The Dominion War: Operation Return

[@occultatumquaestio5226]

_" This is the Voice of Freedom, __-General MacArthur-__ Captain Sisko speaking. To the __-Philippine-__ Bajoran People: I have Returned. ... We have come, dedicated and committed, to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring, upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people."_ Operation Return was the turning point for the Federation & it allies. And boldly they road as they did return.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

Fortunately, Sisko did not have the massive ego of MacArthur.... UNLESS YOU DISGRACE THE UNIFORM!!!

[@mephistoxarses8585]

I can imagine Worf and Martok Slamming their fists down at Gowrons "War table" shouting "If the Federation fall's....were next!!!!" Gowrons cup of bloodwine spill's into his lap and gives them both "crazy eye's" Gowron "Sooooooo be it........WE GO!"

[@alexmandilaras5535]

This is great, so glad someone is fleshing out the dominion war like this. So much happened during that show. Thanks for these amazing stories! Keep 'em coming!

[@shroomlord4206]

Check out lore reloaded He has a seven hour video compilation of the dominion war

[@shanenolan8252]

Thanks this is a wonderful series very appreciated. 1812 overture was a nice choice

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Couldn't resist

[@FiveofDave]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 awesome transition from Ride of das Walküren.

[@carnifexor3010]

Thank you very much VGM98 for bringing us an excellent narrative. Thinking back, who knew that a seemingly silent Morn would be the courier of the single most important bit of intelligence in the Dominion war.... That, or it's right up there with Garrack's upcoming subterfuge.

[@michaeldiekmann6494]

Good Work, this makes sense because in the episode Admiral Sitak and Admiral Cogburn where afraid, The Dominion could use Operation Return to strike earth directly. Didnt make sense to me while on screen the first time we hear about deep advances near fed core worlds was Betazed falling before the Romulans where tricked to join.

[@terrancechilds3049]

I have seen this on TV before but the way you explain it is a lot better

[@beaumartinez8705]

A resounding victory for the Federation! the fight goes on but now there's hope.

[@eddierudolph7694]

Thank you for giving us nonsubscribers a chance to watch these excellent videos.

[@vegaobscurax23]

You should sub and show him some support

[@sfs2040]

@@vegaobscurax23 I think he means nonmembers

[@cdrocrossdiscovery]

Another fine tale well told! Thank you, sir may I have another?

[@anthonyvogel9328]

I like your break down. It show that the federation really had to show that it could change and show that they can fight. The federation and Klingon take some loses. But the dominion take a bigger lose. They had to withdraw across the federation and return to most of their space.

[@EventHorizon34]

Sisko was right about the wormhole being the key to the Alpha Quadrant! Great job breaking down the Dominion War! Thanks again!

[@Palmerrip]

I thought the Founder ordered all Dominion force back to a Cardassian space after Operation Return. It is a very smart move. The Dominion shortens their logistical lines while stretching the Federations (sort of) and definately the Klingons' supplies that has to cross all of Federation Space. I can see the grudge of the Cardassians holding on to former and captured territory. But, it without Dominion forces aiding them the superior Federation tech would annihilate them.

[@shadowpoet4398]

I'd love to see MORE Star Trek wars covered like this. A stardate-by-stardate retelling of the Roddenberry vs TNG Producers war of the early 1980's would be great 😎👌

[@Okiedog1]

Worf: On your left, Captain

[@GoddessTier]

Amazing! So much excellent expanded universe content!

[@shanenolan8252]

Another factor would be the defiant destroyed the dominion long range sensor array which could detect clocked vessels and was said to be the reason for the previous failure of major offensives like with the 7th fleet

[@JCShadow]

I remember watching this battle, Sacrifice of Angels is one of the best episodes of DS9, but I did have a problem with Sisko’s strategy. Sisko ordered the Federation ships to only attack the Cardassian ships, good move, because he knew the Cardassians would be angry over the fact that only their ships are being destroyed. He left the Dominion ships alone because he knew the Dominion would not be so easily aggravated. Gul Dukat sets a trap for the Federation, he orders the Cardassian ships to open a hole in their lines, making Sisko think they have broken through the defenses. Sisko notices this, and also notices the Cardassians are moving their ships into a position to fire on the Federation vessels that will move through the opening in the line. Sisko knows it’s a trap, but he still attacks anyway, making the Federation fleet take losses, until the Klingons arrive and help turn the tide. That was the problem I had with Sisko’s tactic, couldn’t he have tried something that would’ve resulted in less casualties?

[@dragonsword7370]

Maybe one thing. Lines of ships meeting eachother in deep space like this would not happen for real. UNLESS they met to just destroy eachother, or were trying to remove them from that space. Sisko should have been able to send wings of ships in this ad hoc new fleet from every direction but they could have been met against en route to Bajor\DS9 since the Dominion brought ALOT of ships to engage and stop the fleet. But there was a chance a wing of ships would have snuck through to try something at DS9. Issue then is would there be ships bolstering the defenses of DS9 proper on top of the stations own impressive capacity to defend itself or attack?

[@cedricreiser2105]

@@dragonsword7370 It sounds like a good plan, but i think the problem there is that the dominion had 2 ships for every starfleet ship so even if they break up and try to sneak around, the dominion could attack them with twice the numbers and still have the numbers advantage at the main battle

[@at3unit3]

you forget time was not on the side of the Federation, Dukat was bringing down the minefield and then hordes of Jem'Hadar reinforcements were coming through the wormhole. The plan Sisko devise was bold and costly but if he tried to wait for the Klingons, The Defiant wouldn't have arrive in time to intercept them and for Sisko to convince the Prophets from halting the Dominion Fleet.

[@Redshirt434]

Sisko was desperate. An obvious trap, but also an opportunity to punch through without being bogged down into an attrition space battle.

[@mattwho81]

The plan wasn’t to destroy the Dominion fleet. The plan was to punch through and stop the minefield being brought down.

[@Mayfield2024]

Great vid. Such an important encounter, how it shattered the illusion of Dominion invincibility. Nice to get a broader view of the strategic implications of Operation Return.

[@wedgeantillies66]

Oh my word, that was another fantastically awesome and magnificently brilliant addition to what has so far been a stunningly majestically fabulous series on the dominion war. That showcases the tactical and strategic game changing and decisive momentum of the success of operation return in changing the tide of the war and inflicting in the short term a massive defeat on dominion forces, but at the same time, allowing for the federation-klingon alliance to throw the dominion literally back to the pre war federation-cardassian order with a few exceptions.

[@carolheward6479]

Bajor was also a showpiece for dominion occupation like you mentioned in another video dominion policy was to appear as friendly and a genuine alternative to the federation so thats another reason ds9 is important because the federation taking back a dominion allies homeworld is something that would actually grab the attention of the founder itself because it looks bad.

[@lanebowles8170]

Excellent background!

[@JaredLS10]

Perfect shot of Sisko.

[@aiosquadron]

Gentlemen! This! This is why you need a frontline that's defended in depth!

[@markgirard4023]

amazing as always

[@danielramirez1529]

Awesome my dude. Keep on. At some point you should do a battle breakdown but I know that would take a tremendous amount of effort and time. Lots of ships!

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

yeah not ruling it out but it would be huge.

[@yf9856]

Great content!

[@jamesmagill5433]

Another enjoyable episode. Love to listen to this as audio show which I drive. So entertaining I don’t need visual cue to enjoy it.

[@Wedgekree]

I can't help but also think as to how this gloriously brutal and desperate struggle turns on.. And then the magic wormhole aliens made all the Dominion ships disappear! Among the greatest Trek story arcs, but that way of finalizing it undermines it all.

[@jeffhallam2004]

Love these videos!

[@carolheward6479]

I cant remember which video you mentioned this but ships can manouvre at warp. Like i said the part where tom paris says they drop out of warp to turn is a specific case. In the original trek during the m5 episode they accelerate to warp three then turn.

[@speeshx2377]

Keep these great videos coming

[@qamarzaman9039]

As always fascinating

[@supportingfire]

The _Cardassian Pocket?_ Where are you getting that from?

[@Fabian-Wenzel]

Do you have e a link to the map of the Dominion Conquered Territory? I would like to study the map more closely.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

I'll post them to the Facebook group

[@StevenMRA]

May I make a request? Making it "Dominion War Episode 1" and so on would be easier to follow. When this comes up in my feed I get a bit lost - and I know you have the "Battlespace" series, but it's still not entirely clear. Maybe use years or episode numbers? LOVE your various series - and I want to understand the timeline better is all. Hope you don't mind me asking.

[@occultatumquaestio5226]

7:25 ; In the Beta canon game, _Star Trek Online_ , this Dominion fleet, known as the _Lost 2800_ reappears in the year 2409. While this has little relevance to the current happenings in the Dominion War, it's a fun little piece of information.

[@shroomlord4206]

And then what happened?

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Interesting isn't that because the prophets are a-temporal beings so control the flow of time.

[@maessler89]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 something like that. I think they say in DS9 that the prophets have no concept, or sense, of linear time, and in STO the prophets say they "displaced" the fleet.

[@gogthemagog]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 Yes, they simply push them a few decades into the future. Like the Bajoran poet in "Accession".

[@JoacinoDaGona]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 "A closed hand ceases to be a hand, the fleet must exist, as do you." The prophets, addressing the player in a vision.

[@Cavthena]

Isn't it stated in the show that they withdraw into Cardassian space?

[@grimmy2444]

Delicious as usual 👏

[@ussvoyager8650]

I totally love watching your videos they R really amazing

[@terrencejones9817]

There is no background information stating that the 1st fleet , which is supposed the largest, ever left Alpha Centauri. It is also specifically stated that thr 3rd fleet is at earth and did not take part.

[@Traven158]

That's one thing that I don’t get about this war. It seems like every battle results with each side losing at MINIMUM 50-70% of the starting force. How do you keep up with that loss of ships?

[@alexanderleach3365]

THis turn of the tide, would send Dukat to the Cuckoo house brought upon by the lost of his daughter.

[@superzentredi]

The Cardassians are extremely disciplined when they're a part of the Dominion... If you know what I mean.

[@terrencechilds8984]

So Starfleet is not a military will now afraid this war it will be.

[@dontdrunkimshoot8220]

That whole outnumbered 2 to 1 thing, whats the actual 'point value' of each fleet? That dominion fleet was probably 75% bug ship corvettes wile 75% of the federation fleet was probably light cruiser or better. I had also thought this was a point in time were a lot of things where contributing to federation fleets being especially strong. By now i imagine starfleet has reactivated and rearmed thousands of mothballed ships, allowing the federation to have at least a presence in every threatened star system, and greatly bulking out the concentrated fleets. no longer was the federation in the position they were in when they lost the USS odyssey, where their weapons and defensive systems were totally compromised by changeling spies. Not only had the dominion learned enough to modulate their weapons to totally bypass federation shields, they also were able to configure their own shields in a way that made them impervious to phaser fire. The news of the dominion being able to sink a super battleship with little more than a pair of torpedo boats must have given the bass a collective heart attack until they were able to examine the runabout sensor logs and see just how compromised all their military secrets really were, those 2 attack ships should have been little more than a speed bump, dealt with in a single dismissive gesture. By now, the entire fleet must at least have the corrections and modifications needed to enable their weapons and shields to function as intended against dominion targets, if not have wholly upgraded weapon and shield systems installed. if not the war wouldn't even still be going on by month 4. This seemed to be the first fleet action were the federation was putting a large number of super battleships in play since the lose of the USS odyssey, most having returned from the exploration missions they were recalled from a year or so ago, and overhauled into fighter carrying, fleet anchoring, dreadnought command ships. I'd rate a dominion battle cruiser as somewhere in between an ambassador/niagara and a nebula/galaxy in terms of point value, maybe a ruff equivalent to a brand new sovereign class. So in that battle, the federation definitely had the the most powerful classes of ship, and dozens of them. Its been a wile since i closely examined footage from the battle, but if i recall correctly, you can actually see several galaxy class flying back toward the defiant as it was trying to break through, having already broken through and now actually flanking the dominion lines, trying to punch holes for more ships to slip through. by then, full mass production of ultra modern corvettes(defiant), frigates(saber), destroyers(norway), light cruisers(steamrunner, intrepid), heavy cruisers(akira), and battle cruisers(sovereign) all designed with at least the knowledge of the borg threat in mind, was taking place, replacing the losses of older inferior ship types. qualified personnel was likely the main limiting factor by wars end. even with all that on the federation's side, if something didn't drastically change, starfleet was set to get picked apart trying to hold territory from such an aggressive, relentless foe. It was down and getting kicked wile trying to guard its face, it had to leap up and throw an uppercut and turn the whole fight around.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

an excellent question. 600 jem'hadar ships were present at this battle and they only have one unit type 'the Battlegroup' 9 attack ships and 1 battlecruiser. so there were 60 battlecruisers present each equal or just below a Galaxy/nebula class with the cardassians its a little harder since they have a variety of units no two orders are alike. but the average order would contain 18 galors *6 that gives us 108 galors but the cardassians do have a lot of other ships as well.

[@0utc4st1985]

Interesting series, it's nice to see the war get fleshed out on such a bigger picture. I've said it before and I'll say it again though, making the Dominion fleet just disappear in the wormhole like that was a really lame way to handle it, I wish the writers could have picked a better way. Maybe showing starfleet's engineering capabilities or something.

[@JohnnySqueaky]

Favor the bold sisko says elements of the 2nd 5th and 9th fleets…the 9th would arrive a day late so they left with 2nd and 5th fleet only…not 6 fleet groups…please explain this discrepancy in ur analysis

[@pavilion8885]

any info how many ship Klingons use in battle?

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

the symbols on the map each represent a fleet-group roughly 100 ships

[@shanenolan8252]

Fortune favors the bold

[@aiosquadron]

What is the name of the first music track?

[@aiosquadron]

Nvm. I got it guys. It's called claims of throne.

[@45580677]

I wonder the besiege Starbase on the northern flank still operational and ships inside. With the center Fleet Group gone they pull back and send forces from the other 2 to reinforce center why Starfleet moves up and digs in as not get greedy as build up for a new offensive both sides but now we shown we can hit back still the shadow war escalates

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

so the Xindi Kaboo and Cerebus starbases were both destroyed/ captured by the Hutet.

[@45580677]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 I thought there were 3 with the third still operational

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

@@45580677 yes actium.

[@45580677]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 It will never fall but there a chance for a break out as me don't like sitting ducks and they never gone against a Spacedock we've seen Fleets and Ships but not Starbases wage a war and lets give them one. Also Starfleet has some non direct assets aka privateers

[@shadowpoet4398]

3:15 Anybody else get a little annoyed at seeing one weapon facet on a starship being drawn as another? The K'Tinga is firing what appears to be an anti-proton beam, (if you take STO as a source), or a phaser lance coming out of a torpedo tube. Lame lol

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

look. its what they showed in DS9 blame the effects guys.

[@nathanielmeade5731]

Oooooh

[@tcsmagicbox]

Not trying to be mean, but this is the 4th video in the series, so can you please rehearse your script a little bit more instead of sounding like you are making it up as you go? Just deliver it the way you have in your other videos, and it would sound a lot better.