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Defending the republic – a French AAR

September 1^st, 1939

War descends over Europe-yet again. As the German war machine starts rolling into Poland, the French and British allies stand to the west, far from ready to go to war. Will democracy prevail over the forces of fascism?

The situation of France is far from hopeless. A well-fortified border with Germany, protected by the mighty Maginot line, backed by a massive infantry army and a fair amount of air and armoured support.

The first thing to do will be to assess the overall status of the nation.

Diplomacy

The diplomatic situation sees France allied with the British Commonwealth and Poland, fighting against the Axis of Germany and Slovakia.

Production

The resource situation is not the best. We are running deficits in Energy, Rare materials and Oil; we are only managing a surplus in Metals . It will be a priority to improve this situation by setting up trade deals with our allies.

The only items in our production queue are 1 battleship and 1 destroyer squadron.

Military

We currently have 87 divisions under arms, including 3 Headquarters, 8 mountaineers, 4 armoured, 6 motorized infantry, 6 cavalry and 60 infantry division. While this might seem an impressive number, many of the divisions are outdated and need upgrading.

The Air Force consists of 9 interceptors, 4 tactical bombers, 3 naval bombers and 1 close air support squadron.

Naval forces number 1 carrier, 3 battleships, 21 cruisers and 36 squadrons of destroyers, submarines and transports.

The diplomatic game

We are blessed with a mighty alliance with many potential trading partners. Within 2 days of the German war declaration, the British offer to supply us with enough resources to cover our deficits, of course we graciously accept.
 

Our next move is to negotiate with the UK about the exchange of Blueprints for important technologies, which will aid us in developing them faster. We offer to supply them with improved versions of ships and airplanes in return for 2 important brigade technologies, early artillery and improved anti-aircraft brigades. Both will give our divisions an added punch against German land and air power.

Another thing that we need to do is to reorganize our government. Many members of the French cabinet are not optimal choices for our situation-we mainly need Industrial power and combat bonuses offered by ministers. A number of top positions are reassigned to optimize industrial output and the organization of our forces

Also, we choose to take one step to a hawk lobby in our government to receive an additional organization boost for our forces.

Researching the theory

To stand a chance against any German attack, we must immediately improve the quality of our forces in the field. In the face of severe time shortage, we opt to go for upgrades to the existing divisions rather than for new ones.

Also to this end, our research mostly goes into infantry doctrines and brigade attachments, which will enhance the fighting power of our infantry. The blueprints gained from the British will help us reduce the time needed for the research.
 

Producing the means

The German menace on our borders naturally  calls for an immediate building program on our part. Unfortunately, our Industrial Capacity is severely strained by the need to upgrade and reinforce many of our infantry and cavalry divisions.

But we need added firepower to stop the German attack, which will surely come.  Most troublesome is the air situation, our fighters are mostly short-ranged and outdated and we must therefore anticipate German control of the skies over the battlefield. To counter this, we order 2 serial runs of 2 anti-air brigade attachments as well as 2 serial runs of 3 artillery brigades together with 2 times 3 infantry divisions. Although this building program will greatly strain our industry, we feel that we will have a better chance against the Germans with the newly produced stuff.

Going to War

With the groundwork for the war done, we begin issuing the first orders to our forces.

Our first actions are to assign our fighters to Air superiority missions over the Maginot line in order to preserve the morale of our soldiers and to fend off any German attempts to bomb our forces.

Likewise, our Atlantic naval forces stationed at Brest receive orders to conduct Anti-Submarine Warfare in the English Channel, in case any German submarines decide to break through and threaten our convoy routes.
 

Our army Also undergoes major redeployments. Our mobile forces are pulled out of their infantry corps and re-organized behind the front to serve as a mobile reaction group. Their commander will be General de Gaulle, the father of French tank warfare.
 

With most of our forces stationed behind the mighty Maginot line, things look good for the republic. But it turns out that our fighter cover is insufficient, as German bombers continually attack our precious headquarters while German fighter intercept the French pilots before they can engage the bombers.

As a reaction, the production of an added 4 squadrons of Interceptors is ordered. We choose Interceptors because they are our most advanced fighter model and despite their short range, they offer the best chance to deal with the German bomber threat. We just hope that the Germans will leave us enough time to strengthen our defenses.
 

On September 24^th, the Germans surprise us with a two-pronged attack on Strassbourg. Poland fell  only 10 days earlier and that the Germans would switch their attention west on us this quickly  was not expected. Oh well.

The attack is made by 17 enemy divisions, mostly infantry; against 6 French infantry and 2 cavalry divisions. Although our forces are behind the Maginot line, we opt to play it safe and order our forces in Metz to support the defense in Strassbourg.

The battle is short, and victory is ours. But the attack was not deliberate, rather a probe to test our defenses. We can only hope for more time to build up our defenses.

Unfortunately, the German Luftwaffe continues its offensive against our forces and although our anti-aircraft guns take a heavy toll on the German planes, our organization suffers greatly.

As a short-term means to improve our defenses at the German border, we choose to strip the 7 infantry divisions left in the south of their brigades and attach them to the garrison troops in the Maginot line. We hope that they will aid us against the German Air and possibly ground assault on the line.

The Battle for France

On October 15, our fears become reality. The Germans have no intention of giving us the time needed to fully prepare our defenses. Again they choose Strassbourg as their target, where 6 lone divisions hold the Maginot line due to re-organization of the field army-a mistake, as soon found.

51 German divisions, including several armoured formations converge on Strassbourg from 3 provinces.

We immediately order all available forces to aid the defense of the province, but the reserve divisions we can muster are not fast enough to take part in the battle. After only 8 hours of fighting, Strassbourg falls to the German invaders.

At once we choose to start a counteroffensive against the province in order to liberate it before significant German forces can move in. The mobile corps under de Gaulle with 12 armoured and motorized divisions is ordered to attack supported by 24 mountain and infantry divisions. Defending are 24 German divisions, including 4 armor units.

But it is not enough. Superior Organization carries the day for the Germans, as our French forces crumble under the constant air bombing of the Luftwaffe. Within a week, Mulhouse and Chaumont fall to a German offensive, and our forces struggle to maintain a solid frontline.

But the German offensive turns out to be unstoppable for our demoralized forces. At the start of November, German panzers have broken through our second line of defense and surrounded a substantial portion of our army at Metz, while our remaining units desperately try to screen Paris from the German advance. Hopes are now very low, and only a miracle can save France from falling to the Germans.

After another week of heavy fighting, the Germans finally wipe out our remaining forces in Metz, after taking heavy casualties themselves. Yet without air cover or supplies, our divisions did not stand a chance against massed German air and ground assault.

The frontline now runs at the doorstep of Paris, and while our army is fighting hard, our remaining air force desperately tries bombing the German armoured units in order to stop their advance.

On November 10, the first newly produced Brigades finally come off the lines, and are promptly thrown into the final stand of Paris. Unfortunately, it seem as though they will  come too late to make a difference.

Finally, the last stand around Paris took place on November 19. In a galant battle, the remaining French forces fought the Germans for nearly 2 days, but finally had to give way to superior organization and technology.

Meanwhile, throughout the war, the French navy, led by the carrier Jean Bart, has made numerous incursions into the North Sea and the German coast. Goal was the destruction of the German fleet and submarine arm.

After several victorious battles, the German Kriegsmarine had been confined to port, and the carrier began air-to-ground operations against the ports at Kiel and Wilhelmshafen, dealing severe damage to German naval forces.

Unfortunately, in the end this did not matter, as on December 6, the last French resistance on European soil ended with the evacuation of 4 armoured and 2 motorized divisions under General de Gaulle from Cherbourg.

After only 3 months of war, and only 7 weeks after the start of the German offensive, France is fully controlled by the Germans.

Even though the motherland is defeated, General de Gaulle has pledged to return one day and bring defeat to the German aggressors, and he will, but this is another story.

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