Fall Gelb - Corresponding Allied Perspective

[Chocolino]

In this PBEM (hot seat)I will move the Western Allies and the USSR and take on gwgardner as the Axis.

Most majors countries (USSR, Germany, USA, UK) are on hard.I did play ToW a while back but feel very rusty, especially when it comes to new rules. So I look forward to refresher course by Guderian et al.

May 24th, 1940 (Turn 3)

The attack in the West has started. In my inexperience I did repair many French corps and build a few Infantry Divs to cover the cities in the hinterland. But I run smack into the upkeep penalty and the French budgetary situation looks worse than the current one of 2012. Zero Francs for any repairs now. I disbanded a few African units to balance it out but so far without effect.

Guderian will help me with the finances soon and cut the French army back to size I am sure ......

[Chocolino]

June 16, 1940 (Turn 6)

British and French carriers and land based A/C focus on detecting and sinking submarines. The effect on British convoys is devastating. But those aircraft will be missed fighting against German tanks.

I have overlooked to supply the French Alpine troops in Narvik for several turns (darn...) but hope to remove the German invaders at least now from the Narvik area. The French will probably be out of the game before they can get any further south in Norway.

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1940

The low countries are crushed and the German tanks shifted their main effort of attack to the west. We don't have enough Inf corps to cover the whole front and cannot take the strong defenders simply out of the line as they are opposing still respectable sized German Infantry. Hence we rushed the mobile units so far held in reserve to the hot spot. I hope we can at least delay the German thrust for a few weeks.

[Chocolino]

July 1st 1940 (II)

We detected sufficient German sub targets but were not successful at all in pursuing them - all evaded, zero hits. The German sub commanders also stay away from the coast (mostly) so we have to rely on carrier air strikes only. At least the British admiralty did chose to build the Illustrious a few turns earlier (event ship).

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1940

Mighty German tanks are ploughing through the French lines. There are many severely damaged French units now which are mere ghosts and which we cannot repair any more (still negative French PP). We assemble them further south and will use them later to extract at least a few APs from the Germans. The Germans also noticed a weak unit in the Maginot line that could not be repaired and it became victim of a German breakthrough. Soon all French units in the east will have to fall back.

The naval war was again a frustrating experience for the Allied navies with zero hits even though every carrier did have a target. In exchange the German land based A/C damaged some RN vessels when hunting subs too close to the shore.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1940

The big picture in France. It looks bleak....The Maginot line has been abandoned and German tanks approach Paris, Lille has fallen and Dunkirk is at the mercy of the Germans. Allied tactical air switched to ground attacks on German tank corps and could damage them a bit. Guderian used to be a 20SP. Germany at "hard" will have to repair them with precious PPs.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1940

In order to distract the French civilians from the looming disaster, Allied authorities disclose news of naval victories. It will not save France but finally a few good news...

[Chocolino]

July 24th, 1940

(I created my screenshots while too far zoomed out this time - sorry.)

Italy has entered the war as the latest Axis member. And some minor action ensued near Tripoli. The front in the French/Italian Alps is still calm and Italy did not move forward at all here. It looks even as if they withdrew troops - probably for campaigns elsewhere (e.g. in North Africa, Yugoslavia is also possible soon). The French have sighted an Italian troop transport near Tripoli but no aircraft of carrier could reach them.

The Germans have captured Reims as key suppply point for their push to Paris. The French want to last out for a few more weeks in order to help out the British. (Not sure if a late fall or winter Sealion is penalized in the game via weather effects etc. - so I don't know if holding out longer will have an effect beyond the British having more preparation time.)

[Chocolino]

August 9th, 1940

The protection of convoys in both, Atlantic and the Med feels an overwhelming task right now with the Italian RM also joining in - especially with the prospect of loosing the French navy soon. Too many PPs go toward replacing merchant shipping. The ocean is full of Axis subs operating very successfully against convoys and our hit rate by carrier based aircraft is too low to make a real difference. (I would be interested in learning later if the German subs outproduced the losses at this point. I think this aspect of the game - the naval war on economics and supply - is getting really interesting compared to ToW where it was treated somewhat step-childishly.)

[freeboy]

did u guys stop this one?

[Chocolino]

Thank you for checking. No - not stopped at all. I was just traveling this week and also don't plan to report on every single turn. There will be a new update soon.

[Chocolino]

August 24th, 1940

France has become a mopping-up operation for the Germans. The big tank corps are not in sight any more and we worry about were they will go next.....

The British in Africa have severe supply problems ever since the RM joined the hunt for merchant vessels. Hence no active operations can be undertaken against Lybia. A good portion of the Allied Navys hunt raiders in the Med.

Russia - still neutral - is busy building defenses. The few available units seem to get lost in the huge country. We want to have a good in-depth defense but are not even close to field a single continuous front line. Recruiting of Infantry units is a priority over repairing fancy expensive tank units which are outclassed by the German Panzer anyways. Russia accepted a single Bolshevist Industrialization event when her social unrest approached 100%. So the WE is not at 45%.

The US is funding R&D.

[freeboy]

remember the red army goes to nothing for like tend turns.. so dont waste effort trying to defend infront of kiev minsk pskov...
no real answer if you get attacked well

[Chocolino]

appreciate the hint.

[Chocolino]

September 9th, 1940

Dark times for the Allies - the British have lost one of their priced Carriers to an air attack in the Med.

There are still a few pockets of (weak) resistance in France. But that is more because the German seems to take his time to finish them off.

We hear rumors that there are concentrations of strong Axis forces at the border to Yugoslavia. But no attack has taken place so far.

All British Colony PP convoys have been stopped at the moment since the STP losses are unsustainable. The British are also considering what to do with the supply convoys. Almost no supply gets through in any case so it does not make a difference to stop them while it saves tens of STP per turn.

[Chocolino]

September 24th, 1940

September is over now and we enter fall. Somehow a few French managed to hold out until now. The guessing game as to the Germans next moves is on. Is it too late in the year for an early winter war in Russia? How about a channel crossing during the fall. There is very little intelligence available at Allied HQ and nerves are lying blank.

[Chocolino]

October 9th, 1940

One British corps of the BEF still holds LeHavre. The French still hold Marseilles and the remnants of the French Air Force crossed the Mediterranean southbound and will now help hunt for Italian subs.

The French did enter negotiations of an armistice. But the conditions offered were unacceptable and the French decided to fight on. The French government emigrated to Tunis. They seem to be oblivious to the social unrest in London suburbs that this decision has caused. However, the US and USSR did get a much appreciated boost of their respective war economies as a result of the French will to fight.

In the meanwhile the Germans have declared war on Yugoslavia. Ljubljana was overrun without noticeable resistance and the front is now north of Zagreb. None of the powerful German Panzerkorps have been sighted on the Balkans yet. Is the German preparing for a second operation elsewhere?

[Chocolino]

October 24th, 1940

Yugoslavia is the only active campaign by the Germans while France is winding down. Marseilles has fallen though and Tunisia is under pressure by Italy. The Germans make also steady progress in Yugoslavia. There we lost one Inf. div. near Zagreb but could replace it with a new, freshly drafted one. Narvik is still in Norwegian hands.

From here, many options present themselves for the Germans including an attack on Narvik, Tunis, Egypt, USSR, and the UK. We can't defend against all of them and just sit and wait - and hope for better times in the future.

[Chocolino]

November 9th, 1940

The British public disapproves of the French refusal to surrender and slowly social unrest in the UK increases. (by 1% per turn of which 0.5% heal). The British leadership feels that this is so far a small price to pay for an extra French carrier on the seas hunting aggressive German and Italian subs. But eventually - once the British SU becomes dangerously large - the British leadership will have to give in and will demand a surrender from their French allies.

[Chocolino]

November 24th 1940,

The British lost the pride of their armed forces, their last foothold on the continent with LeHavre. In the meanwhile the Germans also make progress in the Balkans and we see the first more serious German units appear at the border to the USSR.