Eighty years on. 9th May 1940

Historical

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain suggested a coalition with the opposition Labour party to form a National Government.  The refused.  He later met with Winston Churchill and Lord Halifax to determine a successor.  After an awkward meeting, it was clear that Churchill would take over, not least because Halifax would be unable to attend the House of Commons.

Germany made final plans to advance on a broad front along its Western border from Luxembourg to the North Sea.  

Belgium declared a state of emergency and placed its military on alert.

The Royal Family of Luxembourg and most of its government fled to France due to reports of German troop movements.

In France, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud threatened to resign over the handling of the war by General Maurice Gamelin.

At Narvik, the Polish Podhale Brigade arrived.  The Poles and French Chasseurs Alpins moved to positions west of Narvik to reinforce the South Wales Borderers.  Allied support weapons in the Narvik area amounted to 24 75mm and 25pr guns and 10 light tanks.

U-9 torpedoed and sank the French submarine Doris off the Dutch coast.

The British destroyer HMS Kelly, captained by Lord Louis Mountbatten, was on patrol in the Skagerrak with the cruiser HMS Birmingham and destroyers HMS Kandahar, Bulldog, Kimberley and Hasty, searching for German warships and troop transports.  They were attacked by five torpedo boats and Kelly was hit amidships and badly damaged.

The age of conscription in the United Kingdom was raised to 36.

British troops occupied Iceland.

Game day 252.  China

China collected 4 Industrial resource Points.

Twelve infantry battalions headed north-east towards Peking, while the remainder of the Chines army, twelve infantry and twelve armoured battalions moved to the south-east.  Six armoured battalions engaged six Japanese infantry battalions in Kwangtung.  Two Japanese battalions were wiped out for the loss of four Chinese.

Credits:   Historical information:  http://www.worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com, Wikipedia, Chronicle of the Second World War (JL International Publications, 1994).  Background image to game maps: Hasbro Ltd.