The First Blitzkrieg, (What if) Saar Offensive 1939

[gwgardner]

I've had The First Blitzkrieg for a couple of years and was never enamored with the original maps and counters.  The game lacked immersive features, as far as I was concerned.  

The recent 4.00 revision, with better maps, has renewed my interest, so I've wanted to try one of the smaller scenarios.

Gamelin's Gamble, scenario 103, posits a full-scale French Saar Offensive in September 1939, as opposed to the historical advance and quick withdrawal.  The historical Saar Offensive lasted 6 days, this Gamelin's Gamble scenario lasts 13 2-day turns, Sept 6 - Sept 30.

French-German Frontier - 6th September 1939: With five full Armies deployed in the east, to conquer Poland, Hitler was taking a calculated gamble that the French and British would be paralyzed with indecision, and not take action in the west before events in the east were concluded.  While General Maurice Gamelin, the Commander of the French Army, did launch a limited, face-saving offensive in the Saare region, a real opportunity may have been lost by the Allies.  General Franz Halder, the German army's Chief of Staff, was astonished by the weakness of the French attack. He wrote, "If the French had used the opportunity presented by the engagement of nearly all our forces in Poland, they would have been able to cross the Rhine without our being able to prevent it, threatening the Ruhr with decisiveness for the German conduct of the War."  *Designer Note: Unlike the Saare Offense Scenario (#102), this Scenario depicts a full scale attack by the French on Germany with all forces mobilizing to aid the Poles.  However, Belgium neutrality is honored and this area on the map is marked as impassible terrain.

The scenario map is shown here, and has unfortunately been re-oriented so that North is to the right.  Only the region between Luxembourg and Switzerland is in play, generally the Saar and Rhineland as shown in the smaller maps.


The Maginot and Siegfried Fortifications are both represented on the map, see the red-dashed hex outlines on the second screenshot below.



The scenario objectives are circled in red, but I think I'll take the general approach of forcing a crossing of the Rhine.  However, I don't know enough about the historical French plans to confirm or gainsay what the scenario designer has set as objectives.