On May 12, 1940, elements of the rapidly advancing 4th Panzer Division approached the village of Crechen, where they encountered units from the 3rd Division Légères Méchanique. The French armor group consisted of Hotchkiss H39 tanks, which were supported by dragoon, HMG and AT platoons. The French drew first blood around 0930 hours when an 25mm AT platoon that was concealed by some woods damaged an Sk.222. Shortly thereafter, a German Pz.IVA penetrated the armor of a French tank commanded by Cpt. Ste-Marie Perrin, but the French 25mm responded again and destroyed the Pz.IVA in short order. The battle settled into a series of armor exchanges and assaults by the French foot units until 1115, at which time the French has eliminated a number of the lightly-armored Pz.I’s and Pz.II’s. The French then began an orderly regroupment of those units that could be gathered, while the German Pz.IIIF platoons attempted to surround the remaining French H39 units. By 1345, the remaining French units were scattered and demoralized, but they had delated the German onslaught long enough to give a moral victory for their heroes. Two H39 platoons still remained at full strength; however, one had retreated and the other was now trapped behind the German front line with little chance of survival before capture. The German Pz.IIIF’s were unscathed, but several Pz. I & II platoons were under strength due to the precision fire of the French armor crews.

This scenario is an excellent introduction to armor fire and movement. The French H39 tanks are remarkably resilient and, despite their limited firepower, were able to inflict some serious damage on the lesser-armored Pz. I and II units. With tank steps being worth double, the French accuracy led to an early lead that allowed them to go into a more defensive posture. The Germans only have two Pz.IIIF units, the ones that are most capable of inflicting damage on the H39’s, but all the German armored units have a range advantage over the French. The difficulty is finding LOS to attack the H39’s from 4-5 hexes as the field of battle is rather busy. The French have the advantage of foot units that can get into assault when the Panzers try to get crossfire shots on the French armor, another benefit for the French. So, the strategy for the French is to force the Germans to move within the 3-hex AT range of the H39’s, which can be done using terrain and foot units for selective assaults. The Germans have no foot units to cover their armor, and a single Lt. to spot for 16 OBA. This is useful if the Lt. can get in a position to have LOS to the French foot units and potentially inflict some step losses there. All in all, a great scenario with a lot of strategy for a small scenario. The French ended up winning as they took 31 German steps to only 19 French steps lost. The Germans did succeed in controlling 19 of 20 town hexes and, given a few more turns, would have probably finished off the few remaining French units, but there were not enough French units left to compensate for the German losses.