Battle of Hell's Anvil
The Battle of Hell's Anvil was a battle fought by the Raven Guard during the Great Crusade.[1]
Overview
Before the Raven Guard's arrival, the Imperial Army had been trying for five years to take the massive fortress known as Hell's Anvil from anti-Imperial rulers on the world of Baratrum. After the Imperial Army managed to use burrowing vehicles to breach a part of the fortress, the defenders unleashed human-drones that killed thousands of Army soldiers. The Army was unable to secure any foothold in the sunken metropolis of Baratrum.[1]
However, soon three full chapters of the Raven Guard (then known simply as the XIXth Legion) under Arkhas Fal as well as a contingent of Luna Wolves arrived on Baratrum to turn the tide. Shade Captain Nerat Kirine of the XIXth Legion's Ashen Claws Chapter developed an alternate strategy to siege. The Legion instead used their Strike Cruisers to launch a concussive bombardment directly above the sub-surface fortifications of Hell's Anvil. The massive tectonic force of the attack shook the planet to its core, causing severe damage to many of the world's underground cities. However, the plan was successful and a part of the walls of Hell's Anvil collapsed from seismic activity. After the breach had been achieved, Lord Fal ordered three Regiments of Thorosian Voltigeurs to take up defensive positions in front of the breach and halt the anticipated counterattack by Baratrun drones.[1]
The human soldiers held out the best they could but took heavy losses in the face of the drones, and desperately requested aid from the Space Marines. However, both the XIXth and the Luna Wolves refused to come to their aid. As they spent their lives in the frantic battle, the Astartes took positions on the crests of the unstable rift. Waiting until Hell's Anvil had emptied the last of its defenders, the Space Marines advanced down the ravine's sides. They hit the drone-armies on their flanks, while the Ashen Claws moved into the fortress interior. They fought a hit-and-run battle against the fortress Overseers, their shrivelled human forms encased in layers of mechanical augmentations bristling with weaponry. The Ashen Circle, however, was able to bypass the Overseers' strong points inside the fortress and attack them at vulnerable positions.[1]
After hours of fighting, the XIXth Legion finally discovered the fortress's massive plasma reactor. They were then confronted by the largest and oldest of the Overseers, monstrous figures who had lurked beneath Hell's Anvil for nearly a thousand years. Captain Kirine and his bodyguards held the Overseers at bay while melta bombs were placed on the reactor. With their task complete, the Raven Guard suddenly withdrew from the fortress interior. They then detonated their melta charges, setting off a chain reaction from the plasma reactor that decimated Hell's Anvil. A massive avalanche caused by the blast buried the remaining Baratrun drones as well as many of the surviving Imperial Army soldiers.[1]
The destruction of Hell's Anvil allowed the rest of Baratrum to fall rapidly, and while the Astartes suffered light losses the Thorosian Regiments lost nearly 10,000 men.[1]
See also
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination, pgs. 150-151
