Britain Week 35, 1914
Battle of Mons
The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British army attempted to hold the line of the Mons-Condé Canal against the advancing German First Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically-superior Germans, they were eventually forced to retreat due both to the greater strength of the Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army, which exposed the British right flank.
BEF Headquarter, City of Mons, Belgium August 23 (well, it's really August 30ish, we one week behind compared with real WW1).
General Haig and Field Marshal Sir John French reading last French Report
F. -- General Haig!
H. -- Sir, yes Sir!
F. -- French wonder why the niether the Neutrals nor the British are helping Liege....
H. -- I beg your pardon? You mean you, Sir John French wonder WHY we sit on this hill for the 4rd turn in a row? I was the one who advised action from the very beginning!
F. -- No General! I mean French French,
not me French. We cannot risk any action at the moment. Take a look at German Army sieging Liege:
F. -- What can we do with 3 Corps and 2 guns? They got 16/19 Corps commanded by Falkenhayn, base defense 15 against my Corps 27/27 with base attack 11. We have no chance!
H. --Sir! We simply cannot procrastinate any further! Brave Belgians are yellowlined. Germans got Skoda Bombard 35 gun with crazy rate of fire. I am willing to bombard and attack Falkenhayn with my 27/27 Corps, and you can attack 11/17 Rupprecht. Gen. Plumer than can attack any Elite division on the top of the stack, and we retreat to Calais, which will be lended to us next turn, I hope!
F. --All right then. But you go first! It is not fit for Field Marshal to die so early in the game, I mean, War!
And so starts the very first battle for BEF. Counterbattery artillery kills monster Siege Gun. Armored car and light gun score 2 hits on Falkenhayn (14/19 now). Brave Haig gets yellowlined but defeats Germans. What a victory! Reluctant (27/27) French rushes on 11/17 Rupprecht. British score first hits, but gradually both Corps get yellowlined. Germans go red first, they down to 2 hit points, while English still on their last yellow dot. And then British loose point after point after point, while Germans loose none! Filed Marshal French killed in action! What a twist of luck!
Plumer Corps take care of Elite Guard Unit, no prisoners though. Indeed a glorious battle!
In Baltic British Submarine Flotila dies while attacking her second Old Battleship, even though odds favor British!
A mine gets cleared near the danish coast. 2 destroyers with Survivors arrive to London, contrubuting 2000 gold to British funds and 2000 ponts for Entante VP pifggy bank. Another abandoned Survivors from submarine attack picked near Norway.
Old coastal submarines arrive to main naval base Scapa Flow for upgrading to the regular Sea-going submarines. They still cannot go Ocean, though.
British Admiralty laments the death of Engadine, our only Seaplane carrier, which was used to scout Heligoland Bite. Apparentely I mis-clicked something, and unit was left outside of the stack of Grand Fleet, blocading Germans!
Italy Week 36, 1914
Duke Acosta Corps kill lonely German Reserve Division in Isonzo valley. Victorious Italian Fleet returns to Naval Base in Taranto to recuperate in 1 turn.
)
