Tarsus Bodoli
Sarna News
| Tarsus Bodoli | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | Draconis Combine |
| Career | |
| Rank | Tai-sho[1] |
Tarsus Bodoli was the commanding officer of the Galedon Military District's Matsuida Prefecture as of 3025.[1]
History[edit]
Tai-sho Bodoli commanded the Matsuida Prefecture, located in the Draconis Combine's Galedon Military District, in 3025. Simultaneously, Bodoli was the commanding officer of the Twelfth Galedon Regulars and was stationed on Matsuida.[1]
Wapakoneta[edit]
During the Fourth Succession War, Bodoli's Twelfth Regulars and the Third Proserpina Hussars were dispatched to assault the Federated Suns' world of Wapakoneta in late 3028. Facing the defending Beta and Delta Regiments of Wolf's Dragoons, Bodoli quickly fell for the mercenaries' initial feinting attacks and left a paltry force behind to defend the Regulars' airfield while the unit's main body marched off in pursuit of the Dragoons' skirmishers. While bold, the Dragoons' skirmishers were annihilated by the combined force of the Twelfth Regulars and Third Hussars and the flanking attack they died to buy time for failed to reach the under-defended airfield before Bodoli and Bruce Bernstein's men returned from their victory. Still, in the five minutes it took the Combine units to destroy the attacking Dragoons, two-thirds of their aerospace fighters were destroyed by the mercenaries.[2]
Bodoli and Bernstein, enraged by the loss of their fighter support, told their men to treat the Dragoons without mercy and began marching in order to find and eliminate the remaining Dragoons forces on-world. While attempting to draw out the mercenaries by advancing on the civilian city of Garolla, two lances of Bodoli's Regulars were cut off in the Banth Forest and engaged in combat by Delta Regiment's Second Company. The ensuing battle went poorly for the Dragoons and the forest was set ablaze in the confusion but the Regulars ultimately claimed victory in the skirmish when the Dragoons' company commander was killed. The next three months saw few set battles as, unbeknownst to Bodoli and Bernstein, the two Dragoons' regiments had split into numerous small forces in order to wage a campaign of hit-and-fade guerrilla warfare.[2]
The Combine's losses were exaggerated by Bodoli's command decisions, as he used his command seniority over Bernstein to keep their forces packed into concentrated convoys that made for easy targets. Bodoli refused Bernstein's request to break their troops into smaller concentrations in order to more effectively hunt the Dragoons and in late November matters came to a head when the Twelfth Regulars and Third Hussars split apart. While this brought the Combine's command cohesion to a halt, the dispersed Hussars began catching their mercenary opponents off guard and by 3029 had them on the run. On 3 January, three companies of Hussars were lured into a trap and ambushed by the entirety of Delta and Beta Regiments, losing nearly half of their men before finally rejoining Bodoli's Regulars for rest and repairs.[2]
The Dragoons' commanding officers made the decision to retreat to the city of Hannibal in order to convert it into a fortress, but some of Bodoli's Regulars managed to occupy the town of Bakir directly in the Dragoons' path. Initial attempts by the Dragoons to assault Bodoli's men met with fierce aerospace and artillery resistance. Eventually, an elderly native of Bakir—who happened to be an Armed Forces of the Federated Suns veteran—provided the Dragoons with a location where they could cross the Bakir River undetected, before the mercenaries swung back around and chased the Regulars out of the settlement.[3]
In late April, the Regulars and Hussars began setting up positions around the entrenched Dragoons' new base at Hannibal, establishing landing strips for their aerospace fighters and dispatching infantry and armor to harass the Dragoons' own aerospace facility near the village of Yaston. After gaining aerospace superiority, the Combine forces began an intensive bombardment campaign that reduced Hannibal to rubble while forcing its defenders to retreat to a vast complex of underground mining tunnels. A 9 May assault into Hannibal itself proved disastrous, with the Dragoons having entrenched themselves in the city's ruins, and Bodoli was forced to order a retreat after his advance units were picked apart.[3]
On 21 May, following another full day of aerial bombardment, both the Galedon Regulars and Proserpina Hussars made a major assault into Hannibal. The first lance of Bodoli's 'Mechs to make contact with the Dragoons defending the city's industrial sector were destroyed but following Regulars reinforcements forced the mercenaries back into the ruined warehouses and factories. As the Hussars were suffering their own setbacks, the Galedon Regulars were caught unprepared by the surprise arrival of the Dragoons' mobile reserve and were forced to once more withdraw from the city after becoming badly disorganized. The onset of a raging snowstorm prevented any further offensive operations until 28 June, at which point the Dragoons had covertly left both Hannibal and Wapakoneta for Crossing. Bodoli's force was victorious and had managed to destroy more than half of the two Dragoons regiments, although they had not managed to land a killing blow during the final stages of fighting.[3]