Hedgehog vs the Heer - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

Scenario Briefing

Hedgehog versus the Heer 1940 (CMBB)

Game Play : Head to Head ONLY!! Not suitable for play against AI.

Location : Sedan Region, France

Date : Tuesday, May 14, 1940

Time : Mid Day

Weather : Warm, Dry, overcast

** THIS IS A “DYNAMIC FLAG” SCENARIO!! – ONLY ONE OBJECTIVE FLAG IS OF VALUE!! – IT IS WORTH 1500 POINTS!!. THE OTHER FLAGS ARE “BOGUS”. NOTE : SELECT ANY GERMAN UNIT AT INITIAL SET UP, PRESS SPACE TO BRING UP ORDERS MENU,AND YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE OPTION TO ACTIVATE A FLAG.. – AXIS COMMANDER PLEASE SEE YOUR BRIEFING**

Why CMBB? : This scenario is a CMBB based scenario of a hypothetical battle early in the May 1940 German Invasion of France (Plan Yellow). The rationale for using CMBB rather than the usual CMAK is that only CMBB allows a designer to put Renault R-35 tanks into the hands of the Allies, as in post-August 1944 Romanians. The rest of the allied forces are a combination of Romanians, who had equipment very similar to the 1940 French army – i.e. 47mm ATGS, 60mm mortars, and early war Soviets, who complement the scenario by still wearing the French style Adrian helmet, and suffer from the delayed communications that plagued the French in 1940.

The Background: The rapid and unexpected collapse of what was previously viewed as the greatest army in Europe in May and June 1940 does not need retelling. The reasons are multifold, and even those who write alternate history have trouble finding a premise that would allow for an Allied victory at that point in time.

Upon the obvious collapse of the Allied plans and encirclement of the BEF and much of the mobile assets of the French at Dunkirk, the French Army was in disarray. General Gamelin turned over control to General Maxime Weygand of May 17, 1940. Weygand has been much criticized for his delay in launching a planned counterattack. This criticism must be taken in light of the fact Weygand was in Syria and had only just flown back to France to assume command. The communication and command and control of the French Army was based on the premise of a static front, and did not allow for rapid dissemination of information in either direction in a rapidly disintegrating situation.

One tactic that Weygand did institute successfully was the “hedgehog defence”, the grouping of troops and guns in defensible pockets, allowing 360-degree defence of key junctions and objectives. Such a tactic thwarted the Blitzkrieg’s ability to “turn the flank”, and greatly impeded a rapid advance. Even at that stage of an impending disaster, the hastily prepared “hedgehogs” cost the Germans and slowed their advance.

Scenario Premise: The French Army, conferring with Lord Gort of the BEF, and reviewing the rapid envelopment of the Polish Army in September 1939, recognized that, the initiative would always be with the attacker. All efforts were to be made to slow the inevitable assault on the Western Front, and to allow a mobile reserve to rush to the scene. In late October 1939, the French high command assigned Weygand, recently called back from retirement, to institute an operational defensive plans to any mobile breakthrough by the Axis. Weygand devises the “hedgehog defence” – defensive redoubts ranging from a platoon to a battalion of troops, supported to entrenchments, guns, mines and wire, but not in an unbroken line like in the Great War, but as what later would be referred to as “speed bumps” – something to slow the attacker down, break his momentum, and ultimately permit a counterattack.

In this scenario, the German Army has instituted its rewritten Plan Yellow, a rapid advance into the Netherlands and Belgium, followed by a mobile strike through the wooded Ardennes.

The French High command is badly stretched for manpower and assets, and the line is thinly held. However, those troops that are on the front lines have had sufficient opportunity to prepare for this onslaught.

**NOTE -This is a “Dynamic Flag” scenario, with the actual dynamic flag chosen in the set up by the Axis player (right click on any German unit at the initial set up, and select the “dynamic flag”.) **