1321st Royal Jump Infantry Regiment

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Overview

The 1321st Royal Jump Infantry Regiment was one of six jump infantry regiments within the 132nd Royal Jump Infantry Division at the height of the Star League era.[1][2] As one of the SLDF's Royal units the 1321st consisted of troops from the Terran Hegemony, and was a sub-unit of LXIX Corps within the Third Army.[3]

History

In 2674, the SLDF responded to a request for assistance from the Council of Elders, the ruling body of the planet Sherwood, whose planet had been suffering for some time from criminal and bandit activity. This was in part due to the government's policies and laws that had been put in place centuries before, strictly limiting the size of the population of settlements and the impact they were allowed to have on the environment, leading to large areas of Sherwood remaining as pristine wilderness, ideal for criminals and bandits to operate from and within. Bandit activity had reached a level that the local militia, the Sherwood Jabberwockies, couldn't deal with. The Third Army deployment proved less effective than hoped, because the flora on Sherwood - which prominently featured large, tree-like plants that could grow to more than one hundred meters in height, blocked observations by satellite or other orbital methods, and the dense forests made BattleMech operations difficult. The Third Army units deployed to Sherwood struggled to deal with the bandits, despite operations continuing for almost a century.[1]

In 2759, the most dangerous of the bandit units - a group known as the Titanium Blade, backed by the Taurian Concordat - had grown from a company of BattleMechs to a demi-brigade-sized unit of 'Mechs and conventional forces, and successfully seized an SLDF forward operating base at Montfriar, destroying the garrison there. In addition to wiping out a company of SLDF 'Mechs, the Titanium Blade escaped with an SLDF Leopard-class DropShip loaded with Wasp LAMs, and millions of League dollars' worth of repair equipment, munitions and supplies. The infamous raid led to a year-long investigation by the SLDF, during which the Third Army forces were pulled back to their primary facilities near Marion, Sherwood's capital city, leaving the Blade to operate largely unimpeded other than the overstretched forces of the Jabberwockies. The investigation highlighted several failures on the part of regimental and divisional commanders caused by limited thinking and an overreliance on BattleMechs as the means for solving problems in a battle they were unsuited for.[1]

The SLDF responded to the findings by redeploying the 132nd Royal Jump Infantry Division to Sherwood in late 2761. At the time of deployment the 132nd had come under the command of Major General Jonas Tyler, who had been recently promoted at the age of just thirty-one, making him the youngest Major General in the Third Army. Tyler was keen to prove himself, and took personal command of the 1321st and one of its sister regiments, the 1322nd Royal Jump Infantry Regiment, during the deployment. For the next two years, Tyler would spend the majority of his tenure leading the infantry forces from the front lines as he used ambushes and aggressive tactics to dictate the strategic initiative of the campaign, deploying VTOLs at treetop level to support the infantry as they battled the Blade. One of the last major engagements between the 132nd and the Blade saw LAMs from the 132nd fighting light aerospace fighters from the Blade and the stolen Wasp LAMs directly over Marion, and by mid-2763 Tyler's tactics had seen the Blade defeated after nearly a century of banditry.[1]

The exploits of the 132nd during their campaign against the Blade had led to the media dubbing them as "Sherwood's Sheriffs", and their victory further endeared the division to the population.[4] In 2764, the 132nd was stationed on Brockton,[5] but in 2765 General Tyler married Yulia Flyntham, daughter of one of the barons of Sherwood, and the Court of Elders named him an "earl" of the Court.[1] Tyler's campaign against the Titanium Blade made the 132nd a priority target for the Taurian forces they fought during the Periphery Uprising, and the Taurians used exceptionally brutal tactics against the Sheriffs. The division was destroyed as an operational formation[1] in 2765[3] and Tyler was crippled during the fighting. Tyler opted to retire back to Sherwood, along with a small number of other survivors from the 132nd and their remaining equipment. The SLDF equipment was integrated into the Jabberwockies, and the surviving members of the 132nd formed a new ad hoc planetary militia that they named "Tyler's Terrors".[1]

Tyler's title would subsequently be confirmed by the First Prince of the Federated Suns, and his offspring would be an important part of the aristocracy of Sherwood, and the Terrors would continue to serve the Federated Suns until at least the end of the thirty-second century. A small unit of infantry, the Court Guard, was also established on Sherwood during the Succession Wars, continuing the tradition of the 132nd.[1]

Notes

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named TTS:Sp4
  2. The Star League, p. 133
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Star League, p. 151, "Third"
  4. Field Manual: SLDF, p. 65, "132nd Royal Infantry Division"
  5. Field Manual: SLDF, p. 252, "SLDF - Federated Suns Military Command Map"

Bibliography