Author	Schoenwulf
Method	Solo
Victor	France
Play Date	2021-08-10
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF007

Battle: As elements of Divisions Légères de Cavalerie were ordered to fall back on May 12, 1940, they were pursued doggedly by the Rothenburg and Bismarck groups of the 7th Panzer Division. The French left a handful of dragoon units behind them in Marche-Famenne to cover the two most accessible bridges. At 0845, German HMG and artillery fire led to casualties on the north bridge, which was quickly reinforced in an effort to delay the German advance; however, German units pushed the dragoons off the central bridge by 0900 and controlled all three bridges by 0915. The large number of German units created some congestion due to a staunch defense by Lt. Gireaux with his dragoon platoons and 25mm portee units. By 1130, the Germans had a pontoon bridge north of Marche. With all four bridges operational, they had many units 2-3 Km west of Marche, but the main east/west road was still being obstructed by dragoon platoons that were holding their ground despite the loss of both portee units. At 1245, Lt. Gireaux fell, but his men still held both of their checkpoints. Over the next half hour, the French positions were lost, and the Germans headed westward. By 1400, the Germans continued to charge west and had cleared a key village of two 75mm French artillery units; however, the French engineers had reached Dinant and already had destroyed two of the five bridges into town. The German officers, seeing the smoke rising from the blown bridges with the day fleeting, urged their troops shouting “Bewegen! Bewegen Sie sich schneller! “. The race to the Meuse was on. Now the French chasseur and escadron units took over the delay tactics from the beleaguered dragoons. By 1530, a small number of German units had turned the north flank of the French line, but the chasseurs moved quickly to plug the gap. Shortly after 1700 hours, the French went to full retreat mode, and by 1730, the only bridge left across the Meuse was the one north of Dinant at Bouvignes-sur-Meuse. German motorcycle units found a backroad to the south and were in sight of the last bridge and engaging French forces on the east side of the river south of the bridge. As daylight was waning (1930 hours), they began to direct artillery barrages on the French units west of the Meuse. By 2030, the Germans had four Panzer units ready to fire on the engineers in the Bouvignes bridge, but the engineers blew the bridge first. After that, French HMG and AT fire seemed to erupt from everywhere in the town and surrounding woods, stunning the advancing Germans. Darkness fell just as a French cavalry platoon made it across a pontoon bridge arranged by the French engineers.

Analysis: This scenario is a 7-map monster with a diverse unit force on both sides. It is 52 turns., which allows for extensive move and fire actions for both sides. All hill and field hexes are considered as woods, so LOS is very difficult when bombardment or aircraft are in play, and off-road travel is slowed for all units and not available for the wheeled ones. This makes it critical for the Germans to clear the roads as quickly as possible. For the first few hours, the French played a delaying action with their more mobile units, while setting up and digging in other units along the east/west road. Although there was a lot of unit congestion initially, the German effort was in blitzkrieg mode pushing west as soon as the bridges over the minor river by Marche could be controlled. Since the south bridge was left open, the Germans were eventually able to move foot and armored units along that road after crossing the ridge in the southeast corner of the map. Nonetheless, it took until Turn 9 for all the German units to enter the map. Single French dragoon platoons managed to block two key spots on the roadway despite repeated German assaults and adjacent hex fire. German armor and foot units were able to get around the roadblocks, but all the woods hexes made it difficult for the 23 truckloads of German units to make progress until the road was cleared. Once the German forces are all in play and well west of Marche, they represent a formidable force, having greater firepower, numbers and mobility on their side. Then, the real race to the Meuse begins, as the French need to get as many of their units west of the river while slowing the German advance. By Turn 20, the French had two engineer platoons prepared to begin to blow some of the south bridges; at the halfway point of the game, they had blown two of them with a third soon to follow. By Turn 39, all five south bridges were blown, and two French engineer platoons were just waiting until the time to attempt to blow the last (north) bridge. The last bridge was blown on Turn 49 leaving some French units stranded and giving VP’s to the Germans, but it had to be done as German units were adjacent to the bridge at that point. After that, the French had some very fortuitous die rolls in both assaults east of the river and AT shots. Neither side used smoke, and the French were helped by approx. half the turns ending early due to FOW. At game end, the French had exited 6 steps, had 22 more undemoralized steps west of the Meuse and had eliminated 48 German steps for a total of 76 VP’s; the Germans had eliminated 55 French steps with another 11 steps held east of the Meuse for a total of 66 VP’s. The 10 VP differential resulted in a French Minor Victory. One change that would be made if this were replayed would be to position the French H-35’s and portees closer to the Meuse, so that they could avoid early contact with the panzers. They represent 16 VP’s, so it would be better to use the 25 and 75mm guns up front, since they are only worth a single VP each. From the Axis standpoint, the units are probably best left on foot entering the map so that they can clear the east bridges and woods to provide a clear road for the trucks. That tactic may have sped up the German advance, but the large number of woods hexes is a general impediment to the German advance. While it may seem strange to rate such a complex scenario as excellent, this one is! It really gives the sense of an army in retreat trying to save units against an overwhelming force. The balance is handled well through the VP allotments, and it was very possible for this to go either way throughout the entire 52 turns.