The Phony Offensive - The Matrix Games version of West Front

[Version 1.1]Ludweiler-Arndt, Germany: With the beginning of the German assault on Poland, on September 1st, the treaties of mutual assistance between Poland, England and France came into effect with a reality the two western European powers were not prepared for. On September 3rd, a British ultimatum to the Germans expired and war was declared between England and Germany, shortly after, at 1700 hrs the same day, the French, too, declared war. What to do to assist Poland? There was not much the Allied powers could do, Poland was basically isolated from them and by the 3rd the German attacks were already showing a dangerous ability to slice up organized Polish resistance. Maybe the western allies would be handed a fait accompli by a rapid defeat of Poland. Regardless, on September 7th, France began the promised offensive against the western border of Germany. With no workable offensive plans against Germany, the only goal was to draw German troops from the Polish frontier. It was planned as an offensive anyway. Tentative, half-hearted, French patrol action began in the Saar region, probing against the deceptively weak German lines. After making very little progress on the 7th, on the 8th, with the weather breaking down, the French offensive became nothing more than a reconnaissance in force. In the Saar region, east of the French Thionville section of the Maginot Line, a recon group, from French 2nd Army, cautiously advanced toward the Saar River where a German static regiment waited to defend the Reich border. The offensive "started out slow and kind of fizzled out altogether" and by the 17th, the French comic tragedy had petered out and the Phony War, the Sitzkrieg, had begun.