Colony Drops are a military tactic used in the 1979 sci-fi anime franchise Mobile Suit Gundam. It involved the dropping of a large space body onto a planet with the intention of causing massive damage.
It was mostly notably employed by Principality of Zeon and the various Zeonic movements that sprung out of it at the end of the One Year War, though other factions such as the Titans would also attempt Colony Drops as well as a method of inflicting swift destruction onto their enemies.
Operation British was but one amongst the Colony Drops that is a insufficient armed struggle executed by the Principality of Zeon during the One Week Battle of the One Year War in U.C. 0079. The mission involved dropping a space colony on the Earth Federation Forces' Jaburo installation located within the continent of South America. The used space colony staged in this operation failed to hit its target, but its destruction still resulted in the deaths of billions of people. The incident was one of the key factors of the signing of the wartime accord known as the Antarctic Treaty.
Shortly after declaring war on the Earth Federation, the Zeon Armed Forces moved a depopulated colony off of Side 2 to drop it on the Jaburo base somewhere in the continent of South America, which had withstood all attacks, even those of nuclear weapons. The Federation managed to divert the destroyed colony from Jaburo, but it still plummeted onto Earth. The colony started to break up, but the massive central cylinder hit the city of Sydney, capital of the continent Australia, causing a massive explosion that obliterated the metropolis and a large portion of the land around it.
Notable Colony Drops[]
The Colony Drop on Sydney, Australia in the One Year War, perpetrated by Gihren Zabi as part of Operation British.
Operation British: In January U.C. 0079, at the start of the One Year War, forces of the Principality of Zeon attempted to drop the ruined colony of Side 2, whose population they had annihilated with nerve gas, onto the Earth Federation headquarters in Jaburo, South America. While the Earth Federation Forces failed to stop the colony drop, as the colony was entering Earth's atmosphere it veered off course and crashed into Sydney, Australia instead, resulting in the total leveling of the city and the deaths of its people, along with the destruction of 16% of Australia's land mass. The Side 2 colony drop was followed by another attempted colony drop by the Principality of Zeon using the husk of Side 5, but the drop was foiled by the Earth Federation Forces at the Battle of Loum.
Operation Stardust: In November U.C. 0083, three years after the One Year War ended, the Zeon Remnant movement Delaz Fleet captured two colony cylinders and attempted to drop one onto Earth to avenge Zeon's defeat in the war at the hands of the Earth Federation. The cylinder landed in the American midwest, where a large amount of the Federation's food supply was situated, resulting in the destruction of the supply.
Operation Apollo: On August 24 U.C. 0087, during the Gryps War between the AEUG and Titans, the Titans attempted a colony drop on the lunar city of Von Braun. The attempt was foiled by the AEUG forces.
Dublin Colony Drop: On October 31 U.C. 0088, the Neo Zeon movement based out of Axis, led by Haman Karn, performed a colony drop on Dublin, Ireland in order to pave way for an Axis ground invasion. Despite the efforts of the AEUG and Karaba, the colony drop was successful and demonstrated the might of Neo Zeon.
Newborn Neo Zeon Colony Drops: The second Neo Zeon movement, led by Char Aznable, attempted several colony drops during the Second Neo Zeon War. On March 3, U.C. 0093, Neo Zeon forces succeeded in dropping the 5th Luna asteroid onto Lhasa, Tibet as part of a larger campaign by them to instigate a forced migration of humanity into space in order to fulfill the ideals of the late Zeon Zum Deikun. The master plan of Neo Zeon was to drop the Axis asteroid base onto Earth to render it completely uninhabitable and thus necessitate humanity to leave the planet, but the attempted Colony Drop was foiled by the Londo Bell task force, who intercepted the colony before it could impact Earth.
Trivia[]
The term "Operation British" amidst the names of the known Colony Drops first appeared in the source book "Gundam Century", first published in 1981. In the same tome, it is explained that the operation was named such because decolonization led to the collapse of the British Empire itself.
