Historical
In “Unternehmen Juno” the German cruiser Admiral Hipper sank the British tanker Oil Pioneer and the escorting armed trawler HMS Juniper. Later, the Admiral Hipper sank the empty British troopship Orama) but spared the hospital ship Atlantis. Atlantis obeyed the rules of war and did not radio any signals.
French and Polish troops pulled out of their pursuit of Dietl’s force towards Sweden overnight and returned to Narvik, leaving dummies to fool the Germans. British troopships embarked the final 4,600 British, French and Polish troops and left Narvik, escorted by the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the cruisers HMS Southampton and HMS Coventry and eleven destroyers. The convoy was spotted by German reconnaissance aircraft and bombed continuously until out of range but without damage. Germans quickly retook Narvik.
The Juno force encountered the ships evacuating Narvik. HMS Glorious sailed for Scapa Flow, screened by the destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta. 170 miles off the Norwegian coast they ran into the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The battleships opened fire at a range of 24km. Glorious was hit by several 11” shells, preventing aircraft taking off. Ardent and Acasta made smoke and closed on the German battleships, firing their 4.7” guns and torpedoes but both ships were hit. Acasta hit Scharnhorst with a torpedo. All three British ships were sunk, and Admiral Wilhelm Marschall on his flagship Gneisenau ordered his flag lowered to half-mast to honour the crews of the British destroyers.
In France, 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions crossed the River Seine. 5th Panzer Division captured Rouen. Further east, Kleist’s 14th Panzer Corp broke through at Amiens, but 16th Panzer Corp was still held at Péronne by French 7th Army, showing the true fighting character of the French troops and the effectiveness of the defensive “hedgehogs”. The British 51st Highland Division was cut off with its back to the sea.
Game day 282. Japan
Japan collected twelve industrial resources.
In an attempt to drive the last Chinese forces out of Kwangtung, four infantry battalions moved west to Map reference DK37 on the Manchukuo/Kwangtung border and attacked the two Chines battalions at DK38. The attack failed with the Japanese losing one battalion. Six bomber squadrons from Manchukuo attacked the six Chinese battalions at DL38. Two squadrons were lost, but the Chinese lost five of the six battalions. This raid was followed up by an attack by six infantry battalions marching from Peking. The last Chinese battalion at DL38 was eliminated.
Further south, at DL43, three infantry battalions crossed the border into China to attack a single armoured battalion. This attack was also unsuccessful and one battalion was lost in the attack.
Further south again, four armoured and two infantry battalions attacked two Chinese armoured battalions at DL47. The Chinese armour was destroyed and the Japanese lost one infantry battalion in the attack.
Six fighter squadrons were moved from Japan to Manchukuo to support the fighting along the China/Kwangtung border. Six more battalions were raised in Okinawa and transports send from Shanghai to collect them.
Twelve armoured battalions and six infantry battalions were deployed in Japan, ready to be shipped to Kwangtung.
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 