Eighty years on. 29th May 1940

Historical

Over 33,000 British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk harbour and nearly 14,000 from the beaches. As the weather cleared, the Luftwaffe strafed and bombed the ships and the waiting soldiers.  Despite Göring’s promise, it became clear that the Luftwaffe was unable to prevent the evacuation going ahead because of both RAF patrols and anti-aircraft fire from Royal Navy ships.

The British destroyer HMS Wakeful was torpedoed by the German torpedo boat S-30 north of Nieuport and sank immediately.  Over 700 crew and rescued soldiers were killed.  HMS Grafton was torpedoed by U-62 with few losses.  HMS Comfort was mistaken for another torpedo boat and rammed by HMS Lydd.

The destroyer HMS Grenade was hit by three bombs (one going down her funnel) at the east mole at Dunkirk.  Alongside Grenade, the destroyer HMS Jaguar was badly damaged by a bomb. The minesweeper HMS Waverley, carrying around 600 troops just rescued from the beaches, was also bombed and sank with about 350 men lost.

The Germans captured Lille, Ostend and Ypres.

U-37 sank the French steamer Marie José and the British oil tanker Telena  off Cape Finisterre.

The Swedish Home Guard was created.

Game day 272.  Germany

In the North Atlantic the two German warships pursued and sank the last remaining ship from the supply convoy heading for Britain.

In Norway the three battalions at Narvik dug in and waited for the expected British attack.

On the western front a breakthrough was needed, but the enemy had strong forces available.  An all-out assault was made on the five French armoured battalions on the Belgian border at AW29 using six armoured and six infantry battalions.  The French were eliminated for the loss of one armoured and one infantry battalion.

Four fighter and six bomber squadrons attacked the twelve battalions of the BEF behind the French armour.  The British lost one infantry and one armoured battalion, but the Luftwaffe lost 2 fighter and one bomber squadrons.

Further south three infantry battalions supported by three fighter squadrons attacked three defending infantry battalions.  Here the French lost 2 battalions and retreated.  There were no German casualties.

Reinforcements continued to move westwards through Germany.

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.