2nd Orloff Grenadiers
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History
Reunification War
Formed before the Reunification War, the Second Orloff Grenadiers and their sister regiment the 3rd Orloff Grenadiers served as a part of the Marik Auxiliary Corps assigned to support the Star League Defense Force VII Corps during the invasion of the Magistracy of Canopus. VII Corps was the largest of the corps at the time, and was commanded by Captain-General Marion Marik; the Marik Auxiliary Corps was commanded by General Ian Marik, and while VII Corps took the lead on many of the planetary campaigns, elements of the Marik Auxiliary Corps were present on almost every campaign of the war between the Star League and the Magistracy. The 2nd Orloff Grenadiers were no exception to this, seeing service in no less than five planetary conquests.[1][2][3]
Cranston
Cranston was expected to be a tough battle, and the SLDF 58th Brigade had already been ordered to redeploy most of the brigade's fighters to the 57th Brigade for their assault on the nearby world of Restitution. The 2nd Orloff Grenadiers were deployed from the staging world of Saonara to serve alongside the 1st Marik Militia in support of the 58th Brigade as they invaded Cranston. Defending Cranston when the strike force landed in October 2577 were the 1st Canopian Grenadiers, who were soon discovered to be much better armed and equipped than SLDF intelligence had indicated - a result of an illicit trade in weapons and material with agents and companies within the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation. Although the 58th and the FWLM units had the Canopian Grenadiers heavily outnumbered, the Canopians played to their own strengths by using manoeuvrability, speed and the local terrain to constantly harass the SLDF units, hitting hard and fading back before any of the task force unit could bring their superior numbers to bear.[4][5]
Hampered by a lack of AeroSpace forces to do any reconnaissance or gather intelligence and facing a foe that refused to engage in stand-up battles dragged the SLDF campaign out into November; events then took a turn for the worse when, on the 9th of November, the SLDF WarShip picket line in the system reported an unidentified vessel arriving at a pirate point in the system. The new vessel was inside the picket, and successfully deployed DropShips onto the northern continent of Cranston, from which emerged the 3rd Canopian Light Horse, fresh and supposedly the garrison for Restitution according to SLDF intelligence. Suddenly faced with twice the number of enemy forces and completely outmatched in the air thanks to the significant AeroSpace forces accompanying the 3rd Light Horse, the 58th Brigade commander decided to split his forces; General Michael Martinnson deployed two thirds of his forces against the 1st Canopian Grenadiers, while ordering the other third and both Marik regiments to prevent the 3rd Canopian Light Horse from linking up with the Canopian Grenadiers. The next three weeks were a brutal campaign, particularly for the scratch company of AeroSpace pilots and fighters that were all the 58th, the 1st Marik Militia and the 2nd Orloff Grenadiers could muster to defend them from the Canopian AeroSpace assets; by the time the MAF defenders had been forced to retreat from Cranston, three weeks after the 3rd Light Horse's arrival, the 58th and both FWLM regiments had been bloodied, the MAF had proved that the war was going to be fought in a fashion entirely different to that predicted by the SLDF planners, and the surviving SLDF AeroSpace pilots from the scratch company were the first recipients of the Star League Medal of Honor in the Canopian theatre.[4][5]
Scheuerheck
In contrast with the Cranston campaign, the capture of Scheuerheck was relatively easy; one of three former Free Worlds League which had defected to the Magistracy in the 2550s, all three were conquered through a display of overwhelming force and agile diplomacy by Captain-General Marik. The defenders of Scheuerheck effectively offered no resistance to the SLDF landings which saw the 56th Brigade deploy alongside the 401st Independent Regiment, the 2nd and 3rd Orloff Grenadiers, the 3rd Regulan Hussars and the 1st Defenders of Andurien. Within a very short period of time the planetary leader of Scheuerheck had not only surrendered but was actively petitioning for Scheuerheck to be readmitted into the Free Worlds League. The easy acquisition of three systems and their relatively peaceful incorporation back into the League was a propoganda coup for the Captain-General, and was used to great effect by her allies in the League Parliament.[1][6]
Bethonolog
The invasion of Bethonolog in 2578 was relatively easy, albeit unconventional. The VII Corps' 59th Brigade landed ahead of the 60th Brigade and prepared to assault the Canopian positions on the planet, only to receive a message from the local militia Colonel stating that while he intended to resist the invasion, he wanted permission to wait until the 26th of December so that the people of Bethonolog could enjoy the various religious holidays falling at that time of year. General Mancini of the 59th agreed on behalf of the invading forces (including the 2nd Grenadiers and 3rd Regulan Hussars), and sent the militia colonel a Christmas pudding as a gift; the Colonel reciprocated by sending General Mancini a bottle of local wine and a turkey. A week of half-hearted clashes between the militia and the 59th began during the New Year period, satisfying the honor of both sides, and the 59th took control of Bethonolog on the 9th of January 2579.[1][6]
Afarsin & Bass
The 2nd Orloff Grenadiers didn't take part in another combat operation after the conquest of Bethonolog until 2583, when the Grenadiers were assigned alongside the 2nd Oriente Hussars and 3rd Regulan Hussars and 4th Marik Militia in support of the 55th Brigade to conquer the world of Afarsin. An agrarian world of little strategic importance and which hadn't merited a MAF garrison so far during the war, Afarsin was seen as a stepping stone to other worlds based on the system's location as one of the most anti-spinward worlds in the Magistracy. The SLDF-led force landed to capture the world in April and faced only a token display of resistance by the defenders.[2][5][7]
The Grenadiers weren't one of the units chosen by the Captain-General to join in the invasion of the Magistracy capital in 2584. Instead, the Grenadiers and the 55th Brigade were dispatched from Afarsin to conquer the world of Bass, another Magistracy world with no MAF line regiments stationed in defense; as a result, Bass fell quickly, in what would be the last campaign of the Reunification War for the 2nd Orloff Grenadiers.[2][5]
Officers
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Composition
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Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 148, "Magistracy Of Canopus Front(Jump-Off - 2582)"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 149, "Magistracy Of Canopus Front (2583-2588)"
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 95, "SLDF Task Force Canopus"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 98, "Restitution and Cranston (October-November 2577)"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Historical: Reunification War, p. 150, "Magistracy of Canopus Front (Jump-Off-2582)" Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "H:RWp150" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 6.0 6.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 100, "Ruschegg, Payvand and Scheuerheck (August-October 2577)" Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "H:RWp100" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 102, "Afarsin, Adherlwin, Megarez and Nobel (March-April 2583)"