Battle of Nadiem

The Battle of Nadiem occurred during the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists. In 22 BBY, five months after the Battle of Geonosis, the Separatist Droid Army, commanded by General Grievous, invaded the Republic-controlled planet of Nadiem and was able to to grab a strong foothold on the planet. The Republic then sent a detachment of their own clone army to counter the invasion, along with several Jedi Generals including Senior General Luminara Unduli and High General Saesee Tiin, resulting in a full scale battle, with Nadiem's civilian populace caught in the middle.

During the fighting, Threadneedle Canyon became a point of contention between the two sides, with Grievous and the Confederacy controlling one side of the canyon, and the Republic controlling the small valley on the other. Meanwhile, General Tiin set up a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem, preventing any Confederate reinforcements to make it through. While General Unduli and her apprentice Barriss Offee were strengthening the Republic's defenses and evacuating a small town in the valley, Grievous ordered a large amount of his forces to go through the canyon and destroy the Republic troops on the other side, while he stayed behind and commanded his troops from his command bunker. As the Separatist forces were moving through Threadneedle, Offee and several clone troopers got stranded in the center of the canyon after giving up their transportation to a group of refugees. Realizing that engaging the droid forces directly would only result in their deaths, Offee ordered her troops to fire at the advancing Separatist column from a distance, and after the battle droids returned fire, to lie motionless on the ground so that the enemy would believe they were dead and pass them by. Offee's plan worked, and once the droids moved on, her troops and herself climbed the canyon and prepared to ambush the Separatist forces from behind.

The Confederate column soon engaged Unduli and her troops on the other side of the canyon, and were about to break through the Republic's defenses when Offee and her troops began to fire on the droids from behind. With their rear support failing, the droids tried to retreat when Offee's clonetoopers detonated several explosives they had put into place beforehand. The resulting explosion caused an avalanche, cutting off the Separatists' only route of retreat, and any remaining battledroids were systematically neutralized. With most of their forces destroyed, the Separatists were forced to abandon Nadiem. However, while Grievous was fleeing Nadiem in his personal Belbullab-22 starfighter, he was attacked by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor above the planet. Grievous managed to kill Zephata'ru'tor and seriously injure Tone before escaping into hyperspace.

Text and facts from the “Battle of Nadiem” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.