Historical
Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division captured Le Havre and then turned back 30 miles north-east up the coast to St-Valery-en-Caux, encircling 46,000 French and British troops. Fog and German shelling had prevented a full-scale evacuation of St-Valery-en-Caux but the destroyer HMS Broke and the corvette HMS Gardenia embarked the wounded. The British troopship Bruges was sunk by German bombing near Le Havre, but with no losses to the crew. Guderian’s panzers captured Reims. Late in the day, Kleist’s forces crossed the Marne at Château-Thierry.
Following Italy’s declaration of war, Italian troops began traversing the Alps towards the French border. Italian forces stationed in Libya and British and Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt began a series of cross-border raids. Armoured cars of the 11th Hussars crossed into Libya and captured Italian prisoners who were as yet unaware that they were at war.
The RAF bombed the El Adem airfield in Italian Libya. The Italians responded a few hours later by bombing Malta.
The RAF conducted an overnight raid on Turin and Genoa. Bombs intended for the Fiat headquarters and manufacturing plant in Turin missed their targets and killed about a dozen civilians near the city centre, an event the Italians publicized as an act of terrorism.
Winston Churchill and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden flew to France for a Supreme War Council meeting at the Chateau du Muguet near Briare. There wa air of French defeatism. Churchill refused a request to transfer more RAF fighter squadrons to France.
Worried at the prospect of a French surrender, Churchill reiterated the agreement of 28th March that neither country would conclude a separate peace with Germany. Admiral François Darlan assured Churchill that the French fleet would not fall into German hands.
Thirty-seven survivors from HMS Glorious and two from HMS Acasta were picked up by the Norwegian trawler Borgund and taken to the Faroe Islands.
U-boats harassed shipping off Cape Finisterre, Spain. U-48 and U-101 sank the Greek SS Violando N. Goulandris and SS Mount Hymettus. U-46 torpedoed the British tanker Athelprince but did not sink her. The German submarine U-124 was commissioned.
Italy severed relations with Norway. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa declared war on Italy.
Game day 285. Norway
The balance of forces in Norway is equal. Norway did not surrender, but with the British gone the Norwegians had insufficient strength to attack the Germans defending Narvik.
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 