Historical
French Prime Minister Reynaud telephoned Winston Churchill claimingthat the French were beaten. The Dutch commander General Winkelman signed the surrender of armed forces in the Dutch homeland. At Walcheren the British destroyer HMS Valentine was bombed and damaged so she had to be beached.
British, Belgian and French troops believed that they were facing the bulk of the German army on a line from the Channel coast in Zealand to Sedan. Meanwhile, the tanks of von Rundstedt’s Army Group A prepared to spring the trap. Reinhardt’s two Panzer divisions crossed the Meuse at Monthermé, Guderian began the break out from Sedan and Rommel advanced west from Dinant to Cerfontaine.
At Gembloux the Germans attacked the French line but they were pushed back by 75mm artillery and 25mm anti-tank guns. In four days of attacking the Gembloux Gap the Germans lost about 250 tanks, the equivalent of an entire Panzer division. However, due to the collapse at Sedan, the French pulled back to the Franco-Belgian border overnight.
Following the Rotterdam Blitz, British Bomber Command abandoned the policy banning deliberate bombing of civilian property outside combat zones. In the first bombing of the German homeland, 99 RAF bombers attacked industrial targets at Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr overnight.
Churchill sent a message to President Roosevelt asking for a one-year loan of forty or fifty older destroyers as well as aircraft, antiaircraft guns and steel.
Game day 258. Japan
The convoy from Japan reached Shanghai and unloaded six armoured battalions.
Six infantry battalions crossed into China from Manchkuo. Further south on the Kwangtung border four Japanese infantry battalions attacked two Chinese armoured battalions. No significant casualties were inflicted on either side.
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.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 