2nd Mechanized Infantry Division

Second Mechanized Infantry Division
Formed	By 2575[See Notes]
Disbanded	2765
Previous Designation(s)	Second (Provisional) Russian Tank Division / Second Division
Nickname	Red Steel Guards Division
Affiliation	Star League
Parent Command	I Corps / XLIII Corps

The Second Mechanized Infantry Division was a part of the Star League Defense Force Regular Army.

History

Early History

Sometime following the Second Soviet Civil War, the survivors of the Soviet Ground Forces' Twentieth Guard Army were formed into Second (Provisional) Russian Tank Division by the Terran Alliance Armed Forces. Restructured several times over the years, the unit eventually becoming the Red Steel Guards Division.

Reunification War

Ridgebrook

During the Reunification War, the Second Division was a part of I Corps and would serve on the Taurian Concordat front as a part of Operation BULL RUN. The Second was one of the first units to see combat; the first two worlds to be attacked by the SLDF were Ridgebrook and Keuterville, and the Second joined the First Royal Division for the attack on Ridgebrook.

The I Corps ground forces were joined elements of the Third Battle Fleet and the WarShip escorts assigned to I Corps. The attack began with the Third Battle Fleet taking the lead and engaging a squadron of Taurian WarShips orbiting Ridgebrook in what became a five-hour battle in which the Taurian WarShips attempted to destroy as many SLDF transports as possible while the Third Battle Fleet attempted to punch a hole through the Taurian WarShip picket to allow the First and Second Divisions to begin landing. By the time the Taurian picket was broken, four Taurian WarShips and three SLDF WarShips had been destroyed; of more importance to the ground campaign was the loss of ten SLDF DropShips along with more than a regiment of troops they had been transporting.

Both SLDF Divisions were keen to avenge the people lost to the Taurian WarShips and set out to secure the planet quickly, with the First Royal Division landing on the 22nd of May and the Second Division landing on the 25th. Ridgebrook was a lightly populated world, with most of the settlements concentrated on the Westridge continent. The capital city, Estacada, was overlooked by the Goldenridge Mountains, and it was in and around these mountains that the bulk of the Taurian defenders had taken up station. The First Royal Division encountered only light resistance up until the Second Division began landing at a site chosen to put them within easy reach of Estacada. As soon as the Second's DropShips began grounding they came under heavy fire; the Taurian's had established missile and gun batteries in the Goldenridge Mountains where they could watch over the capital, and these batteries included some of the heaviest artillery available anywhere in the Concordat.

SLDF losses on the 25th of May amounted to five DropShips and two battalions of BattleMechs and armored vehicles, and the SLDF would take more losses as it laid siege to the Goldenridge Mountains. While the SLDF possessed the only 'Mech forces on the planet, the Taurians had a significant armored force backed up by their artillery and had established several fortresses within the mountains from which they could cover the capital and the primary Ridgebrook transportation hub, with the defenses forming three distinct layers of overlapping defensive lines. Breaking through the defensive positions took the combined First and Second Divisions four months, and the Taurian forces were determined to make the SLDF pay for every inch. Most of the defenders fought to the death, and when the SLDF troops cleared out the last Concordat bunkers on the 12th of September fewer than a hundred Taurian soldiers had been captured alive in the mountains.

Periphery Uprising

In 2764, the Second Mechanized Infantry Division was stationed on Borgan's Rift, assigned as part of XLIII Corps, Seventeenth Army to the Periphery Military Region. Stationed in the Magistracy of Canopus, the Second and local citizens shared their cultural and heritage with each other through various community festivals.

The Second was destroyed during the Periphery Uprising in 2765.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division
Major General	Svetlana Kolesnikova	2764

Tactics

The Mechanized Infantry divisions of the Star League were used offensively to exploit gaps in the enemy front created by the BattleMech divisions. They also bore the brunt of defensive actions.

Composition History

2764

Second Mechanized Infantry Division

• Three brigades each with an armor, infantry, and 'Mech regiment
• An additional airmobile infantry regiment
• An addition mobile artillery regiment

Notes

• ^ The Star League and Historical: Reunification War state that in 2575, the SLDF had ten full corps with each divided into three divisions and nine brigades in a set organizational structure. The Second was listed as being a division of one of those corps.
• It was confirmed by the author of Historical: Reunification War that, in general, the Divisions listed within The Star League can be traced directly to those Divisions listed within Historical: Reunification War. Therefore, it can safely be assumed that the twenty-sixth-century Second Division is the direct antecedent of the twenty-eighth-century Second Mechanized Infantry Division.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: SLDF
• Historical: Reunification War
• The Star League