Operation GALAHAD
Sarna News
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Contents
Overview
| “ | ..an elaborate shell game in which I secretly massed troops on the Capellan border by parading them up and down in front of hundreds of holocams -Prince Hanse Davion | ” |
War Games: Operation Galahad
In 3026 Prince Hanse launched operation Galahad, a series of war games involving ten 'Mech regiments and one hundred infantry and armor regiments of the armed forces of the Federated Suns. Conducted in the Draconis and Capellan Marches of the federated suns, the size of the forces used violated the current way of military thinking in the inner sphere, which held that engagements much larger then company against company was wasteful. No one routinely pitted regiments against each other, yet that was exactly what type of combat Davion was preparing for. Alarmed, House Kurita and Liao both put their forces on full alert and waited for the hammer to fall. Lasting three months, and despite some minor raids while the games went on, Operation Galahad ended in November without the expected invasion. The games appeared to be nothing more then a huge Davion pat on the back.
Response to Galahad and Thor
In August of 3027, Hanse Davion repeated Operation Galahad to include almost 30 'Mech and over 200 armor and infantry regiments, almost a third of the AFFS. The prince also commandeered commercial Jump-and-Drop ships to carry troops from the interior to the boarder regions. Meanwhile, Operation Thor was Katrina Steiner's chance to show that the Lyran troops could also mount massive complex troop movements. Conditioned to some extent by the first war games in 3026, Kurita and Liao reacted with much less fear then last time. Only the Free Worlds League went on a war footing, fearing a Commonwealth invasion.
Success of Galahad
Had they known that the very point of Operation Galahad was to lull the Capellan Confederation into complacency, perhaps the leaders of the Inner Sphere would have reacted differently. Having escaped a second time from a massive invasion, Liao and Kurita both missed key regiments being shuffled around to border worlds. When Davion again started up his games in 3028, border planets were merely put on a slightly higher state of alert and local troops were called out of reserve. Convinced that no war could break out without Hanse Davion personally leading it, even the fact that huge numbers of troops were building on the boarders of Liao and Kurita space couldn't shake them from the snake charm that Operation Galahad had cast over them. Only when the Fourth Succession War broke out did Chancellor Maximilian Liao and Coordinator Takashi Kurita realize their mistake.
References
This operation was referenced in MechWarrior I as a news article occuring on 9 August 3026, as follows:
"New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Suns
9 August 3026
AFFS announces massive wargames
The military announced today that an undisclosed number of troops would be involved in a set of wargame exercises dubbed Operation Galahad. The operation is set to begin next month and will involve large numbers of troops in both the Draconis and Capellan marches."
A subsequent news article dated 1 September 3026 (also from Mechwarrior I) further details the operation.