May 11, 1940 found the Germans advancing rapidly east through the Ardennes region and surprising elements of the French 1st Division Légères de Cavalerie along the Lomme River. Units from the 7th Panzer Division and 32nd Infantry engaged the unsuspecting French cavalry around noon as the Germans continued their westward march. The French plan called for blowing all the bridges across the Lomme with single north and south engineer platoons responsible for the bridges in their sector. The first bridge in the south was destroyed by 1230, but progress was slower in the north, where the first bridge wasn’t blown until 1330. The German combined arms force on both the north and south flanks of the French position struck quickly, but the doughty French delayed them with their armored cars and 25mm portees. By 1400 hours, the Germans were in striking distance of one of the north bridges, which was being defended by motorcycle units and cavalry that moved quickly to fill the breech. By 1430, all the bridges in the south town were destroyed, and the engineers there headed north along with any available French units on either side of the river. Fighting was intense by the last remaining north bridge, but French cavalry moved quickly and held the easy bridgehead. The Germans moved both engineers to prepare crossings about 1 Km to the south, and French units scrambled to try and interrupt the crossings there. At 1515, the last French 25mm portee was eliminated, giving field superiority to German armor, and all German units were converging on the two crossing points. However, by 1545 both engineer units had been disrupted and crossings were suspended of and on for the remainder of the skirmish. By 1615, a Pz.I group had eliminated the last French engineer platoon before they could destroy the only remaining bridge, but the French troops held the bridge, albeit barely, until the Germans stood down for the day.

This 20-turn scenario is an excellent combined arms exercise as it provides both sides with a diverse mix of armor, artillery and foot units, with the latter including both cavalry and engineers. As in other early Fall of France scenarios, the French are tasked with stopping the German westward flow by interdiction and/or bridge destruction. The sheer number of German forces and the quality of their firepower makes this a tall order for the French, e.g German OBA is 48 compared to 16 for the French. One tough decision at setup for the French is whether to provide trucks for the French HMG’s because of their limited mobility or to the engineers, so they could move quickly from bridge to bridge. If the French can blow all the bridges early and force the Germans to use their engineers to cross the Lomme, the outcome looks much brighter for them. French armored cars and cavalry were used to move quickly to “hot spots” in the early game, and the 25mm portees started out with some high-value Panzer strikes. But the German forces have enough power and mobility also to wear down the French defenses and, if the bridges aren’t destroyed early enough, the Germans may come pouring across. The Germans also enjoyed a major initiative advantage as the French did not have the first move until the 10th turn., while the Germans often had 2-3 actions before the French could respond. That trend reversed as the French had the initiative on 6/10 remaining turns. In the end, this turned out to be a Major French Victory, a result that I never would have expected. While the dispersal of French units on both banks of the Lomme worked out pretty well in the end, their success was also aided by some remarkable die rolls for a single mortar unit and the relatively weak French OBA. In contrast the German OBA kept getting weak hits despite rolling on the “42” column much of the time. The scenario is a lot of fun, as the balance is surprising, and the tension is always there with the Germans pressing to gain the bridges while the French try to slow them by whatever means possible. French units blocked roads forcing turn-consuming assaults or longer journeys for the Germans. The final count was 24 steps lost for each side with the Germans only managing 14 steps west of the Lomme; if the Germans had one more step west of the river, the French victory would have slipped to Minor.