The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron II AAR

Patience. Soon have the update you will, hmm.

This lack of grammar, you have, is not good, no, it is not.

Punctuation have will you.

I spectulate Kan cant post because he's fallen in love sweet love. It's the only thing there's just too little of. Aparently.

ahh lurve...

the killer to all gaming, evening in on the PC or evening in in the bed. No contest.

My only love is to my King and country.

Update shall be Wednesday, as I have the whole day off.

I guess you commonwealth folks have Labor Day on the proper date(May 1st) instead of the wrong date like here in the US.

Labour Day, and no here in Canada it was today too, except I had to work

CFC Strike, mayhaps?

sir_schwick said:

I guess you commonwealth folks have Labor Day on the proper date(May 1st) instead of the wrong date like here in the US.

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we dont have labour day in the UK as I recall

International Worker's Day!?!?!?!

5th June 1940
The Battle of Dunkirk


British tanks race back amidst the wrecks of their comrades

At 1400 - a mere three hours since battle had begun - the entire BEF was now battling Bock’s Second Army Group. The British Armoured forces had failed in their initial attack, and the fate of the 1st CFC Division now depended on British forces at Lille to protect their eastern flank.

Those forces consisted of 4 infantry divisions (including Anzac forces) as well as an additional armoured division. It was certainly enough to prevent the encirclement of the 1st CFC Division and other British forces at Dunkirk, but it was not enough to halt the defeat that slowly unravelled during the afternoon. Any hopes of holding the line failed even before the sun began to set on the 5th, it was now a case of withdrawing as many troops as safely as possible to Calais.

The Australian forces were the first to go, despite being the last into battle. Hitting the German armoured force from Mons head on, and without any form of heavy-weapon support, they simply broke and fled within hours of entering combat. Fleeing in the wake of the German guns, they left the defence of the rearguard to better prepared British forces. It was these troops that were to hold back the massive amount of German forces pushing at Dunkirk long enough for the divisions in the province to retreat in time.


Australian forces buckle under the pressure

General Davo’s First CFC Division would be the last to leave. They had watched their comrades in the First Division and 2nd Armoured Division push forward in an attempt to halt the German attack, now they had to wait in their trenches for the survivors of the battle to return.

It was waiting in the trenches that was the most frustrating part. With few anti-tank guns between them the bulk of the First CFC had to trust in the accuracy of the artillery brigade behind them. Even then, given the overwhelming amount of panzer forces, there was very little chance that artillery fire could cause any serious damage to Bock’s attack. When the Germans came, British forces could do little but retreat, regardless of orders. Private ArneHD described it as “keeping the trenches warm for when Jerry arrived. Not many of us fired back before running, and I doubt those who did even made it back.”

Despite such problems in defence, the First CFC Division managed to hold off a German breakthrough for over seven hours. It would be of some consolation that, even if defeat was inevitable, it was not the main reason that the final order for withdrawal came through at 2300. Further south-east the province of Valenciennes fell under occupation, giving Germans either a direct route to Paris, or the chance to attempt an encirclement of the BEF. Either way, holding Dunkirk was not strategically sound, and the Allied forces at Lille themselves would need to break off their attack in order to regroup for the expected battle there. On the 6th June the final order was given for all forces in Dunkirk to fall back to Calais, Britain had lost her first battle against the Germans…

This does not bode well gentlemen.
How badly torn up are our Divisions and can any new line we establish expect to hold assuming the Germans focus on us instead of Paris?

the Germans throw a few fire crackers and you all go running?

If I didn't have a busy schedule here in India I'd come whip those troops into shape

You stay in India and protect our tea or i'll come whip you!

this is definitely looking sticky gentlemen.

Any troops south of the german advance have to be brought north of paris, we cant have them enciricled and destroyed in this debacle.

Have we got any chance to regroup on the northern coastline?

There's one more update to do, which I had hoped to have done on Wednesday as well, which will deal with the aftermath of the battle as well as a rather important new development. That update should be on Saturday.

Baited breath and all that old man.

Kan' Sharuminar said:

There's one more update to do, which I had hoped to have done on Wednesday as well, which will deal with the aftermath of the battle as well as a rather important new development. That update should be on Saturday.

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I won't have internet access on Saturday

I had a feeling i'd be last one out....

There goes my June holiday plans!