.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

Troops from VIII Corps did eventually arrive and drove off the rebel forces, but by that point the Fourth Royal Guards had been mauled; the Archon's 'Mech was one of those destroyed in the fighting, and while the Archon survived the battle, she had suffered mortal injuries and was swiftly repatriated to [[Tharkad]], where she died on the 28th of April.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

General Isaacson wasn't entirely surprised to learn of the Archon's injuries; he perceived the Archon's behaviour since the Day of Rage on Barcelona to have been reckless to the point of nihilism, and her actions had given him cause for concern. With the Archon no longer able to command the ground forces, General Isaacson took direct command of the ground forces for the remainder of the operation. Gregory Amaris remained true to his nature, demanding that Isaacson end the conflict by bombing the RPG forces into submission; Isaacson refused, and conducted a more cautious campaign, intended to reduce the loss of life on both parts as much as possible. Isaacson's strategy was proven effective, and the siege of Terra Prime finally ended on the 3rd of September when the RPG surrendered, ending the civil war.<ref name="H:RWp139"/>

==Notes==
It was confirmed by the author of [[Historical: Reunification War]] that in general, the Divisions listed within the Star League sourcebook be traced back directly to those Divisions listed within Historial: Reunification War.<ref name="CGL:ATW05102011">''[http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,11015.0.html Ask The Writers: Star League Divisions: Reunification War to Liberation of Terra]''</ref> However, in [[2764]] there are two divisions listed as the Thirty-Second within the [[SLDF]]: the [[32nd Infantry Division|Thirty-Second Infantry Division]], [[XII Corps (Star League)|XII Corps]]<ref name=SL142>''The Star League'', p. 142, "Ninth"</ref> and the [[32nd Mechanized Infantry Division|Thirty-Second Mechanized Infantry Division]], [[XIV Corps (Star League)|XIV Corps]].<ref name=SL157>''The Star League'', p. 147, "Fourteenth"</ref> It is not known which of these divisions can claim precedence from either of the two Thirty-Second Divisions active during the Reunification War.

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Historical: Reunification War]]''
* ''[[The Star League]]''

[[Category:Star League Defense Force Commands|Division, 0032nd]]