User Guide

Like Suomussalmi, if you are playing in campaign mode, this scenario encour-
ages a balanced core combat group. Infantry is very important here.
Sedan
The German plan for the 1940 campaign in the west centered around a strike
through the dense Ardennes forest, and emerging at Sedan to drive across France
to the English Channel. Sedan represented a formidable barrier to these plans, with
the Meuse River and some pre-war fortifications to help the French defenders.
The German force here was one of the best. It consisted of two elite, full-
strength panzer divisions, another fairly good panzer division, and an elite
independent regiment. Historically, these forces (the XIX Panzer Corps) were
led by the famous General Heinz Guderian, the father of blitzkrieg theory. At
Sedan he proved that he was no mere paper theorist.
Along with some reservists, better classed as an armed rabble, the French had
some good units to oppose the Germans, including reinforcement by an armored
division with better tanks than the German panzers. The French lacked the com-
bined arms practices of the German panzer divisions, and when their tanks ran
out of fuel, which happened rather quickly, they had to depend on vulnerable
tanker trucks to refuel them, rather than the gas cans used by the Germans.
CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES: Blitzkrieg 60
Suomussalmi
PANZER GENERAL II is designed to give players the opportunity to fight in all
types of climates and conditions, and this one presents quite a challenge. The
Soviet juggernaut looked unstoppable as it rolled into central Finland late in
1939. The invaders even brought along a brass band to serenade the oppressed
workers of the Suomussalmi district.
However, the Finns struck back furiously, surrounding and destroying one Soviet
division after it captured the town of Suomussalmi, and then giving the same
treatment to a second Soviet division that tried to rescue the first one. The bat-
tle is still used as a training exercise at military academies around the world.
No German troops fought in the actual battle. The Finnish government begged for-
eign nations for aid, especially Britain and France, and hoped to see some troops
arrive in time to fight the Soviets. Although Germany and the Soviet Union had
signed a non-aggression pact and acted as unofficial allies during this period, the
presence of German troops under a “volunteer” facade was not at all out of the
question. Soldiers and airmen from Germany’s Axis partners Italy and Hungary
fought on the Finnish side as volunteers, as did about 8,000 Swedish troops.
Lillehammer
During the First World War, the German Navy proved unable to break out of the
North Sea and Germany slowly starved to death under Allied blockade. The next
time, German planners made sure they’d have open access to the Atlantic - and
to year-round shipments of Swedish iron ore - by seizing Norway.
Lillehammer, now known as a winter sports mecca, sits astride the most impor-
tant communication routes of south-central Norway. German troops sought to
drive northward up the long mountain valleys from Oslo toward Trondheim, and
the other Atlantic ports. The Norwegians, with some British help, dug in to try
to stop them.
Officially, only one Norwegian division fought in this battle, but it seems to
have had significant help from reservists arriving at the front, and Norwegian
soldiers escaping from another division surrounded to the west of this battle-
field. The Norwegian infantry fought hard and made good use of the incredibly
mountainous terrain, but had little artillery and nothing to stop even the light
tanks deployed by the Germans.
While their British allies did not make nearly as good a showing, the Norwegian
troops fought very well. It finally took a landing by paratroopers in their rear
area to dislodge the Norwegians from their positions.
59 CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES: Blitzkrieg