Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 6
The last full week in September 1914.
BEF Report to the War Office 30th September 2014
While taking the new positions, the BEF was attacked by the Germans, Arras was lost but the German casualties were high.
British right flank doesn’t have contact with the French. On the political point, the Belgiums requested to the Royal navy to move their toops by sea to Ostend. However, this would bring the BEF in a difficult position again, due to the fact that this would create a gap between BEF’s left flank and the sea.
BEF ‘s base is at Rouen, BEF HQ at Neufchatel en Bray, BEF Railhead at Grandvillers.
We have a gap between Doullens and the North Sea due to the Belgians reluctancy to fill this gap. We request the British Goverment to put some political pressure on the Belgians.
Confusion all around, BEF’s left flank isn’t at Hesdin, but at St. Omer Indian cav. reconnaissance is making probes towards Dunkirk. Situation is very confusing because BEF command still thought that the BEF was situated from Hesdin to Arras but actually it was from St. Omer to Arras. (With now a Cav. unit probe at Dunkirk. The Belgians (still there!) are helping the Cav. between Calais and St. Omer. Belgiums will probably request supply from the Britsh. French 6th has contact with the BEF’s right flank.
Team Control Gloss
The Indians arrived at ABBEVILLE (having landed a week earlier at MARSEILLES and then moving by rail all the way across France). Despite efforts to rectify the situation the BEF still have two hanging flanks. On the plus side they have a very good logistics supply and munitions are arriving faster than they are using them. Also the first Territorial Force battalions have started to arrive which is allowing them to replace the losses in the regular Corps from the attack on the Scheldt.
At this stage it looked very much like the German Second Army was going to punch through the hole and push towards PARIS while the German 1st Army screened the BEF from intervening. There seemed a realistic prospect that the British would get back on their ship and leave France. The War Cabinet refused the request to move the logistics base from ROUEN to BOLOUGNE on the ground that it was in danger of being over-run. Similarly the BEF moved both its HQ and railhead to be off the route between the Germans and PARIS.
Turn Five – Iron Dice – Turn Seven
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Do the pins on the counters have any significance?
They do. On the Germans they count the number of Corps in the Formation if they’re in the main part of the counter. I didn’t realise that they were doing this until near the end of the day and so didn’t bother doing it on the British counters.
For all nationalities on the edges they can convey frontage and general facing, which was important in the mobile phase of the game.