Campaign '39-'40 - the Allies

[gwgardner]

The BEF is situated to move to the north of Namur, the French 1st and 9th Armies are situated to move to the 'hinge' area to the east of Namur.

[note: of course all this strategizing is predicated upon hindsight, knowing that historically the Germans actually moved through the Ardennes. I'm trying to come up with a way to honor the Dyle Plan requirement, but to think of a feasible saving move if Chocolino does indeed move through the Ardennes.]

[Alikchi2]

Fingers crossed for you, sir. From the sound of your opponent's last AAR, this may be rather difficult for him...

[Enigma6584]

I'm chomping at the bits...what's going to happen next?[X(]

[Josh]

ORIGINAL: RedCharlie65

I'm chomping at the bits...what's going to happen next?[X(]

Me too, I would like to see what happens next... [:D]

[gwgardner]

May 12

Here's the problem with the Allied forces: morale is abysmal. It's hard to rush forces to the proper locations when they're dragging their feet.

[gwgardner]

Along the Meuse river and tributaries, the 2nd Army has taken up positions and is entrenching furiously. So far the enemy has not made contact.

[gwgardner]

Farther north, in the 9th Army sector, air recon and probes sent out have shown only spotty German presence. Where is the German army?!

[Alikchi2]

I hope yall are still playing, I'm on tenterhooks here!

[gwgardner]

May 14

The German offensive is 8 days old, and their armor has finally hit hard along the Muese river system, out of the Ardennes. Both Meziers and Montmedy (not Malmedy) are under heavy assault. So far the Sedan sector is relatively quiet.

Fortunately reinforcements are arriving from the south to help along the Meuse. The 1st Polish and the 1st N.African Divisions are arriving just in time.

[gwgardner]

Farther north, into Belgium, the Meuse continues to serve as the developing defensive line for both French and Belgian forces, with the latter concentrating at Namur.

[gwgardner]

The BEF is setting up a secondary line farther north and west around Brussels.

[gwgardner]

In the Netherlands, the lowlands have been flooded. It's doubtful if the Dutch army will remain a fighting force long enough to hold back the Germans however.

[gwgardner]

May 15

The Germans have breached the Meuse line southeast of Meziers. I don't have a lot of assets to throw into the breach. I'll see what I can do to either shift forces to the north southward, or perhaps even abandon the Meuse on the right wing, and draw back to try to contain the outbreak.

[gwgardner]

Every available artillery, air, and ground force was thrown at the choke point southeast of Meziers, to no discernable effect. The hope was to isolate their forward elements, but now it looks like they'll be able to widen their breach soon enough.

[gwgardner]

With the failure of the counterattack, there's nothing for it but to roll back and hope to delay and contain. The 43rd Division was rushed by rail, the 1st marched south, and the entire right wing is falling back.

[gwgardner]

Having gone full hilt to implement the Dyle Plan, the French and British find themselves out of position to blunt the German push farther south. Perhaps too late, the Dyle Plan is abandoned, with regard to a focus on stopping a German advance into Belgium. Instead the substantial French and British forces in Belgium will attempt to hit the Germans hard from the north.

[my advance intelligence estimate - now known to be misinformation planted by Chocolino to fool me into thinking he didn't like the Ardennes as an invasion route - led me to invest heavily in the Dyle Plan. Oh those wily Germans ...!]

[gwgardner]

May 19

German Armor has opened up wide bridgeheads across the Meuse in two areas, so our forces have been ordered back to to attempt 1) containment, 2) to set up a new line along the Aisne.

Unfortunately, if either of those two goals does not succeed, there's very little left to stop the enemy from just sweeping across the land at will.

The British are racing south from Belgium, but may be too far away to do any good.

[gwgardner]

Just to the north, where the Belgian and French borders meet, the Germans have broken out into a less well defended area. The strong French positions to the north will have to be abandoned, but are probably too far away to be of use if the Germans push west aggressively.

Will the Brits be able to stop this German thrust? And if the Brits are used here, will Paris be lost to the more southern prong of the German offensive?