William Harrison von Frisch

William Harrison von Frisch
Personal
Affiliation	Lyran Commonwealth
Profile
Rank	Hauptmann-General

William Harrison von Frisch was an officer from the Lyran Commonwealth and commanded the Fourth Skye Rangers from 3039 to 3067.

History

Early Career

William Harrison von Frisch was a Sanglamore Academy graduate like most Rangers officers, he otherwise stood in stark contrast to his predecessor. Von Frisch fully embraced the tactics and strategies of the new AFFC, and his Rangers were skilled in a wide variety of tactics. Commanding the Rangers for at least 30 years, von Frisch was a loyal "son of Skye", ultimately supporting his Duke's push for independence.

At their creation and for centuries afterwards, the Fourth Skye Rangers employed a "cautious-aggressive" strategy, waiting for their opponents to make mistakes and avoiding direct confrontation with the enemy until then. Pulling back whenever an engagement was forced and constantly driving their opponents to give chase tended to result in fighting on territory of Albion's choosing, giving them a decisive advantage. At the time of the Fourth Succession War, under Hauptmann-Kommandant Kathleen Heany, the Rangers, although still an elite unit, seemed to have become more reliant on "traditional Lyran" tactics, leading with heavy and assault 'Mechs and consigning conventional elements to their rear areas. They showed little signs of their previous innovation, largely as a result of their leadership. Under von Frisch, however, the Rangers became effective in a wide range of imaginative combat tactics, fully employing the diverse range of units in the RCT. Like the original Fourth Rangers, they preferred to lure an enemy into overextending themselves before attacking at a time of their choosing.

War of 3039

Caesar Steiner was given command of a task force to take Kessel as part of General Nondi Steiner's Operation WINTERSCHNEE. Lyran forces entered the system on April 15, 3039, one day before the official start of the conflict. The 4th Skye Rangers RCT, commanded by the newly promoted von Frisch as Steiner's second-in-command, were a key part of his task force, serving alongside Caesar's 2nd Donegal Guards RCT and an independent 'Mech regiment, the Eleventh Lyran Regulars. They made planetfall on April 19, skirmishing with DCMS pilots on the way in. Von Frisch took advantage of the garrison's inexperience, sending his Rangers to strike against their fortifications and pulling back. When the cadets gave chase, Von Frisch's troops picked them apart on their way to seize Kessel's capital city, Sverdlovsk. On April 27, following a retreat by the Sun Zhang cadets to their waiting DropShips, the Lyran units took control of the planet, though they did not declare outright victory.

The Yakuza were a major force on Kessel, but stayed their hand until the ISF made contact on June 29. On July 12, they made their move, staging a campaign of bombings and attacks that killed or injured 126 of the task force's soldiers, including an act of sabotage on an atmosphere processor. Local pro-Commonwealth groups such as the Kessel Freedom Fighters, who had long resisted the Combine, retaliated with a series of bloody reprisals that may have been aided by the 11th Regulars. When the LCAF officers heard of 'Mech attacks on their garrisons, they realized they'd fallen into a trap. The Sun Zhang cadets hadn't left, but had sent their DropShips on without them and stayed hidden, waiting for this moment. Reinforcements, in the form of the 2nd Sword of Light, arrived on July 16. Under orders from Leutnant-General Steiner, von Frisch and his Rangers abandoned their fortified position in Sverdlovsk to disperse throughout the continent.

The battle against the Sword of Light, along with the Fifth and Twelfth Sun Zhang cadres, began on July 29. The Lyran battle plan reflected the preferences of Steiner and von Frisch, rather than typical Lyran tactics. The 4th Skye sparred with the Combine troops for over a week before they began to fall back on August 9. The Twelfth Sun Zhang hesitated to follow, having been fooled before, but the Fifth did not. After the Second Donegal slammed into the cadre's flank, Von Frisch ordered his unit to come about, falling on the Fifth with their full weight. Only two companies of the Fifth Sun Zhang escaped their trap. The two sides would continue to skirmish through September, but the ensuing battles were mostly a series of inconclusive probing battles rather than the all-out confrontation of before. Meanwhile, the 11th Lyran Regulars were facing off with the Steel Dragon as they closed in on Lyran HQ. The 4th Skye Rangers rushed back to encircle the Combine forces, pressuring them in the event of any further advance.

The campaign came to an ignominious end when ISF agents destroyed the LCAF ammunition depot on September 3. Despite calls for reinforcement or resupply, the high command was already beginning to pull back into a defensive position. Realizing there was little hope for victory and pessimistic about the task force's ability to hold out against renewed Combine assault, Steiner told his subordinate officers he planned to withdraw on October 5. The last units would leave Kessel on October 9.

Battle of Morges

In 3054 he was one of the leaders of Commonwealth forces on the Battle of Morges.

Lyran Secession

When the Lyran Alliance seceded from the Federated Commonwealth in 3057, the Fourth Rangers remained on Morges. Khan Phelan Ward arrived in the Morges system in November of that year with two Wolf Clan Galaxies in tow, bringing the Refusal War to Inner Sphere space, and they were granted safe passage by the Khan's father, Duke Morgan Kell. The Falcons would soon arrive and engage the Wolves and Kell Hounds in a climactic battle, but the Rangers and the Twentieth Arcturan Guard would apparently be kept out of that conflict. Meanwhile, the former Skye March was reorganized into the Skye Province, nearly matching the borders of the old Federation of Skye. Little changed for the Fourth Skye Rangers, although from their base on Morges they would become part of the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon, a semi-independent state formed by Grand Duke Morgan Kell, to defend against the Clans and unofficially to oppose Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion's rule. The Fourth Rangers and their commander, Leutnant-General von Frisch, were particularly disturbed by the Archon designating their sister regiments in the Tenth and 22nd Skye Rangers as "sink" units, filling them with incompetent officers and warriors with questionable loyalties, and primarily arming them with second-rate equipment. There were even reportedly attempts by the High Command to do the same to the Fourth Rangers, but their placement in the ARDC apparently prevented the LAAF from carrying through with that plan.

The Fourth Rangers were again disturbed that the LAAF command did not decide to rebuild the Tenth Rangers after their sacrifice on Coventry during the Falcon incursion of 3058, instead folding them into the 22nd Rangers. The Fourth themselves, as part of the ARDC, were not directly impacted by the LAAF's policies. The Rangers were also disturbed Duke Kell did not release them to raid the Jade Falcon occupation zone, despite the protests of von Frisch, who proposed many offensive operations.

As part of the ARDC, the LAAF refused to send the Fourth Rangers any of the Alliance's new 'Mech designs or equipment, and they were forced to rely on Duke Kell for their logistical needs. Despite this, they continued to boast a high equipment quality, even fielding a small number of captured Clan OmniMechs. They were reportedly back up to full strength as an RCT by this time, with no indications of being short from either the battles against the Falcons or from elements of their conventional assets "defecting" to the Skye Guards back during the rebellion of 3056. They were once again stationed on Morges, and were considered likely neutral in the simmering dispute between Katherine and her brother, deposed Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion. They played no role in Operation Guerrero or in the destruction of the Smoke Jaguars by Operation Bulldog.

FedCom Civil War and the Third Skye Rebellion

Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner, the Rangers' liege lord

In late 3062, FedCom Civil War erupted across both realms of the former Federated Commonwealth. Officially neutral, the Fourth Rangers remained on Morges in the opening months of the war.

Early Actions

Before the first wave of the conflict ended, Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner, the son of Ryan Steiner who had succeeded his father as leader of the Free Skye Movement, called all three regiments of the Rangers home to the Skye Province. Although they lacked a command circuit of JumpShips and making their way to Skye would take months, the progress of the war would allow them to make their way through the Alliance while drawing little attention to themselves from either the Lyran High Command or the Allies. In their first relocation, the Fourth Rangers made their way to Summit. Leutnant-General von Frisch had an easy time concealing the Rangers' movements as they made their way to Mesa Verde during the second wave. 10 June, 3064, the Fourth Rangers finally arrived on Skye, greeted by Duke Kelswa-Steiner who honored them with a parade. There are indications that Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner also helped equip the Fourth Rangers with some of the new Lyran 'Mechs and equipment they had previously been denied in the ARDC, such as the Hauptmann OmniMech.

On 16 April, 3065, Duke Kelswa-Steiner was arrested by Archon Katherine on charges of sedition and treason. The Duke had planned for this, however, as nominal command of the Free Skye Movement fell to his top aide, General John Claverhouse Dundee. With the situation in the Skye Province further inflamed, the situation was ripe for the rebellion that Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner had planned. The Third Skye Rebellion had begun.

Hesperus II

Main article: Fifteenth Battle of Hesperus

Arrival

On 28 June, the Fourth Skye Rangers arrived in the Hesperus system, accompanied by two Fox-class WarShips, the LAS Illustrious and the FCS Indefatigable, both under control of the Free Skye military. Their ultimate objective was the Defiance Industries complex on Hesperus II, the largest BattleMech factory in existence. Fourteen times opposing powers had attempted to seize Hesperus, and fourteen times the Lyrans had rallied to push back the invaders. With Hesperus in its hands, Free Skye would have the military industrial base needed to win its independence from the Alliance. Albion and its Free Skye allies intended the fifteenth occasion to be the charm, with their commanding General, von Frisch, in overall command of the operation, and the Fourth Rangers designated the primary attack force. The Twenty-second Skye Rangers were already on-planet, having used Hesperus III for cover. The Fourth Rangers' flotilla was confronted by the FCS Simon Davion, an Avalon-class cruiser easily outmassing the two Fox-class corvettes accompanying the Rangers. The Simon Davion destroyed the Illustrious, but a surprise attack by the Indefatigable allowed a successful boarding action, giving the rebels control of the ship and opening the door for the Fourth Skye to approach the planet. Defending the planet were 15th Lyran Guards, the 36th Lyran Guards, the corporate Defiance Self-Protection Force, and the infamous mercenary Gray Death Legion, who had earned the enmity of Free Skye ten years earlier on Glengarry.

Defiance Industries, the Rangers' primary target

Von Frisch's plan called for the Fourth to launch their opening assault on Doering Electronics in the Caran River basin, far from the planet's capital city of Maria's Elegy and further still from the main objective of the Defiance mountain complex, hoping to lure the defenders away from their base. Indeed, once the Fourth's opening target became clear, the Loyalists, commanded by Leutnant-General Gina Ciampa, sent the Legion and a battalion of her own 'Mechs from the Fifteenth to defend Doering, along with two Lyran Guard conventional regiments. On June 30, the two forces clashed, with von Frisch boldly dropping two companies of light and medium 'Mechs on the facilities themselves in a combat drop while the rest of the Fourth Rangers landed and engaged the main enemy force. The Loyalist forces attempted to hold Doering, but took serious losses once Albion was able to bring its full strength to bear, scattering the Lyran Guards battalion and driving Legion back. The defenders were forced to retreat to their DropShips and withdraw back to the capital, effectively surrendering the facility to the rebels. General Von Frisch left an armor regiment and two infantry regiments to hold Doering, then set his sights on his primary objective. The rest of the Fourth Rangers loaded back into their DropShips, and headed towards Defiance Industries.

The Defiance Self-Protection Force found themselves under attack by Skye aerospace fighters and artillery, looking to clear the way for both Ranger units to attack. Skye Ranger 'Mechs soon followed, as the Fourth and Twenty-second began their first push. Although the corporate force couldn't match the skill of the rebels (and certainly not the Fourth Rangers) they, equipped with some of the best 'Mechs Defiance could offer, were well entrenched with their own artillery support, and used static defenses and minefields to good effect. With a six-to-one advantage, however, the Rangers drove the DSPF back. It would be up to the Fifteenth Guards and the Gray Death Legion to stop the rebels from taking the factories. The Gray Death Legion desperately attempted to make it back to the Myoo Highlands using MagLev trains, but Skye Rangers were able to ambush the train and scatter much of the Legion. The commander of the Fifteenth, Leutnant-General Gina Ciampa, attempted to send a call for reinforcements from the LAAF High Command through ComStar. The Simon Davion, with its advanced sensors, detected the signal, and alerted von Frisch. Realizing the danger, von Frisch ordered the Simon Davion to bombard the ComStar HPG station from orbit in order to prevent the transmission. Von Frisch understood the danger, but intended a surgical strike. The WarShip Kaptain, Elena Cerlenko, inadvertently exceeded this, however, destroying not only the HPG station but much of the entire spaceport of Maria's Elegy, where both the Fifteenth Guards and the Legion had been based. Thousands were killed, including much of the Fifteenth Guards' conventional forces along with several 'Mechs. The barracks the Gray Death Legion had been using was also destroyed, as well as several Legion aerospace fighters. This action could be considered a war crime under the Ares Conventions, and a horrified Von Frisch resolved himself to capturing the planet to ease the dishonor done to his command and to Skye.

For a full week, the loyalists and rebels sparred. The GDL raided Free Skye positions, attempting to harass and harry them. Despite some successful strikes by the Legion, longtime legionnaire Lieutenant Colonel Davis McCall, the unit's executive officer, was killed during the fighting on 8 July, crippling the Legion's morale and forcing them to retreat. A few days later, the Rangers received reinforcements when the 32nd Lyran Guards RCT, who had been negotiating with Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner and his representatives for some time, arrived in-system under Skye's banner. Also arriving were the 17th Skye Rangers, who had finally made it back to their home province. Von Frisch ordered the Thirty-second, which would make planetfall on the 18th, to make a low-altitude drop directly on the Defiance complex. The Fourth and Twenty-second Rangers would support the landings, and the entire force would then attack in force. He further ordered the Seventeenth to head to Maldon to keep the Thirty-sixth Guards from joining the other defenders in the Myoo Highlands. This gave the three remaining Free Skye units, led by the elite Fourth, a distinct numerical advantage over the other defending units - the Fifteenth, the Legion and the HSPF - who had all already taken serious damage during the campaign.

First Assault on Defiance

The Gray Death Legion opposed the Rangers on Hesperus

On 18 July, the rebels launched their main assault, with the relatively fresh Thirty-second Guards leading the main drive, supported by the Skye Rangers. The result was the bloodiest fighting of the campaign. The Red Arrows pushed directly into the Gray Death Legion while the Rangers pressured the Fifteenth Lyran Guards, driving them back towards the mountain facility. The Fifteenth managed to destroy the Twenty-second Rangers as a cohesive unit, though with heavy losses. The Legion, however, was forced to hold the line against the turncoat Thirty-second, supported by elements of the Fourth Skye Rangers. Despite massive casualties to all sides, the defenders were driven back into the mountain complex. Lead elements of the Thirty-second Guards actually drove deep into the Defiance cavern in a running battle with the loyalists. In the end, the Legion successfully checked the assault, capturing the Thirty-second's commander, Leutnant-General Alice Day, when her Axman was destroyed by Captain Brewer and his lance. The loss of their commander led the Thirty-second Guards to withdraw, and the Skye Rangers were forced to follow suit. The Legion, however, had been all but obliterated themselves. Colonel Lori Kalmar-Carlyle, the Gray Death Legion's commander, was killed by Free Skye infantry after ejecting from her Victor. Less than a company of 'Mechs had survived, with other combat elements suffering even worse casualties. With most of their ranking officers killed, the Gray Death Legion, one of the most respected mercenary units in the Inner Sphere for fifty years, had effectively been destroyed, their survivors - led by Duke Daniel Brewer, Captain in the Legion and CEO of Defiance - incorporated into the HSPF.

Despite destroying the Legion and heavily damaging the Fifteenth Guards, the Fourth Rangers and their allied units had all been mauled over the course of the fighting. The Thirty-second Lyran Guards, without their commander, were completely demoralized with internal dissent, despite having only suffered moderate damage overall. The Seventeenth Rangers had been mauled opposing the Thirty-sixth Guards, and the Twenty-second Rangers, who had spearheaded the campaign to begin with, were down to a few survivors, a unit existing mostly on paper. The Fourth Rangers, for their own part, had escaped with moderate damage, but could not capture the vaunted factories themselves. As the defending loyalist units lacked the strength to drive the rebels from the planet, however, the campaign fell into a lull. Months passed, with neither side able to do anything to dislodge the other. Meanwhile, the Loyalists of Katherine Steiner-Davion were denied the 'Mechs of Defiance Industries.

Second Assault on Defiance

On 3 March, 3066, General Dundee was able to send reinforcements in the form of the 14th Lyran Guards, another RCT defecting to the Free Skye movement. The Fourteenth, despite being under orders to wait for Maria Esteban to arrive, immediately assaulted the Thirty-sixth Guards at the Maldon mining complex. Although the Fearsome Fourteenth were successful in smashing the Air Surfers and driving them away, the Fourteenth took significant losses themselves during a counterattack by the Air Surfers. Overall, losses to both Lyran Guard units were moderate at that point. Meanwhile, Leutnant-General von Frisch and his troops, seemingly recharged by the Fourteenth's actions, rallied and drove on Defiance once again. The Fifteenth Guards and the HSPF were pushed nearly to the brink with serious losses, but the Free Skye forces were once again forced to retreat. This time, losses to the Fourth were heavy. This last setback convinced von Frisch that the Free Skye forces could not achieve a victory on Hesperus, and that his troops had shed enough blood in the name of independence. He ordered his Fourth Rangers to begin withdrawing on 11 April, heading back to Skye. Ironically, General Esteban was already in-system, burning towards the planet, along with the newly formed Skye Guard as further reinforcements. The question of whether Esteban could have won if the Fourth Skye Rangers had remained would be left to the historians.

Skye

Archon Peter Steiner-Davion

On 19 June, the Fourth Rangers arrived back in the Skye system. Their arrival proved seemingly fortuitous to the rebels, as Skye was under attack by the elite 11th Arcturan Guards RCT. Although Skye had been defended by the Skye Jaegers and numerous planetary militias, they proved no match for a unit that had previously chased Prince Victor's allied task force halfway across the Inner Sphere. At the direction of General Dundee, the Jaegers had been forced to abandon the capital of New Glasgow, engaging in a mobile defense all over the continent of New Scotland. When they heard the arrival of the Fourth Skye Rangers, the Eleventh Arcturan, commanded by Leutnant-General Linda McDonald, broke off pursuit of the Jaegers and focused instead on the capital, which was still loyal to the Free Skye movement and full of insurgents. General von Frisch, however, contacted McDonald, informing her he intended to remain neutral in the battle, having already lost too many men in the name of independence during the crucible of Hesperus. Before McDonald could resume her pursuit of the Jaegers, however, she received a recall order from General Nondi Steiner on Tharkad. Allied forces were gathering with a presumed strike against the capital, and every loyalist unit available was needed for the defense. The Eleventh soon boosted off Skye, headed to Tharkad. Meanwhile, Robert Kelswa-Steiner decided to hedge his bets by sending word from his prison cell for the Fourth Rangers to join Peter Steiner-Davion and his "Pan-Lyran" allied coalition at Tharkad. Although effectively ending his war for independence, it would earn the Duke a much better political position in the Alliance in the coming new order. Not long thereafter, Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner was released from Garvinny prison on Donegal in October, a feat achieved by the 25th Arcturan Guards RCT at the direction of Morgan Kell.

Tharkad

The Fourth Rangers made planetfall on Tharkad in mid-January 3067, joining allied forces already on-planet. These included the first regiment of the Kell Hounds, the 21st Rim Worlds and 1894th Light Horse Regiments of the mercenary Blue Star Irregulars, the 4th Wolf Guards of Clan Wolf-in-Exile, and the Fourth Rangers' old ally from the fighting on Morges, the Twentieth Arcturan Guards RCT. They were opposed by the First and 2nd Royal Guards RCTs, the Alarion Jaegers, the 24th Lyran Guards RCT, the Eleventh Arcturan Guards RCT and ComStar's 66th Division, all under the command of General Nondi Steiner, Katherine's Regent on Tharkad. By the time the Rangers arrived, both sides had taken losses, with the Alarion Jaegers destroyed by the Kell Hounds and the Twenty-first Rim Worlds having been savaged by the Eleventh Arcturan. The task force was based at the Nagelring, where Peter Steiner-Davion held a meeting of the unit commanders, including von Frisch, on 19 January. Steiner-Davion made it clear that he was not pleased with the Fourth Skye Rangers, given their actions on Hesperus in support of Free Skye. He expressed the belief that the Fourth Rangers were on Tharkad to salvage Duke Robert Kelswa-Steiner's political position. Nevertheless, given the massive stakes of the coming battle, Steiner-Davion, in his bid to become Archon, could not decline the offer. The allies settled in, skirmishing with the loyalists over the next month and waiting for his great-aunt to make the first mistake.

On 23 March, the Regent made her move, leading most of her units against the allies and engaging them at the Wash. The Fourth Rangers played a key role, using their specialty and leading the elite Eleventh Arcturan out of position as Linda McDonald attempted to hunt Albion down. This forced Nondi Steiner to commit her reserves, the Com Guards, to prevent her flank from being exposed. Steiner-Davion exploited this, pressuring the Sixty-sixth and Twenty-fourth Lyran Guards until they were pushed back so far that the First Royal Guards were split in two. The loyalists were routed, with Peter and his allies taking a decided advantage. Four days later, the allies moved on Tharkad City, eventually emerging successful. Casualties to the Fourth Rangers were considered serious, though they fared better than most allied units and certainly better than the loyalist forces.

After the war, the Fourth Rangers relocated back to Skye for rebuilding. Their rather odd actions during the conflict led to them being watched not only by the Lyran Intelligence Corps but by its fellow units in the Skye Rangers brigade, suspicious over their departure from Hesperus. By 1 August, the Fourth Rangers' 'Mech regiment was up to 55 percent strength, with 65 percent of those machines boasting advanced technology. Their aerospace and armored vehicle brigades were at similar levels. Their infantry brigades claimed only 35 percent strength. Yet all units of the RCT continued to merit an elite rating. Hauptmann General von Frisch retained command.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update
• Bred for War (novel)
• The Dying Time (novel)
• Endgame (novel)
• Era Report: 2750
• Era Report: 3062
• FedCom Civil War
• Field Manual: Lyran Alliance
• Field Manual: Updates
• Historical: War of 3039
• Objective Raids
• Shattered Sphere