Talk:Battle of Harrow's Sun (3028)
Howdy! I was editing the Combine Front - 4th Succession War page and was working through the Battle of Harrow's Sun and ran into what I believe to be a typo in the dates on the final phase of the battle (on Page 11 of the NAIS 4th SSW Atlas Volume 2)[1] that states the battle began on June 25th, when the Dragoons discovered the tunnels dug by the 8th Galedon Regular's combat engineers, two paragraphs later it says "Throughout the night and all through the next day, the fighting raged", then two paragraphs later it says "The Dragoon Dropships left Harrow's Sun on July 27th for the planet Crossing." I'm of the persuasion that this final date was meant to be June 27th ("thru the night" of 25th, "next day" 26th), which means the final engagement spanned three days (instead of a month), due to the timeline of the Harrow's Sun campaign:
- 12 SEP 3028: 8th Galedon Regulars land near Trenton (Vol 1 pg. 66)[2]
- Late September 3028: Regulars reach first defensive perimeter of Fort Belvoir, unsuccessful head-out assaults (Vol 1 pg. 67)[2]
- Late October 3028: Changes tactics to encircle Fort and then pauses for undefined amount of time (Vol 1 pg. 67) [2]
- 11 DEC 3028: First major assault begins, with nightly assaults for entire week (Vol 1 pg. 68)[2]
- 5 JAN 3028: Dragoons retreat to second defensive line (Vol 1 pg. 68)[2] "forced to abandon first ring of defenses" to second ring codenamed "Blue Swann" (Vol 2. p.10)[1]
- 13 FEB 3029: Galedon Regular's aerospace squadron begins unsuccessful bombing runs on Fort Belvoir (Vol 2. p.10)[1]
- February - March 3029: BattleMech units of the regulars try various unsuccessful tactics (Vol 2. p.11)[1]
- Sometime in April 3029: 2 companies of the Regular's combat engineers ordered to tunnel under defenses which "took them eight weeks to tunnel the distance", if they began around the 25th of April, they'd be inside the fort by the 25th of June (Vol 2. p.11)[1]
- 25 JUN 3029: Dragoons discover tunnels, final engagement begins (Vol 2. p.11)[1]
- 27
JULJUN 3029: Survivors of Gamma & Epsilon Regiments board DropShips and depart for Crossing.(Vol 2. p.11)[1]
There is a minor wrinkle here, found in the "Operational Turning Points: Death to Mercenaries" scenario book (p.1-2), the opening narrative section has the date set as "26 July 3028" recounts survivors of Major Dumont's fighting withdraw and the death of Colonel Arbuthnot. Then on page 8 it states that the 8th Galedon Regulars landed on Harrow's Sun in early September 3028, the engagements following the landing and then states that Fort Belvoir "helped the weakened Dragoons hold out for a little less than a year" before leaving for Crossing. The map on page 10 shows Harrow's Sun being attacked on 12 SEP 3028.[3] This is referenced in the notes already and still has not been addressed by the authors.
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, p. 10-11: "The Lull - Continuing Conflict"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, p. 66-68: "Federated Suns Front"
- ↑ Operational Turning Points: Death to Mercenaries, p.1-2: "Introduction"
- NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1
- NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2
- Operational Turning Points: Death to Mercenaries
So, what do you think?--CaptGrognards3025 (talk) 19:02, 6 August 2024 (EDT)
- Usually new sources trump old but in this case it is obvious that the dates in "Operational Turning Points: Death to Mercenaries" are likely wrong because a retcon just doesn't make sense. So what we usually do is put a (see notes) tag next to the date and in the notes section of the article give a brief explanation of OTP likely being incorrect so we are using the dates from NAIS.--Dmon (talk) 09:40, 7 August 2024 (EDT)