15th Army (Star League)

Fifteenth Army
Affiliation	Star League
Parent Command	Star League Defense Force

The Fifteenth Army of the Star League Defense Force was assigned to operations within the Draconis Combine Military Region.

History

Administered from the Army Headquarters on Hassi R'mel, the Fifteenth Army enjoyed a relatively quiet posting prior to the Periphery Uprising; responsible for guarding the Periphery border of the Draconis Combine, the Fifteenth's area of responsibility was comprised largely of peaceful, underdeveloped worlds. The main action seen by the Fifteenth involved challenges from DCMS ronin, particularly on and around New Samarkand, the former capital of the Combine.

The Fifteenth's headquarters on Hassi R'Mel was in the Kagoshima Prefecture of the Draconis Combine. This was useful in a strategic sense as most of the Combine's JumpShip traffic (civilian and military) would pass through the system on their way to other Prefectures. This allowed the SLDF forces to keep their finger on the pulse of the Combine. The Draconis Rift, an area the Fifteenth Army was responsible for guarding, was a desolate area with few inhabited worlds. Most of the stars here were small red and orange stars. These small stars were dim and made it difficult for JumpShips to recharge efficiently. To respond, the Fifteenth added recharge stations in the Rift. These stations and the few bright stars in the region were heavily guarded by the Fifteenth's component commands.

The Fifteenth's most active area of operations was along the Draconis Combine/Federated Suns border. Pirate and bandit groups frequently crossed back and forth, raiding worlds with impunity.

When the Uprising engulfed the Periphery, the Fifteenth Army was rapidly deployed into the Outworlds Alliance in support of the Eighteenth Army; over the course of the two years of conflict, the Fifteenth lost ten divisions and two independent regiments in combat, with another two divisions ultimately being disbanded due to casualty levels. This meant that, at the time of Stefan Amaris' coup on Terra, the Fifteenth was operating at roughly sixty-five percent of full combat strength.

During Operation CHIEFTAIN, the Fifteenth formed a portion of the Seventeenth Army Group. In July and August of 2772, the command attacked the worlds of Bharat, Hamal, Nopah and Yangtze as part of the first thrust of the first wave into the Terran Hegemony. The subordinate XV Corps faced considerable resistance on Bharat—after quickly securing their initial targets—when export armaments were turned against them. Hamal and Nopah were not major challenges for XL Corps, though the occupation timeline had to be adjusted to deal with some regions that had to be resecured on Hamal. A similar delay was experienced by XXIII Corps on Yangtze, in order to deal with defenders operating among the local communities.

In 2773, available Army units moved on to Kawich, where their efforts were aggravated by the defenders' strong defensive measures.

On Terra, no earlier than the northern hemisphere's 2779 springtime, Fifteenth Army (with the Seventeenth Army Group) was to target a drop into Iceland, followed by a move to Greenland, with minimal opposition anticipated.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the 15th Army
General	Dimitry Barrios	2764 - 2777

Tactics

• When General Dimitry Barrios took command, the Fifteenth Army would show up at a hotspot in far greater numbers than it needed to completely overpower its foe.

Corps of the 15th Army

July 2772

• XV Corps
• XXIII Corps
• XXXV Corps
• XL Corps

Composition History

2765

• 7 BattleMech Divisions
• 27 Infantry Divisions
• 9 Independent Regiments

July 2772

• 4 BattleMech Divisions
• 12 Infantry Divisions
• 6 Independent Regiments

Bibliography

• Field Manual: SLDF
• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1
• The Star League