The Elite Corps, also referred to as the 41st Elite Corps, functioned as a military corps within the structure of the Grand Army of the Republic. During the Clone Wars, the 41st Elite Corps was under the command of Jedi General Luminara Unduli and Clone Commander Gree, and it consisted of clone troopers from various sub-units, including Green Company. Though it was a corps, the 41st was a part of the 9th Assault Corps and was sometimes known as the 41st Elite Legion.
Being a corps in the Grand Army of the Republic, the 41st Elite Corps had 36,864 troopers spread across sixteen regiments. Green Company, led by "Green Leader" and a Clone Captain, was one of its sub-units. The 41st Scout Battalion, which fought in the Battle of Kashyyyk, was another. A strike team within the 41st Elite Corps was the 41st Ranger Platoon.
Jedi General Luminara Unduli was the leader of the 41st Elite Corps, with Clone Commander Gree as her second-in-command. The corps also included Clone Captain Jek and Unduli's Padawan, Jedi Commander Barriss Offee. The 41st Elite Corps included typical clone troopers in addition to clone scout troopers, Advanced Recon Force Scout Troopers, and clone pilots. One pilot within the corps held the rank of Clone Captain. Jek held the rank of captain while serving in the Ranger Corps. One of the battalions in the corps was under the command of Jedi General Depa Billaba. She was supported in her command by her Padawan, Jedi Commander Caleb Dume, and two Clone Captains, Grey and Styles, who served as significant unit leaders. Clone Lieutenant Remo was another officer in Billaba's battalion.
The 41st Elite Corps employed a number of distinct color schemes to identify the unit. The standard clone troopers in the corps wore armor with olive green markings in a variety of patterns, light green markings, gray markings, and green camouflage. Standard clone troopers used both the phase I clone trooper armor and the phase II clone trooper armor later on. DC-15A blaster rifles, DC-15A blaster carbines, RPS-6 rocket launchers, and other weapons were frequently carried by soldiers of the 41st Elite Corps.
The 41st Elite Corps utilized a wide array of vehicles. For air support, the corps used LAAT/i gunships and LAAT carriers for transportation. Walkers such as All Terrain Tactical Enforcers, All Terrain Attack Pods, and All Terrain Reconnaissance Transports comprised the ground vehicles. The arsenal also included HAVw A6 Juggernauts, Infantry Support Platforms, and BARC speeders. Members of the 41st Elite Corps were sometimes stationed aboard Venator-class Star Destroyers such as the Guarlara, where they operated the guns, the Tranquility, and, on at least one occasion, a Consular-class cruiser.
The 41st Elite Corps became a part of the Grand Army of the Republic when the Clone Wars broke out with the First Battle of Geonosis between the Galactic Republic and the Separatist Alliance. It was then placed under the joint command of Jedi General Luminara Unduli, her Jedi Padawan Jedi Commander Barriss Offee, and Clone Commander Gree. Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo was taken prisoner by Viceroy of the Trade Federation Nute Gunray and Separatist forces during the Mission to Rodia early in the Clone Wars. After her droid, C-3PO, was able to get in touch with a clone trooper from the Republic, the Venator-class Star Destroyer Tranquility was sent to Rodia with Green Company on board. After connecting with Senator Amidala, Junior Representative Jar Jar Binks, C-3PO, and Senator Onaconda Farr, Green Company, under the direction of Commander Gree, landed in Rodia's Senatorial Palace using LAAT/i gunships and took Viceroy Gunray into custody. Following the arrest, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine used a hologram that clone troopers had set up to thank the senators and Binks for their assistance and to immediately dispatch supplies to Rodia.
From the planet's surface, Green Company transported Gunray aboard a Consular-class cruiser to the Tranquility. General Unduli and Padawan Ahsoka Tano went with Gunray as security, and after the cruiser docked with the Tranquility, Senate Commandos helped bring Gunray to the ship's brig so he could be questioned while en route to Coruscant. Separatist forces, however, quickly devised a plan to either kill Gunray or free him in order to prevent the disclosure of Separatist secrets. Count Dooku, the Head of State of the Separatists, dispatched Asajj Ventress, his assassin, along with a fleet of light Separatist starships. After some time had passed during the interrogation, the Tranquility was attacked by three Droch-class boarding ships and Vulture droid starfighters. Commander Gree, who was with the Jedi and Senate Commando Captain Faro Argyus when they felt the attack, got in touch with a clone naval captain in the bridge to find out what was going on. After learning about the Separatist engagement, Commander Gree sent Green Company to stop the Separatist boarders. The hull of the Tranquility was successfully breached by all three boarding ships, which then deployed B2-series super battle droids to the hangar.
At least a dozen Green Company members, including "Green Leader," initially went to the hangar to engage Separatist forces and stop them from spreading throughout the ship. During the skirmish in the hangar, Separatist forces prevailed and killed many clone troopers, including Green Leader. Republic forces were ultimately unable to prevent Separatist forces from spreading, and the battle droids made their way to the prison level. Following the hangar skirmish, Ventress stealthily disembarked from a boarding ship and encountered a Green Company survivor, who attempted to alert the rest of Republic forces of Ventress but was beheaded before he could warn them. As Separatist units advanced, the rest of Green Company retreated to the prison level, all while engaging battle droids in the ship's hallways. While 41st Elite Corps forces were engaging Separatist troops, Ventress rigged explosives on the Tranquility's reactor. The Republic WED-15 Treadwell droid 327-T conducted a perimeter sweep of the reactor room but Ventress managed to stay hidden. 327-T encountered a Clone Captain and a fellow trooper who arrived to check in with 327-T before Commander Gree called on them to head to the prison level. Eventually, Unduli and Green Company managed to destroy all Separatist battle droids, but sensed that their troubles were not over.
During the attack, Padawan Tano had remained in the ship's brig with Captain Argyus and four Senate Commandos while Green Company, Unduli, and Commander Gree repelled the boarders. Ventress, however, infiltrates the brig and fights against Tano and the Senate Commandos, killing two and rendering Argyus and the remaining two guards unconscious. Unduli sensed the fight, and along with Gree and two other troopers, headed towards the brig and getting there just as Ventress freed Gunray and imprisoned Tano in a prison cell. Unduli ordered Ventress to surrender, but the explosive charges in the Tranquility's reactor room exploded, allowing Ventress to escape. Unduli ordered Tano to guard Gunray along with Agryus and Gree, while Unduli would pursue Ventress and the two clone troopers headed to another part of the ship. Unduli eventually managed to track down Ventress and engage her in a lightsaber duel, but was defeated.
Tano, who decided to defy Unduli's orders after speaking with Gree and Argyus, managed to rescue Unduli and continue to fight Ventress. Now having both Jedi occupied, Ventress sent Argyus a signal, which revealed Argyus as a traitor as he killed his fellow guards and engaged Gree. After fighting in hand-to-hand combat, Argyus managed to defeat Gree and free Gunray, fleeing to the Consular-class cruiser that brought Gunray onboard initially, while at the same moment, Ventress managed to evade Tano and Unduli and, after killing two troopers, use a Republic escape pod to rendezvous with the cruiser nearby. After the Republic defeat, Unduli and Ahsoka reported to Yoda and Anakin Skywalker about the loss as Green Company troopers stand guard on the bridge.
The 41st was later dispatched to Geonosis to retake the world. They aided Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and the 501st Legion in diverting the attention of Geonosian leader Poggle the Lesser at his primary droid foundry while Jedi Commanders Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee infiltrated the facility. Clone trooper Draa and the others encountered heavy resistance and fell back with the 501st as Poggle unleashed the super tanks. Despite the tanks, the foundry was destroyed. They then took part in cleaning up the remaining forces on Geonosis and searched for Poggle. During the clean up operations, Unduli and clone trooper Buzz used BARC speeders to search for Poggle, eventually tracking him to the Progate Temple. There, Buzz was killed and Unduli was captured, although she managed to contact the other Jedi during her captivity. Eventually, Unduli was rescued by Republic forces and the temple was destroyed.
The 41st Ranger Platoon, a component of the 41st Elite Corps, carried out missions behind enemy lines during the war to sabotage vulnerable installations and supply lines. Jedi General Depa Billaba's 41st battalion participated in the skirmish on Kardoa, the Third Battle of Mygeeto, and the Battle of Kaller. Under the leadership of Billaba, Jedi Commander Caleb Dume, and their Clone Captains, Grey and Styles, their battalion engaged with General Kleeve's occupying droid forces on Kaller until Kleeve withdrew.
During the Battle of Coruscant, troopers of the 41st Elite Corps were stationed aboard the Guarlara when it exchanged broadsides with the Separatist flagship Invisible Hand. During the broadside exchange, troopers of the 41st manned the cannons and many were killed when their stations were destroyed by Separatist fire, although the Guarlara was victorious from the broadside. Following the Battle of Coruscant, the 41st Elite Corps assembled at a Coruscant cruiser staging area as equipment and vehicles were loaded unto a Venator-class Star Destroyer and Jedi General Yoda arrived to command a sub-unit of the corps, the 41st Scout Battalion, before they were to be dispatched to Kashyyyk.
The 41st Scout Battalion landed on Kashyyyk, unloaded their equipment and vehicles, and prepared alongside the Kachirho Wookiee Militia to defend the city of Kachirho from Separatist forces. Jedi Generals Yoda and Luminara Unduli led the 41st Scout Battalion while on Kashyyyk. Eventually, the Battle of Kashyyyk broke out, and the battalion defended the beachhead against the Separatists, taking up positions on the beach itself, as well as in the large trees surrounding the city, and in various structures.
In the middle of the battle, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic, secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, initiated Order 66, which branded the Jedi as traitors. Commander Gree received Palpatine's message in the command center, so he and Clone Captain Jek of the Ranger Corps moved into position to execute Yoda. Yoda, however, sensed the deaths of his fellow Jedi across the galaxy, allowing him to decapitate Gree and Jek before they could fire their blasters.
The two Wookiees beside Yoda, Chewbacca and General Tarfful then helped Yoda leave the city. Once the battle was over and day had turned to night, members of the battalion, which included ARF troopers on AT-RTs, hunted for Yoda but failed to stop him from escaping the planet. On the planet Utapau, at least one member of the 41st also took part in the Battle of Utapau alongside the 212th Attack Battalion of the 7th Sky Corps, running beside the orange-clad clones just as Marshal Commander Cody recieved Order 66 from Sidious. Afterward, several members of the 41st Elite Corps were on Utapau alongside the 212th in the post-battle cleanup as Republic forces imprisoned their former Pau'an Warrior allies. Several members of the 41st Elite were near Cody as he requested an update during the search for Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Meanwhile, the 41st battalion operating under Billaba found itself defending Kaller when the world was besieged in General Grievous's post-Coruscant counterattack. Billaba, Dume, Grey and her soldiers were aided by Clone Force 99 before the execution of Order 66. While Billaba was executed by Grey and her other troops, she was able to urge Dume to run. While scared of Clone Force 99, he successfully escaped. Under Grey and Styles's leadership, the clones then carried out a hunt for Caleb Dume until Grey, regaining his sense of self after Order 66, sacrificed himself to protect his former friend in 18 BBY.
The 41st Elite Corps was initially seen in the 2005 theatrical release Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars Rebels toy line from Hasbro Inc. was the first to identify the 41st Elite Corps. The non-canon comic "Clash on Kashyyyk," which features Yoda, Gree, and 41st clone troopers Rocket and Ambush participating in the Battle of Kashyyyk, also featured the 41st.