End of Turn 4 - Summer 1940
The Germans got the initiative. With the double Summer mech move/combat, I felt confident I could take France out this turn. The question was how to do it with the fewest casualties possible. . .
Unconventionally, I withdrew most of the Luftwaffe out of France - why risk it in a battle where half the Allied planes were French and were going to be removed if France surrendered anyway? The Germans then attacked Paris with a pinning force from the 1st Army under Rundstedt. Hoepner sent a large mechanized force South of Paris through Vichy and then he, Guderian's panzergroup, and Reichenau's 4th army struck at the unsupplied French in Alsace Lorraine.
The French in Picardy retook the now abandoned Champaigne and Ardennes, but the Germans were able to take out Alsace-Lorraine pretty easily with Guderian's double offensive tactical re-roll. The French army in Paris was attacked for one round by Rundstedt, effectively pinning them. With almost no mechanized units the Allies were powerless to prevent Hoeppner's tanks from rolling on into Languedoc, Bordeaux and Brittany. Thus, the Germans were able to secure 6 in-supply French territories, more than meeting their requirements for a French surrender, which they accepted. Thankfully casualties in the Paris pinning action and the Alsace attack were light and we managed to end the French campaign in relatively good shape.
On the non-combat move, the Germans redeployed their air force to Flanders and Holland to punish England and prehaps lay the groundwork for operation Sea Lion. Some of the U-Boat fleet was ported in our newly captured French ports on the Bay of Biscay - opening up several more convoy zones to our wolf packs. The remnants of the British Army in France fell back to the Channel ports around Calais hoping for evacuation to England - will their Dunkirk be successful?
In the Med, The Italians attacked Epirus with a joint attack from Albania as well as an Amphibious assault from Taranto (I wanted that battleship shot). Luck continued to be with the Italians and we blew through Greek defenses with light casualties and forced them back to Athens. On the non-combat move, the Italians redeployed their air force to Crete and Rhodes.
While the fall of France was happening, the Germans took advantage of the chaos on the continent to invade Trondheim and central Norway. It was a weak incursion, but I wanted to get into Norway soon and the situation presented itself. Don't know if I should have waited for more force or not. . .
Some German builds were placed in Austria for our upcoming plans to deal with Yugoslavia. I did not capture the Romanian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian deployments in the picture, but they, of course, joined the Axis and were deployed at the end of the turn when France fell.
