User Guide

An aggressive German drive here is the battle which, from their point of view,
they probably should have waged, and which the rest of the world is thankful
they did not. British propaganda did a masterful job of turning the Dunkirk
evacuation into a victory, but in fact it was a terrible defeat which could have
been even worse. It is the task of the German player to make it so.
Windsor
This battle never happened, but could have, given quicker German success in
France followed by a landing in Great Britain. Only a highly successful German
player sees this scenario in the course of the campaign.
Assuming the German forces could get across the English Channel in the face
of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, both of which could be expected to
resist literally to the last man, ship, and plane, they would have to establish
a beachhead and drive inland. Once ashore, the prize would be London, the
British capital and industrial center.
The British could be expected to pour every possible reinforcement into the
battle for London. The Germans would have to isolate the great city before they
could even contemplate the block-by-block conquest. To do so, the road and
rail net leading to the important ports and industrial centers to the west and
north of London would have to be cut. Many of these run near Windsor, to the
west of London, and in this scenario the German player must cut these lines
against fanatical British resistance.
There is also an opportunity for the German player to land in England in 1943,
following the defeat of the Soviet Union. While this scenario takes place on
the same map, the forces involved are quite different. The British defenders of
1943 are just as determined as those of 1940, but much better armed.
Pursuit To Tobruk
Tobruk is a small port in Libya, not far from the border with Egypt. Allied forces
in Egypt invading the Italian colony of Libya would have to secure this area
before continuing the campaign. Otherwise, there would be no port at which
to land supplies, and forces from Tobruk could easily cut their supply lines run-
ning back to Egypt. The Italians therefore built a modern, well-equipped
fortress at Tobruk in the 1930’s, but the British captured it fairly easily in
1940. When Axis forces led by Erwin Rommel drove the British back out of
Libya into Egypt, they faced the same need to capture Tobruk before continu-
ing their offensive.
CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES: Blitzkrieg 62
Race To Dunkirk
The Allies attempted to hold back the panzers from the beach zone, while the
Germans sought to drive forward far enough to bring the evacuation zone under
their control.
Though the Germans had the strategic advantage at this battle, their troops
and equipment were exhausted from the quick drive across northern France.
Meanwhile, the Allied armies, which had retreated from Belgium into the
Dunkirk area, included many of the best French and British units, and a num-
ber of these had seen little or no action. While much has been made of the
German decision to “let the British get away,” in reality, many German com-
manders feared a disastrous result should they push their worn-out,
overextended troops into a battle with the fresh, nearly full-strength Allied
units in the Dunkirk pocket.
61 CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES: Blitzkrieg