16th Mechanized Infantry Division

Overview

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

History

Reunification War

One of the units established as an early part of the SLDF following the creation of the Star League, the Sixteenth was initially assigned to VI Corps, serving alongside the Seventeenth Royal Division and the Eighteenth Division.

Treeline

With the Rim Worlds Republic in a state of civil war from 2575 onwards, the Star League was forced to send troops to restore the authority of Consul Gregory Amaris. The operation was named Operation MAILED FIST and began with a troop buildup along the border between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Rim Worlds Republic; in 2579 military operations began, and Treeline was one of the first targets. Anticipating a quick victory over the Eighth Amaris Dragoons, who had sided with the Rim Provisional Government, the Star League Defense Force deployed the Sixteenth Mechanized Infantry Division to conquer Treeline.

The deployment of the Sixteenth was deliberately provocative, as the SLDF wanted to gauge the abilities of the Republican forces; the initial landings were uncontested, with the Sixteenth quickly seizing Felsonville and with it Treeline's administration and communication hubs. The Eighth Dragoons refused to surrender to the Sixteenth, and instead began a campaign of raids against the more numerous Sixteenth; while the Sixteenth had the advantage of both numbers and actual BattleMech forces - the Eighth being a regiment consisting of infantry and armor - the Eighth used their knowledge of the local terrain and their significant light armor forces to repeatedly launch quick strikes against the Sixteenth. The Eighth's campaign extended the battle for control of Treeline signficantly beyond the SLDF's initial estimate of three weeks; it was three months before the SLDF felt that it had control of the worlds, and it was late December - a full seven months since the initial occupation of Felsonville - before the last Republican organized forces were rounded up.

Kikuyu

Kikuyu was the garrison posting of the First Amaris Dragoons. The First Dragoons had lapsed into sectarian violence against each other, an internecine conflict sparked by the divided loyalties expressed within the Dragoons; when the SLDF launched the second wave of planetary campaigns as a part of MAILED FIST the internal conflict within the First Dragoons led the SLDF to believe that the conquest of Kikuyu would be a relatively short and easy affair.

The SLDF assigned the Sixteenth to the attack on Kikuyu; the Sixteenth landed in March 2584 and began combat operations, only to discover that their presence united the disparate elements of the First Dragoons by providing them with a common cause. Aided by irregulars raised from the civilian population, the heavily outnumbered First Dragoons turned the battle for Kikuyu into an extended campaign that didn't end until January 2585, almost a year after the initial landings. Casualties were high on both sides; the Rim Worlds losses amounted to thirty thousand people in total, two-thirds of whom were people who had joined the irregular formations that rose up after the SLDF landing. The Sixteenth had suffered two and a half thousand fatalities and another five and a half thousand injuries before the weary division finally secured the planet.

Star League Era

In 2764 the Sixteenth was a part of XLIII Corps within the Seventeenth Army and was assigned to the Periphery Military Region. The Sixteenth was moved to an undisclosed area of the Periphery to take part in the SLDF response to the Periphery Uprising by 2765.. The 16th survived the war and the Hegemony Campaign, and followed General Aleksandr Kerensky on the Exodus in 2784.

Bibliography

• Historical: Reunification War
• The Star League