401st Division (ComStar)

Com Guards 401st Division.png
401st Division Level IV-chi
Formed Unknown (mid-3030s)
Nickname The White Eagles
Affiliation ComStar
Parent Command Fifth Army

Savaged by Clans Smoke Jaguar and Steel Viper, the 401st Division was one of the many Com Guard units disbanded after the Battle of Tukayyid.

History

Prior to the Clan Invasion, the regular ranked 401st Division was posted to the Fifth Army with its headquarters on the Capellan Confederation world of Betelgeuse.[1]

Along with the rest of the Fifth Army, the 401st was assigned to combat Clan Smoke Jaguar during the Battle of Tukayyid and was stationed alongside the 367th and 207th Divisions in the swamps and marshes of the Racice River Delta which lay between the drop zone of Beta Galaxy, led by saKhan Sarah Weaver, and their target of Port Racice.[2][3][4][5][6]

While the Jaguar's combat drop went well, the 401st and its fellow divisions used swampy terrain to its maximum advantage, quickly stalling their advance. Rising in ambushes from hidden positions in the delta's deep pools and river channels, the cool waters negating the Clan's heat sink advantage, the elements of the 401st faced the bogged down Clusters of Beta. By the end of the third day the 207th had surrounded Beta's Command Star, killing saKhan Weaver and triggering the dispirited Beta Galaxy into retreat, the Smoke Jaguars never coming close to even threatening Port Racice.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

After the withdrawal of the Jaguars, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht assigned the 401st to bolster the forces facing Clan Steel Viper. Stationed alongside the Sixth Army's 321st Division just outside the hellish Devil's Bath, as the battered Steel Viper galaxies finally emerged, both division attacked and broke through Gamma Galaxy's lines. While not forcing the Clan forces into retreat themselves, they did block the Vipers long enough for further reinforcements to arrive and drive them back. [7][8][9] [6][10]

The second-to-last Clan to land on Tukayyid was Clan Diamond Shark, and the 401st was among the Com Guard forces that faced them. The Diamond Shark forces landed in the Kozice Valley; fighting alongside the 207th Division, the 401st fought a running battle against the Diamond Sharks, deliberately retreating steadily backwards when pushed despite the losses taken. The reason for that strategy became apparent when the two divisions had the Diamond Shark front-line forces pinned down in the marshes of Kozice after three days of combat. The Diamond Sharks had been drawn some sixty-five kilometers away from their supplies, and the Diamond Shark supply dumps had been left to small numbers of troops and OmniMechs that had been crippeld or heavily damaged in the fighting; the 401st had deliberately left its jump infantry forces in hiding during the retreat, and those infantry forces were now well behind the front line. The hidden forces swept down from the hillsides they had hidden on and attacked the supply dumps, targeting supplies and ammunition essential to the Diamond Shark campaign. The infantry forces were remorseless, and the Diamond Shark forces were swiftly cut off from their landing zone and forced to retreat onto the northern plains with Com Guard forces in pursuit and had suffered crippling losses by the time ilKhan Ulric Kerensky called an end to the Trial.[11]

Despite its valiant efforts against the Clans, Precentor Martial Focht elected to disband rather than rebuild the heavily damaged 410st Division, transferring its survivors to other units.

Officers

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 401st Division (ComStar)
Precentor Cathilly Yseth 3050[1]

Tactics

Unknown.

Composition History

3050

401st Division (Division/Regular)[12]

Note: At this point in time the 401st Division was stationed on Betelgeuse.[12]

Notes

  • Only appearing sources prior to and during the Battle of Tukayyid, the fate of the 401st Division is based on conjecture.
  • One of the scenarios in the ClanTroops sourcebook features a battle featuring infantry elements of the 401st attacking a Diamond Shark supply depot in the Kozice Valley on Tukayyid on 06 May 3053. The featured units are the First, Second and Third squads of the First Platoon of the First Company (The Ivory Talons), of the First Battalion, of the Third Strike Regiment.[11]
  • ClanTroops is inconsistent with other sources in the narrative describing the 401st and their actions in the Kozice Valley; characters describe the 401st as an untested unit, but the Diamond Sharks were the second-to-last Clan to land on Tukayyid while Clan Smoke Jaguar was the first, so the 401st had already been in battle against at least one other Clan.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 20 Year Update, p. 70: "5th V-xi"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tukayyid, p. 29 "Campaign: Clan Smoke Jaguar"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tukayyid, pp. 32-33 "Battle in the Delta [2]"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Invading Clans, p. 62 "Tukayyid: The Crucible"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wolf Clan, p. 47 "Days of Armageddon - Smoke Jaguar"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 ComStar, p. 70 "Battle of Tukayyid"
  7. ↑ Tukayyid, p. 79, "Campaign: Clan Steel Viper"
  8. ↑ Tukayyid, p. 87, "Halting the Vipers [23]"
  9. ↑ Invading Clans, p. 87 "Fifth Wave: The Snake Strikes - Tukayyid"
  10. ↑ Wolf Clan, p. 48 "Days of Armageddon - Steel Viper"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 ClanTroops, p. 50, "Epic Battle"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 20 Year Update, p. 70

Bibliography

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