Death Korps of Krieg - Notable Campaigns: Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Siege of Vraks was an Imperial military campaign fought over the course of 17 standard years to retake the Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime from the heretical forces of Chaos led by the Apostate Cardinal-Astra Xaphan. Vraks was besieged by the forces of the Imperium of Man in 813.M41 by the 88th Siege Army, which was composed exclusively of Death Korps of Krieg regiments. The Krieg Guardsmen acquitted themselves well, fighting in many major engagements throughout the entirety of the campaign. At the conclusion of what became a 17-year-long campaign of attrition that required the deployment of 34 regiments of the Astra Militarum to re-take the planet for the Emperor of Mankind in 830.M41, 14 million Imperial Guardsmen had been slain and Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been consumed in the violence or exterminated after they fell to the corruption of Chaos. The world was then declared Perdita by the Inquisition.Castigation of Derondis (936-946.M41) - The Hive World of Derondis withheld its annual tithes and regiments of Krieg's Death Korps were deployed to act as the honour guard of the Departmento Munitorum investigation team. After the Imperial officials were hanged by the rebellious populace, the Krieg troops redeployed into the towering mountains that overlooked the primary hive city. Several artillery and siege companies began to bombard the city spires and the inhabitants were mercilessly gunned down as they tried to break out from the besieged city. After ten standard years of relentless shelling, the hive was reduced to naught but rubble and dust, two solar years after all signs of life from the hive had already ceased and five solar years after the hive had plaintively issued its unconditional surrender.Dask Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The 42nd, 81st, 103rd and 186th Death Korps Infantry Regiments participate in the eradication of a Nurgle-aligned mutant army on the word of Dask in the Segmentum Tempestus. This gruesome war of attrition would see the glorious death of Colonel 186 as he charged at the front of 400 men to retake a strategic hill. Although a success, all four regiments were severely depleted by the time their transport, the Memento Mori, arrived to ship them to another warzone.Loss of Hieronymous Theta (Unknown Date.M41) - En route onboard the Memento Mori, the Krieg regiments previously engaged in the Dask Campaign were diverted to respond to the emergency assistance request of the world of Hieronymous Theta. A young world, Hieronymous Theta had been preserved for its entire existence from the rampage of war, and was thus ill-prepared when its mutant population emerged from the deeps of its mines to ravage the lower levels of its principal hive city, Hieronymous City. The 42nd, 81st, 103rd and 186th Death Korps Infantry Regiments were still inbound when it was revealed that the world of Hieronymous Theta had, in fact, been established on a dormant Necron Tomb World that was slowly awakening. With four regiments of the best fighters the Imperial Guard had to offer inbound, authorities tasked the Krieg regiments to cordon off the city and destroy the Necron menace that lay below. The cordon was quickly established, trapping millions of civilians inside Hieronymous City, and at the mercy of the Necrons. Convinced that despite the Necron's self-repair protocols the Death Korps could win in a classic war of attrition, the 81st and 42nd regiments ended up suffering heavy losses; although they still succeeded in holding the line against the ever-growing Necron forces. Losses on the security perimeter were filled by local PDF-troops trained and equipped under the orders of Death Korps Watchmasters, whose harsh training regime was the cause of many desertions and subsequent executions. Whilst the Death Korp's commitment could not be questioned, their methods in dealing with their allies gradually envenomed the situation, culminating in the summary execution of Hieronymous Theta's Planetary Governor and General of the Planetary Defence Forces by the 186th Regiment's Colonel for having tried to parlay with the Necrons. Thanks to the insight of Commissar Costellin attached to this same regiment, a daring raid was mounted against the city's main generatorium; as it was believed that the Necrons were using it to aid in the awakening of their own tomb complex. Though the raid was a failure, the attack revealed the location of the Necron central command nexus. The Krieg regiments then converged on it in hope of annihilating the nexus with atomic devices. Penetrating in full force into Hieronymous City for the first time, the Krieg regiments were slowed down by guerilla actions of the local population that had turned Traitoris and had begun to venerate the Necrons as "Iron Gods." It was during parlay with one of these groups that the valiant Commissar Costellin -- who had survived the raid -- was shot. This caused a long enough delay for the Necrons to notice this incursion, and with the loss of nearly all of their heavy artillery forces, the Death Korps regiments withdrew and abandoned the planet to the hands of its new owners. The remains of the 42nd, 81st, 103rd and 186th Regiments were then shipped out to fight the Ork threat on the planet Djangalla.Orphean War (992.M41) - Located on the distant border of the Segmentum Tempestus, the Orpheus Sector is ravaged by an unknown enemy that would only later be identified as the baleful Maynarkh Dynasty of the xenos threat known as the Necrons. Following a 100-day long period of continuous losses during which half of the sector fell into enemy hands, inexplicably, the Necron advance stopped, leaving the Imperial Governor Calibron Laan enough time to amass considerable defences on the capital world of Amarah Prime. Amongst the last to arrive were the 17th and 60th Line Korps of the Death Korps of Krieg under the command of Marshal Karis Venner. With the Death Korps reputation preceding them, both Line Korps were deployed to Amarah Prime itself. In the ensuing Battle of Amarah Prime, the Death Korps were the only forces not only able to repel the Necron assault, but also to lead a successful counterassault that destroyed the principal tomb-complex materialising on the world. Despite this pyrrhic victory, the worlds of the Orpheus Sector had to be abandoned. What remained of the 17th and 60th Line Korps bravely fought in the following Orphean Salvation Campaign to ensure the Necrons did not spill into the neighbouring Eurydice Sector.Defence of Fecundia (992.M41) - When the strategic Forge World Fecundia came under threat by scouting elements of Hive Fleet Kraken, at least one Death Korps regiment was deployed as part of an Imperial task force and took a position in the wasteland. When the Hive Fleet arrived a Death Rider company rode to the rescue of Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his aide Ferik Jurgen, whose Aquila Lander had been shot down. Returning to base, they came across an apparently dead Mycetic Spore and moved to demolish it, but discovered to their cost that the Tyranids inside were merely hibernating. Fortunately for all concerned a Land Speeder piloted by a member of the Reclaimers Space Marine Chapter then arrived to provide air support and directed the Death Riders to link up with an Adeptus Mechanicus crawler.Taros Campaign (998.M41) - The Taros Campaign was an Imperial military campaign fought by the 4621st Imperial Guard Army and elements of the Adeptus Astartes to reclaim the arid Imperial Mining World of Taros from the T'au Empire and its Kroot and Human (Gue'vesa) allies of the Taros Planetary Defence Force in 998.M41. Elements from the 19th Krieg Armoured Regiment, under the command of Colonel Weidemark, were to take part later in the campaign as they were unavailable for the initial assault. Despite being part of the 4621st Army, this regiment never actually saw action on Taros. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful for the Imperial forces due to the high amount of casualties taken and Taros remained in the possession of the T'au, who renamed it T'ros.Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, fifty seven Terran years to the day after his first invasion of the planet, Ghazghkull Thraka returned to the strategically important Hive World of Armageddon at the head of an Ork WAAAGH! of unprecedented size, beginning the Third War for Armageddon. Hades Hive was destroyed utterly by the Ork Warlord's devastating bombardment of captured asteroids. The Death Korps of Krieg sent 5 regiments in support of the Imperial defence against the Greenskin tide. The Imperial forces only saved the beleaguered planet through their sheer stubbornness during its defence and the onset of the Season of Fire, which made military operations nearly impossible for both sides.Siege of Hive Tartarus - The regiments from Krieg were deployed to Hive Tartarus, which was beset on all sides by great waves of Orks pouring out of the Rok they had crashed into the surface of Armageddon to the north of the hive city. The regiments of the Death Korps were stationed in a vast network of trenches blocking the Ork advance into Hive Tartarus. They also made excellent progress in their efforts to reach the Rok itself. Having already earned a fearsome reputation with the Orks in the sector, these grim soldiers seemed to be determined to take down the Ork stronghold by themselves. However, without adequate reinforcements by the Adeptus Titanicus, the Death Korps of Krieg's regiments looked to be fighting a futile and costly war. Wearing their dark greatcoats and trademark gas masks, their sinister appearance reflected their uncompromising nature. The Death Korps soldiers did not fear dying and were more than willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good of the Korps. The first attack on Tartarus was led by the Ork Blackskull Tribe in overwhelming force. The 14th Jopal Indentured Squadron mounted a fierce resistance but the regiment's allied hive militias were routed and abandoned the Skeletus Factory Complex to the Greenskins. Soon its small arms workshops were producing ammunition for Sluggas and Shootas. The main Ork offensive against Hive Tartarus was then launched by Morfang's Big Mob of Gargants. Breaking through the front of the Astra Militarum position (known as Clain's Stronghold), they stormed into Tartarus pursued by a battlegroup of Titans from the Legio Metalica who engaged them before they could overwhelm the beleaguered defending Jopal Squadrons. Mobs of Morfang's Boyz swarmed over Clain's Stronghold in the Gargants' wake but were pinned down by the mortars and Heavy Bolters of the Death Korps of Krieg. Morfang's Gargants were making short work of the Legio Metalicas Reaver-class Titans but the odds were evened by the fire of the Ordinatus Golgotha from its eyrie on a hive city spire shuttle pad. Three Gargants were destroyed before Morfang withdrew his machines. The Legio Metalica could not pursue and so reinforced the Jopal line. The Death Korps of Krieg regiments counterattacked, unleashing timed mortar barrages that pinned the Orks down while Krieg infantry and armoured units burrowed deep into the Ork lines. Once in place the Death Korps redirected their mortar batteries, herding the Orks together. Well-supplied by Hive Tartarus' munitions factories, the Death Korps regiments fired non-stop. Disjointed and unable to act coherently, Morfang's Boyz were wiped out. Briefly it seemed as though Morfang's Gargants would be trapped as the gap closed, but the Red Wheelz raced to their aid and held long enough for Morfang's machines to escape. With Ork reserves fully committed, the Space Wolves of Harald Deathwolf's Great Company seized the opportunity to lead a breakout from Hemlock Cordon. The vanguard entered Tartarus after a four solar day march, and the siege was declared over.Tarsis Ultra (999.M41) - The 993rd Krieg Regiment was sent to aid in the defence of the world of Tarsis Ultra when a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan was sighted in the sector. The regiment was under the command of Colonel Trymon Stagler, who met his death in the closing battle. When the order was given to abandon the trenches outside the capital city of Erebus, the 993rd Krieg volunteered to stay behind and give the Imperial forces enough time to pull back into the city.