Code-named Operation K,[4][N 1] the First Battle of Mars, was a massive counter-offensive launched by the UNCN with its reorganized fleets, using the asteroid belt as an absolute defense line in the aftermath of the First Contact with Garmillas and the Outer Planets Defense Battle. The Earth suffered a heavy defeat,[3] but the battle led the Greater Garmillan Empire to change its tactics for the remainder of the war. The invaders began to use planet bombs to bomb the Earth's surface.[1]
Aftermath[]
For Garmillas, diverting significant military resources was becoming increasingly difficult, given that the empire's capacity to fight was already being strained by invasions and occupations elsewhere.[5] However, Earth had been identified by the empire as a candidate for "Garmillasforming",[6] reshaping the planet's biosphere and reconstructing it to more perfectly suit the needs of Garmillans who would eventually be able to migrate there . For this reason the Garmillans had established a well-defended and hidden base of operations on Pluto, from which they begun a long-distance siege of Earth with planet bombs.[7][8][9]
Two planet bombs
The military immediately understood that the Planet Bombs, the first of which fell on Japan on April 2, 2193, were Garmillan weapons but if they had made it public, they would have been forced to admit the overwhelming difference in scientific power between them and the aliens, for this reason they kept the truth hidden for as long as they could.[1]
The later forced withdrawal of Garmilllan forces from the inner solar system didn't help stopping the bombing but only to intensify it, as the Garmillans had lost any other way to directly target the planet. The UNCF was unable to stop the bombing, and in just a year the surface of their homeworld was turned into a wasteland and the remaining human population was driven underground.[7][8][9]
Notes[]
- Haruo Nishina, who would later go on to serve as Artillery Chief on Yamato first saw action during the battle[10]
- The attacks using planet bombs were initially set as having started as a result of the Earth's victory in the Second Battle of Mars, however, they were later retconned into having started after the First Battle of Mars.[11]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 The Era of Space Battleship Yamato: Choice of 2202
- ↑ For more information, see Yamato 2199 timeline inconsistencies#The First and Second Battle of Mars
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Model Graphix March 2014 Issue p.9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Model Sheet Design Collection EARTH p.153
- ↑ "Prison Planet 17"
- ↑ "O Teresa, Cry for Dessler!"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Trap on All Sides"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Out of the Forest of Memory"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Messenger of Iscandar"
- ↑ 2205 character Data for Haruo Nishina
- ↑ Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Model Sheet Design Collection EARTH p.129
- ↑ Some sources, especially earlier ones, often mistake the Code-names Operation K and Operation K2, for example in the theater pamphlet for Yamato 2199 Chapter 1, the Second Battle of Mars is called Operation K
Japanese language information[]
- 第一次火星沖海戦 Daiichiji kasei oki kaisen (First Battle of Mars)
- カ号作戦 Kagō sakusen (Operation K)