Eighty years on. 7th June 1940

Historical

Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division and 5th Panzer Division continued their drive down the Channel coast towards Rouen. Further East, General Kleist’s Panzers met stiff resistance and made no progress between Amiens and Péronne.

At Narvik more British troopships embarked 5,200 troops overnight.  Slower ships with supplies and equipment left Narvik.   The troopships that departed yesterday with 15,000 troops on board were spotted by German reconnaissance planes but mistaken for empty supply ships returning to England, possibly due to the single escort vessel, HMS Vindictive.  Admiral Marschall’s German flotilla did not attack the convoy, instead stopping to refuel.

Off Narvik, RAF pilots, untrained in aircraft carrier landings, managed to safely land ten Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes onto the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious.

The Norwegian King Haakon VII, his son Crown Prince Olav and members of the Norwegian government left Tromsø  for exile in England on the British cruiser HMS Devonshire.

U-48 sank the British SS Francis Massey, carrying 7500 tons of iron ore, and damaged the British SS Eros off the north coast of Ireland.

A single aircraft from the French Navy bombed Berlin in a night raid. The Farman 223.4 “Jules Verne” lingered over the city for as long as possible to create the impression of more than one aircraft, then dropped its bomb load over some factories in Berlin’s north end.

Game day 281.  Britain, its empire and dominions.

The British Empire collected 29 industrial resources.

The last remaining armoured battalion of the BEF was transported back to Britain.  The four newly-arrived infantry battalions moved south-east to position AS31.

Four squadrons of fighters attacked German infantry at AW30, east of Paris.  The German battalion was eliminated at the loss of one squadron.  Two bomber squadrons from Britain attacked two armoured battalions at AV28, near the Belgian coast.  One battalion was eliminated but one squadron lost in return.

The five infantry battalions in Narvik were embarked for return to Britain.  The battleship sailing from Gibraltar reached the Central Mediterranean, south of Sicily, while the troop convoy from Australia passed into the Red Sea, off Italian East Africa.

The German transport ship in harbour in Denmark was sunk by British submarines.

A lone merchantman departed from Canada with 3 industrial points bound for Britain.  Two warships were sent from Portsmouth to meet and escort her.

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.