Historical
At Narvik British, French, Polish and Norwegian forces attacked across the Rombaksfjord from Oyord in landing craft and by land from the East and West. Naval bombardment of German positions began at midnight, aided by the broad daylight at this latitude. The French Foreign Legion came ashore with five French light tanks at 12.15 AM. The Luftwaffe arrived at 4.30 AM, forcing the Allied fleet to withdraw and damaging the command vessel cruiser Cairo with two bombs. Narvik was in Allied hands by midday after several hours of back and forth hand-to-hand fighting.
Just after midnight, King Leopold III as Commander-in-Chief accepted Hitler’s terms and surrendered the Belgian Army. He consulted neither the allies nor the Belgian government.
While heavy fighting raged around the perimeter of Dunkirk, nearly 12,000 allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk harbour and almost another 6,000 from the beaches. A flotilla of British fishing boats and small pleasure craft arrived to assist in the rescue. The small boats were used to get into shallow water and ferry men out to the larger warships for the journey to England.
At Lille 40,000 French soldiers of the First Army were surrounded by seven German divisions including three armoured divisions.
Near Abbeville, the French Char B1 Bis tank ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ remained functional after suffering ninety hits in two hours.
U-37 sank the French liner SS Brazza West of Cape Finisterre. German submarine U-121 was commissioned.
Game day 271. USA
The convoy loaded with supplies for China continued en route between the Hawaiian and Caroline Islands.
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 