Thursday, January 15, 2009

Defence of Calais, scenario for Memoir '44

I'm reading a book at the moment about what you can think of as the Dunkirk campaign from 1940. Before reading this book all I knew of the war in 1940, was that the British retreated to Dunkirk, fought a furious holding actions and evacuated.

There is so much more to it than that. I'm finding it especially interesting in regards to how political motives drove military action. For instance the defence of Calais is something I'd never even heard of, and yet it was a heroic action where the British were told to fight to the last man and the last bullet, there would be no evacuation.

Why were they told to do this, because the British govt were being accused of running away by the French, and the British did not want the French to capitulate before the BEF got away as they seemed to have no will to fight in defence.

And where is all this history going you might ask. Well, it's simply that the reading inspired me to create a scenario for Memoir '44 based on the Calais action.

Use the following link to download the PDF. At the time of writing this scenario is untested and I suspect that the British may be a little too strong, if you try it then please post a comment here to let me know what you think of the balance.

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