Debacle on Ord Torrenze

"While AT-ATs would be the natural choice as primary combat vehicles for the Salline operation, no one wanted a repeat of the debacle on Ord Torrenze."

- Colonel Maximilian Veers, Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide

The debacle on Ord Torrenze was an early Galactic Civil War engagement between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance on the planet Ord Torrenze that demonstrated the need for the Imperial Army to provide unit support during armored assaults. Sustained Rebel blasterfire from building windows destroyed a single Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport on Ord Torrenze after the walker and its forward-facing armaments had passed the Rebel position. Drawing upon the lesson of Ord Torrenze, Colonel Maximilian Veers later quashed a Rebel insurgency on the planet Chandrila in a near-identical scenario using a force of two AT-ATs and additional ground support.

The debacle
"Although AT-ATs are built to withstand a certain amount of blaster fire, the vehicle on Ord Torrenze eventually succumbed to the sustained barrage."

- Colonel Maximilian Veers, Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide

Early during the Galactic Civil War prior to the Battle of Yavin, Imperial Military forces squared off against Rebel Alliance insurgents on the Outer Rim Territories planet Ord Torrenze. A single Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport walker fell under attack while passing through a dense urban center en route to destroy a Rebel safehouse. Waiting for the AT-AT's head and four forward-facing laser cannons to pass their position, Rebels fired upon the walker from building windows, eventually destroying the vehicle with a sustained barrage of blasterfire. The resulting loss cost the Empire three officers, forty stormtroopers, five crewmembers, and military equipment valued at more than 13 million credits.

Aftermath
Imperial Army Colonel Maximilian Veers learned a valuable strategic lesson from the debacle on Ord Torrenze. Charged with subduing a group of Rebel dissidents in the city of Salline on the Core World planet Chandrila, Veers requested a force of two AT-AT walkers to provide direct fire and four smaller All Terrain Scout Transports for support. The Salline operation presented Veers with a scenario similar to Ord Torrenze, as Rebels fired upon his group's lead AT-AT from the upper stories of buildings as soon as it passed their positions. However, with the added support of his second AT-AT and smaller walkers, Veers successfully eliminated the Rebel threat from Salline.

Veers' mission report on the Pacification of Salline, entitled "The Importance of Unit Support in Armored Assault," was later included the Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, a manual compiled just before the Battle of Yavin.

Behind the scenes
The debacle on Ord Torrenze was first detailed in the 2014 Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, written by Daniel Wallace as an in-universe set of tactical procedures and mission reports for all newly ascending Imperial commanders.