Battle of Agamar

The Battle of Agamar was one of the early battles of the, an engagement for the control of the of. The battle was most notable for being the first occasion of the usage of penal units by the.

Prelude
As the pan- conflict between the and the  began, the government of Agamar chose to join the Separatist movement due to its outrage over Republic taxation. It remained untouched for the first few months of the war in 22 BBY, but in following year the had drafted the operational plans to retake Agamar as part of a wider offensive. A number of units were assigned to the operation, including the 378th Legion, but along with them were a number of the new penal units which consisted entirely of convicted criminals. The most notable one that was deployed to Agamar for the first time was the 21st Penal Battalion.

Fight for the capital
Upon securing space superiority in the system, the Republic quickly deployed the ground forces, sending a number of s down to the surface of Agamar. The enemy air defenses managed to shoot down a number of gunships that passed too close to population centers, but most of their landing sites were far enough away from the cities to be out of range of the heavy artillery. As part of the assault on the capital of the planet,, several battalions of clone troopers would attack the city from the mountainous northern approaches while the condemned troops of the 21st Penal Battalion would storm the front of the city, from the southwest. It was a largely flat area and was the most heavily defended by the and the Agamarian militia. Headquarters feared that the Separatists would be too suspicious and on alert of the Republic did not attack them from the front, and used the 21st as a distraction. However, it was also given the objective of breaking into the city if it could manage it.

The penal battalion assault Separatist positions according to plan. The defenders met the advancing Republic infantry with intense fire, having built a series of fortifications in the outskirts of the city. The 21st initially made little progress, as many of the former criminals panicked and tried to run away or were slaughtered in the carnage. However, on the fourth day, the surviving battalion members regrouped and pushed on, to the surprise of the Separatist. With the lesser criminals purged, the ones that remained were the seasoned killers. Major Iryss Ravallion, the battalion commander, picked the weakest spot in the Separatist line and concentrated their efforts there. The 21st tore through the defending s and engaged the rear-line troops in brutal house-to-house combat.

By that point, the 378th Legion had gone around and began its assault from the northern mountains. The defenses there, however, proved to be more formidable than had reported, and their advance stalled. By that point, the 21st -- which had less than 200 men remaining from its original 576 -- had broken through the outer lines of the Separatist defenses and entered the city proper. It engaged the remaining defenders in the streets, clearing them out block by block, building by building. The clones of the 378th were able to break through when troops from that front had to be redeployed to counter the 21st battalion, fighting their way quickly to the city center. The remaining droids and Agamarian militiamen put up barricades in the streets, using damaged s as stationary cannons to give the Republic forces as many casualties as possible. The 21st battalion's 94th Company, under acting Dyros Hakon (who took over from his dead superior), was the first to break through to the city center.

When the battle ended and the last remaining pockets of Separatist resistance had been eliminated, the 21st Penal Battalion had just 104 soldiers remaining. In contrast, the 378th Legion and other clone units with it had taken about 40% casualties overall.

Countryside campaign
The bulk of the Separatist administration and military forces had been in Calna Muun, while only a couple of divisions had been spread out over the rest of the planet. As the fighting in the capital raged on, other clone units had secured many of the smaller towns and Separatist bases on the planet. By the time the battle for Calna Muun ended, most of the planet was under Republic control.