Things began aggressively for the Allies. The long awaited pincer movement began, with the British attacking south, from the newly liberated pile of rubble formerly known as Lille; while the Americans attacked in a northerly direction into hex 1823. Very long pincers, I admit, but designed to strike a fatal blow at the flanks of the German juggernaut.
They may have succeeded but for the fact that 2 x ‘1’s resulted – yielding a BX and an AQ. The Germans and Austrohungarians then failed every single one of their reaction rolls. From that point the turn only got worse.
Of the 2 Attacks on the Italian front, only one worked (BX). While the other, attacking the vital corner hex 4312 resulted in another frustrating (for the CP) Attacker stopped. Italian Infantry losses are now mounting, with excessive amounts of artillery being forced out of the front line. Once again the slowly withering German airforce is slowing operations, as a significant proportion of the airforce is now either aborted or killed. Thus only 1 attack was prosecuted against the main French line, resulting in a DR – which was converted to an EX. German Stoss cadres now amount to about 25 of their alloted 78. German rail guns continue to bombard Paris, but without effect. Paris is now in range of all guns with a range of 3 hexes or longer!
Finally the game concluded with the British player making their first reaction roll since March. The Northern arm of the front line crawled into action yet again, to the huge accompaniment of tanks, resulting in a DX. 6 German divisions were put to the sword – but the line held.
Entente reconnaisance report that the Germans are building a shorter, fortified front line – the Hitchens line – that is stretching from the coast to just east of Paris.
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