II Corps (Star League)

Corps II (SLDF) logo.png
II Corps
Formed 25712581
Affiliation Star League
Parent Command Twelfth Army

II Corps, also known as the Second Corps, was one of the Corps created during the founding of the Star League Defense Force in 2571, and would grow to become a very large military formation, with a total strength at the height of the Star League of five full Divisions each of three Brigades plus two independent Regiments.[1][2]

History[edit]

Formation[edit]

The formation of II Corps began soon after the formation of the Star League, during the initial organization of the Star League Defense Force by Commander-in-Chief Lady Shandra Noruff-Cameron, and shared a number of similarities with I Corps. II Corps consisted of a full Royal Brigade as well as two additional Royal BattleMech regiments and a Royal armor regiment from the Terran Hegemony, with the remaining troops drawn equally from other Star League member states. II Corps was originally tasked with defending those worlds within the Terran Hegemony. Initially under the command of Major General Amos Forlough, II Corps was not as well equipped as I Corps but trained hard to reach Elite status before forming a part of the Outworlds Alliance task force.[2]

It was the hard training regimen the units of II Corps undertook prior to the Reunification War that saw the majority of the regiments within II Corps miss out on the opportunity to take part in the United Triumph series of exercises that comprehensively embarrassed the nascent SLDF.[3]

Reunification War[edit]

Tension between the Periphery nations would grow in the years following the Unified Triumph exercises; First Lord Ian Cameron raised trade tariffs against the Periphery nations in the hope that this form of leverage along with others would make them willing to join the Star League. A series of incidents would be played out between the two sides, leading to the Malagrotta Crisis in 2753 which be the final straw needed to make war inevitable. Ian Cameron viewed the Periphery nations as uncivilized and as threats to his creation. He and League members voted for war, and Ian Cameron would issue the Pollux Proclamation to the Periphery which was effectively the unofficial declaration of war; when the Proclamation was roundly rejected by the major Periphery powers, Cameron laid plans for the military conquest of the Periphery states.

II Corps would be a major part of the SLDF Task Force Outworlds, targeting the Outworlds Alliance, along with V Corps and an Auxiliary Corps consisting of House Kurita troops under SLDF command. II Corps and the rest of the task force would finally be in position in June 2581, and for much of the next four years the task force commander, SLDF General Amos Forlough would personally lead the II Corps' troops in conquering numerous Outworlds Alliance worlds. Among the units faced by II Corps was the Pitcairn Legion, notionally a mercenary unit drawn from personnel from the elite Davion Brigade of Guards, who would inflict a number of significant defeats on II Corps. Despite increasingly brutal measures inflicted on the civilian population of the Alliance, the task force would be unable to fully conquer the Alliance, and II Corps was withdrawn from the Alliance campaign in 2584 to fight in the war against the Taurian Concordat.[4][5]

During the long campaign to conquer the Concordat II Corps would fight on several worlds, including taking part in the bloody campaign to capture the key world of New Vandenberg, and would still be active within Concordat space when the Taurian government finally surrendered.[6] After the battle for New Vandenberg, General Lord Damien Onaga used II Corps to conquer Desolate Plains in 2590. Desolate Plains was spared the immense death toll and destruction that many other Taurian worlds suffered during the War; this was due to Onaga changing the strategy employed on Operation BULL RUN, taking a very different approach to that ordered by the previous theater commander, Field Marshal Amos Forlough. Onaga's approach to conquering Desolate Plains saw him deliberately rotating troops[7] from II Corps[6] in and out of battle, giving them an opportunity to blood themselves, while limiting his campaign to purely military targets, rather than cities and civilian infrastructure. This made the conquest of Desolate Plains a slower campaign than many previous planetary assaults, but inflicted far less damage, and with much of the planetary garrison having already been stripped away by the Taurian Defense Force to fight in other systems during earlier years of the war, the battle for Desolate Plains was over by the end of October 2590.[7]

Later Years[edit]

At the height of the Star League in 2764 II Corps was assigned to the Lyran Commonwealth Military Region's Second District as part of the SLDF's Twelfth Army in 2764. With its long history, II Corps received many transfer requests from new and experienced soldiers who wanted to be a part of the storied unit. The unit as a whole trained constantly to be the best, and if a soldier wasn't performing up to standards they would frequently request transfer out of the unit rather than sully its reputation. With the repositioning of the Twentieth Army, the unit benefited from the supplies left behind as that unit redeployed. Another effect of the Twentieth Army's withdrawal from the Rim Worlds Republic was the use of II Corps Twenty-ninth CAAN Marine Regiment to conduct undercover reconnaissance missions to monitor the Periphery nation.[8]

The Periphery Uprising would see the entire Corps deployed by General Aleksandr Kerensky to the Periphery to combat the uprising. The Corps' Twenty-ninth CAAN Marine Division would end up defecting to the Periphery forces, fighting against their own comrades; by the end of the campaign in the Periphery half of the Corps would be gone. The Ninety-second BattleMech and Eighteenth Royal Mechanized Infantry Divisions would be destroyed outright in the fighting, while the Twenty-ninth Mechanized Infantry Division would be so heavily damaged that it would be disbanded for lack of personnel in 2766.

The remaining Divisions and regiments of the Corps would join Kerensky's Hegemony Campaign in 2767. Only two of its components would survive, the Eleventh Royal BattleMech Division and Thirty-eighth Light Horse Regiment, both which answered Kerensky's call to join the Exodus. Elements of the disbanded Twenty-ninth Mechanized would return opt to remain in the Inner Sphere and join the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery instead of traveling with the Exodus Fleet.[9]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the II Corps (Star League)
General Amos Forlough 2581[10]
Major General Horst Nunweiler 2749-2764[8]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

2581[edit]

Administrative HQ: Rigil Kentarus[10]
Commanding Officer: General Amos Forlough[10]

Total Forces:[10]

Component units:[10]

Fourth Division
Fifth Division
Sixth Royal Division

2764–2765[edit]

Divisions
Independent Regiments
Notes: Listing of all its Divisions prior to some of their destruction and single case of betrayal during the Periphery Uprising.[15]

2767–2799[edit]

  • Eleventh Royal BattleMech Division (The Orion Division)
  • Twenty-eighth Infantry Division
  • Thirty-eighth Light Horse Regiment
    • Notes: Listing shows the remaining intact units active during the Campaign to liberate the Terran Hegemony. The Twenty-ninth Mechanized Infantry Division is not listed due to its disbandment after the Periphery Uprising, however elements of the unit appeared to have been active during Liberation. It's not clear how much of the unit survive and was with the Regular Army until end of the campaign.[16]

2784[edit]

  • Eleventh Royal BattleMech Division (The Orion Division)
  • Thirty-eighth Light Horse Regiment
    • Notes: II Corps' last active and intact formations at time of the Exodus and remained with SLDF when it left the Inner Sphere. It's unclear what became of the disbanded survivors of the Twenty-ninth Mechanized Infantry Division other it joined the Draconis Combine.

Notes[edit]

It is unclear II Corps remained functional an active formation during both the Periphery and Hegemony Campaigns. In Corps' early years after SLDF had formed, the Corps would only be used in the Outworlds Alliance, but the loss of nearly half its Divisions by end or Periphery Uprising Risings.

The name "II Corps" is officially used in Military Region listings for the Corps, however early information shows Corps' name with "2" or "Second".[17]

References[edit]

  1. The Star League, p. 145: "Twelfth Army"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 29: "II Corps"
  3. Historical: Reunification War, pp. 46–47: "Amos Forlough"
  4. The Star League, p. 50: Outworlds Alliance War - Second Corps' actions during the war with the Alliance
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 140: "Outworlds Alliance Front"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 143: "Taurian Concordat Front [2586–2596]"
  7. 7.0 7.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 91: "Cleanup"
  8. 8.0 8.1 Field Manual: SLDF, p. 148
  9. The Star League, p. 145: 12th Army, II Corps - TO&E gives brief snapshot of information on the actions and fates of the components of the II Corps
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Historical: Reunification War, p. 107: "SLDF Task Force Outworlds"
  11. 11.0 11.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 116: "Medron"
  12. Historical: Reunification War, p. 112: "Bryceland"
  13. Historical: Reunification War, p. 112: "Groveld III"
  14. Historical: Reunification War, p. 123: "Pitcairn's Raids"
  15. The Star League, p. 145: 12th Army, II Corps - II Corps' units listings as of 2764–2765
  16. The Star League, p. 145: 12th Army, II Corps - II Corps' units listings as of 2767–2799
  17. The Star League, pp. 43, 47, 145: Unit's name and open question if the Corps remained active during the twenty-eighth century

Bibliography[edit]