Battle of Manticore

::You may also be looking for the Second Battle of Manticore.
The Battle of Manticore was the single largest space battle in human history up to that point.Arguably, the Second Battle of Manticore was bigger in terms of combatant forces. It was fought in the Manticore System after the Republic of Haven Navy initiated Operation Beatrice, which called for several fleets to strike at the heart of the Star Kingdom of Manticore itself.
The battle ended in a costly Manticoran victory, leaving at least 2.2 million people dead and hundreds of starships destroyed, and effectively wiped out the offensive capabilities of both sides of the Second Havenite-Manticoran War.
== Detailed strength ==
=== Manticoran Alliance ===
* Home Fleetpart ("a half") inviting HMS Hexapuma and HMS Warlock consisted 42 SD, 16 CLAC, 12 BC, 36 cruisers, 32 DD and over a thousand LAC (SI2), at least one CLAC before Operation Thunderbolt (HH11)
** 42 SD(P)including 12 Grayson and 26 Andermani units
** 48 SD
** 12 BC(P)
** 19 BC and CA
** 26 CL
** supported by circa 2400 LACs
* Third Fleet
** 55 SD(P)
** 10 CLAC
*Eighth Fleet
** 35 SD(P)
** 8 CLAC
** 5 BC(P)Battlecruiser Squadron 81, Rear Admiral Miller's squadron (GSN), one or two IAN squadrons - 22 or 30 units
** 1 BC
** 12 CA
* Manticore Junction Defense CommandSupported by two battle squadrons during the truce. (HH10)
** fixed defences
** at least 3500 LACs
=== Republic of Haven ===
* Second Fleet
** 240 SD(P)
** 16 CLAC with around 3200 LAC
** 106 BCincluding Rear Admiral Diamato's task group and CA
* Fifth Fleet
** 96 SD(P)
** 30 CLAC with circa 5000 LAC
== Order of battle ==
* Home Fleet - commanded by Fleet Admiral Sebastian D'Orville †
** wall of battle - probably 13 battlesquadrons, including:
*** a task force of the GSN
*** a task force of the IAN
** screen
** system LACs
* Manticore Junction Defence Command - commanded by Rear Admiral Thurston Havlicek
* Third Fleet - commanded by Admiral Theodosia Kuzak † - originally stationed at Trevor's Star
** wall of battle - probably 9-10 battlesquadronsIncluding HMS King Roger III, the fleet flagship., including Battle Squadron 61, detached from the Eighth Fleet - commanded by Rear Admiral Alistair McKeon †
** CLAC element - including CLAC Squadron 3, detached from the Eighth Fleet - commanded by Vice Admiral Alice Truman
* Eighth Fleet - commanded by Admiral Honor Harrington - originally stationed at Trevor's Star
** wall of battle:
*** Battle Squadron 15, GSN - commanded by Admiral Judah Yanakov
*** Battle Squadron 23 - commanded by Vice Admiral Morris Baez
*** Task Force 16, IAN - commanded by Vizeadmiral Lyou-yung Hasselberg
** CLAC Squadron 6 - commanded by Vice Admiral Samuel Miklos
** screening element - commanded by Rear Admiral Michael Oversteegen:
*** Battlecruiser Squadron 81 - commanded by Rear Admiral Michael Oversteegen
*** Cruiser Squadron 7 - commanded by Rear Admiral Winston Bradshaw
*** Cruiser Squadron 12 - commanded by Commodore Charise Fanaafi
== Course of battle ==
Series of engagements:
1. 2nd Fleet, RHN vs Home Fleet, RMN (Alliance).
: The RMN and Alliance partners sortied out to meet 2nd Fleet outside of RHNs missile engament range for the planet of Sphinx. The entire battle lasted only 11.9 minutes from the moment the first missile launched. Home Fleet launched over 150,000 missiles at 2nd Fleet, and 2nd Fleet launched over 524,000 missiles in return. Home Fleet was completely destroyed, along with almost 3000 LACs. 2nd Fleet took substantial damage, losing 97 ships of the wall completely, with another 19 losing at least a single impeller ring, and of the remaining 124 SD(P)s, only 11 of them were undamaged. 2nd was unable to keep its in-system acceleration, and changed course to angle away from Sphinx. 10 minutes after the end of the engagement, Tourville decided to abandon any ship that could not make 370gs of acceleration. 2nd Fleet aimed for the fastest course to get beyond the hyper limit, in order to avoid penetrating deep into Sphinx's defensive missile envelope and to get to missile resupply ships.
2. LAC element of the Home Fleet, RMN vs screening elements of the 2nd Fleet, RHN (concurrent with 3rd Fleet hyperspace movements).
: 2300 LACs came in to attack 2nd Fleet, with the 2nd Fleet's screen detailed to fight them off. The Manticoran LACs attacked the remaining 33 BCs and 41 CAs of 2nd Fleet, but had a closing velocity of over 50,000 kps. 2700 Havenite LACs attempted to fight off the Manticoran LACs with Cimeterre Alphas and Betas. The Manticorans lost 600 LACs from the RHN LACs, but destroyed almost 1,200 in return. The RHN screen destroyed another 300 Manticoran LACs, but in return the 300 remaining Ferrets flushed all 16,000 of their missiles at a range of 180,000 kilometers into the RHN heavy cruisers, losing another 112 LACs in exchange for all 41 Heavy Cruisers. The Shrikes fired their grasers at a range of 75,000 kilometers. Another 481 Shrikes were destroyed, while in return the Shrikes destroyed 28 BCs, and reduced the other 5 BCs to shattered broken wrecks. While the screen was effectively destroyed, the LACs' strike was shattered as well, inflicting no significant damage to the ships of the wall of 2nd Fleet. Around 200 Manticoran LACs got away.
3. 3rd Fleet, RMN vs 2nd Fleet, RHN, supported by 5th Fleet, RHN.
: Admiral Kuzak brought 3rd Fleet RMN into range of RHN 2nd Fleet via a series of micro-jumps from the Manticore Wormhole Junction. Admiral Diamato informed 2nd Fleet of the approach of the RMN 3rd Fleet. 3rd Fleet emerged from hyperspace extremely close to the RZ's boundary -- closer to Sphinx than 2nd Fleet. After the notification of Diamato's task force being pushed off the junction, Tourville prepared to signal for "Paul Revere". 26 minutes after translating back to normal space, the distance between 2nd and 3rd Fleet was almost sixty million kilometers. Kuzak recommended to Sphinx defenses to not fire upon 2nd Fleet. When 3rd Fleet and 2nd Fleet approached to almost 36 million kilometers, Tourville decided that he couldn't afford to wait to see if 8th Fleet would join 3rd Fleet, and signalled to execute "Paul Revere". 5th Fleet translated into N-space. Harrington ordered the mass transit of the remainder of 8th Fleet. Harrington ordered a single jump calculated. Admiral Chin ordered pods rolled, and opened fire. Admiral McKeon began firing upon 5th Fleet. 2nd Fleet opened fire as well. Admiral Truman instructed Tremaine to leave the Katanas behind to defend 3rd Fleet, and use the Ferrets and Shrikes to attack the remains of Second Fleet. Tourville sent the remainder of his LACs out to meet Tremaine's LACs, and ordered two of his squadrons to reserve their missiles to fend off the LACs. 12,000 missiles screamed into 3rd Fleet, with 2,700 missiles surving to attacking the 91st Battle Squadron, RMN damaging all of them, and destroying one of them. Follow-on salvos from 2nd and 5th Fleets destroyed the 91st Battle Squadron. 3rd Fleet continued to beat on 2nd Fleet as they were pounded by both fleets. McKeon's four-ship squadron destroyed five SD(P)s with five salvos, and then all were destroyed except Intransigent. Kuzak died when her ship suffered compensator failure. Admiral Alice Truman assumed command on Chimera, nine minutes after the engagement started. 30 Manticoran SDs from 3rd Fleet were inoperable. 2nd Fleet was down to 75 ships, only 56 effective out of the 240 Ship of the Wall and 90 escorts that had begun. 5th Fleet had lost 11 SDs. 5th Fleet still had 85 Ship of the Wall.
4. 8th Fleet's screen, RMN vs Rear Admiral Diamato's task group, RHN (junction area).
: All ships of Diamato's task group escaped, although two BC were damaged by the surprise missile attack from Michael Oversteegan's group. Diamato fell back to the rendezvous point.
5. 8th Fleet, RMN (Alliance) vs 5th and 2nd Fleets, RHN.
: 8th Fleet rolled 5,000 pods prior to transit through the junction from Trevor's Star. 8th Fleet jumped from the middle of the resonance zone to a distance of 78 million kilometers from 5th Fleet. 8th Fleet rolled an additional 2,776 pods, for a total of 7,776 pods (almost half its allotment) and fired 62,208 missiles (and 7,776 Apollo control missiles). 8th Fleet fired a second pattern of pods with only 60 (?) missiles towards 2nd Fleet. Admiral Chin then realized she was facing Apollo missiles, and ordered 5th Fleet to hyper out, but was 2 minutes too late . 54,208 attack missiles homed in on 5th Fleet (although 5th Fleet stopped 30% of the incoming missiles), and 5th Fleet was wiped outmaximum only 17 SD(P) survived. Based upon the single salvo from Apollo missiles, and believing that 8th Fleet could range on his battered 2nd Fleet, Tourville surrendered.
== New weapons systems used ==
* First combat use of the RHN's new "Donkey" pod-towing system.
* First time RMN "Apollo" MDM missile pod salvos were demonstrated to have accuracy at ranges over 150 million kilometers.
== Losses ==
=== Manticoran Alliance ===
Home Fleet and Third Fleet were effectively wiped out, and Eighth Fleet was temporarily designated as Home Fleet's replacement. ()
=== Republic of Haven ===
Fifth Fleet was devastated, with Admiral Chin losing most of her ships, but seventeen superdreadnoughts, including Admiral Chin's own RHNS Canonnade, were able to translate into hyper. These ships, and Admiral Diamato's battlecruisers, were the only Havenite ships to escape destruction or capture.
Following the demonstration of the long range capabilities of the Apollo system, Admiral Tourville surrendered the remains of Second Fleet. He and his crews were taken prisoner, while their ships where taken intact. ()
== Aftermath ==
In the Battle of Manticore, hundreds of starships were destroyed leaving both the Manticoran Alliance and the Republic of Haven without the offensive capabilities to strike again in the near future. The Republic of Haven was left with about 620 SD(P), while the Manticoran Alliance had about 215 SD(P) of which at least 45 were Apollo-capable. With Admirals D'Orville, Kuzak, and McKeon killed in battle, Giscard killed months earlier, and Lester Tourville taken a prisoner of war, both sides lost most of their highest-ranking combat officers. Honor Harrington became the acting Fleet Admiral, as Eighth Fleet temporarily became the new Manticoran Home Fleet. ()
The Battle of Manticore was the last action of the Second Havenite-Manticoran War. After Home Fleet was reformed, Eighth Fleet was sent to the Haven System to attempt to secure a peace treaty. ()
== External links ==
* David Weber's comment on Reinforcements for the Battle of Manticore on the Infodump
* David Weber's comment on the Climax to the Battle of Manticore on the Infodump
== References ==
Manticore, Battle of
Manticore, Battle of
Category:Grayson Battles