Von Bismork defeated in southern Hylas

On Hylas, Van Dorn had finally recieved some much needed reinforcements by late 10.014M42, and the General began planning to use these troops in an offensive which would start to retake much of the territory lost to the orks in the preceding two years. In the north the Mechanicum had already began their offensive and now the second push in the south began.

Since the war started ork warlords and their power had waxed and waned. In late 014M42 the warlord Uzfang had all but disappeared, while Kogh and Na'Porkleon had seemingly lost interest in Hylas and were busy conducting "planz" elsewhere. The relative power vacuum led to the rise of "Otto Von Bismork", who now had as many orks loyal to him on Hylas as any of the other warlords, despite the fact that he hadn't achieved much in the way of success.

The ork forts which had faced the imperial lines in the south came under sustained bombardment in late 10.014M42, and as the imperial forces advanced towards the ruins it was clear that the orks who remained were mostly those loyal to Von Bismork. On 2910.014M32 Bismorks orks even managed to launch a counter attack on the lost fortress line, but the guard forces were able to stand off and annihilate the greenskin advance at range. The success in the destruction of the northern end of the fortress line now made an advance to Brockley possible for Van Dorn, and he brought up his Librian regiments to carry on the advance into ork territory.

As expected, Von Bismork's greenskins attempted to counter this advance by driving into the imperial left flank. However Van Dorn had planned for this, and the ork battlewagons soon found themselves in a killing zone where the Librian artillery had already been ranged in. In short order heavy weapons fire and basilisk artillery reduced two thirds of the ork battlewagon force to scrap metal, forcing any survivors to walk towards their enemy. With their main assault force blunted, the imperial guard now had time to pick off the advancing ork units one by one, Punisher Leman Russ and veteran squads easily dealing with the mega armoured elites. The ork boyz who did make the imperial lines were a threat for a while, but massed lasgun fire eventually massacred any ork mobs which reached the imperial aegis lines.

The orks were unable to coordinate their attacks, and heavy artillery blasted apart any orks stuck out in no mans land. By 0311.014M42 the flank attack into the Librian left had petered out, and by 0611.014M42 the settlement of Brockley had been retaken by the imperial advance. Van Dorn was now on the advance and the orks slowly being forced to relinquish territory. An imperial victory no longer looked impossible.