Panzers and Paratroopers - France Fights On

A World War II war game. Uses a hex based map with CCG mechanics.

This game is a simulation of an alternative history scenario in which France does not surrender to Germany in the summer of 1940. The game assumes that the French government goes into exile early in June 1940, and resolves to fight on alongside the British. This version also assumes the French get a bit of help from the weather, and overcast skies keep the Luftwaffe grounded for a few days in early-June. This pause in bombing delays the collapse of France’s Weygand line, and allows the French 10th army to withdraw to the Breton Peninsula and dig in. French forces in the South of France also regroup and continue to fight. You play the Allies, and you must find a way to hold onto the Breton Peninsula until the end of 1941, or 18 months. By 1942, world events should start to favor the allies (Russia and Germany could go to war. Maybe America gets into the fight). If you can find a way to capture Paris before 1942, you will win the game.

This game assumes that the Allies have control of ~900,000 troops clustered around various ports on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. As the game moves forward, more Allied troops become available, but you will never achieve parity with the German/Computer forces. This is probably a realistic assumption through the end of 1941. To win, you need to make effective use of partisans and commandos. You can liberate Paris before 1941....but you need to wage a successful asymmetric campaign to do so.

The French government did draw up plans to create a "national redoubt" on the Breton Peninsula, but never put them into place, opting to negotiate a surrender to Germany and neutrality. The French army was in very rough shape by 1941, and maintaining a garrison of troops in a corner of France for the indefinite future would have been a major financial burden for a cash strapped UK to shoulder on its own. With most of France occupied by Germans, the British would have to pay any French soldiers left in France. However, this game assumes that the British do support a defiant French government in a last stand against the German army. There would have been some good reasons for the British to keep the French in the fight on continental Europe:

1) The French Navy would have been available to the British. The fate of the French Navy was really the only leverage that the French government had over the Germans during surrender negotiations. In the end, the Germans allowed a rump French state to keep its colonies in order to keep France's seven battleships and one aircraft carrier out of British hands. If the British had access to an extra seven battleships and an aircraft carrier in the Summer of 1940, the British would have been in a much more secure strategic position. British colonies also become more secure because the British can now afford to send a carrier group to the Pacific to deter Japanese aggression.

2) Occupying France would have been much more difficult. When France surrendered to Germany, French soldiers became POWs for the remainder of the war. A big chunk of France's military age male population spent the war in Germany, often times working in German factories. If France had not surrendered, large numbers of French troops would still have surrendered to the Germans. However, many would have tried to make there way to French lines to continue fighting for the legitimate, democratically elected government of France. Many more would simply have taken off their uniforms, gone home and buried their weapons in their backyards. The situation in France in 1940 would have been very similar to the situation in Iraq after the invasion of 2003: lots of soldiers and weapons melting into the population and waiting for an opportune time to strike back at their occupiers.