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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 10

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Third week of October 1914

Iron Dice umpire map at 15:57 (Turn 10)
Iron Dice umpire map at 15:57 (Turn 10)

BEF Report to the War Office

The Belgians on our left were attacked and driven out of their trench line, and retreated towards Calais. The BEF left flank is, although entrenched, hanging in the air again. BEF reserve troops are at St. Omer. A request to the navy is made to bombard Dunkirk. A combined counter-attack will be made by the BEF’s left flank and the cavalry (reserve), supported by heavy artillery and naval bombardement.

Team Control Gloss

The BEF were using the fact that the enemy in front of them appeared to have gone static to rotate and rest their Corps. They also absorbed nine of the 12 available TF Battalions to bring all the Corps back up to full strength after the casualties from their previous counter-attacks and in the retreat afterwards.

Although the Belgian force was liaising closely with the BEF and drawing supplies from a secondary sea head established at Calais the BEF had not realised just how weak it was. It had a battered Belgian Division and a French reserve division in it, making it a very weak Corps (about 60% of the effectiveness of the BEF Corps). The Germans seemed to sense that this was the weak point, or perhaps just chose it because it was the seaborne flank. Either way they hit it with three fresh Corps supported by two heavy artillery units. The odds were stacked against the Belgians and their force simply disintegrated under the weight of the attack.

Turn Nine  –  Iron Dice  –  Turn Eleven

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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 9

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Second week of October 1914.

Iron Dice umpire map about 15:44 (Turn 9)
Iron Dice umpire map about 15:44 (Turn 9)

BEF Report to the War Office

BEF’s part of the front aint as big as we thought it would be, we cover it to Bapaume.

Team Control Gloss

Well this was where I stopped following the team very closely and handed over to Paul, one of the map umpires, for about 45 minutes. The reason for this was that I was a combined Team Control and High Command Control, and there was a set of private peace talks sponsored by the US President Wilson in the US Embassy in Switzerland.

Present for the UK was the Foreign Minister, with a remit to ensure that Belgium was reinstated as per the status quo ante bellum. The other delegates were the German CINC, the Austrian Foreign Minister, a representative of the Czar, the Belgian Foreign Minister, the French Foreign Minister, and the US Secretary of State. (other minor powers were probably represented there also by the game designer, but those mentioned were all player roles).

The military situation at this point was that the Germans were losing in the East, having used most of their military effort in the West. East Prussia had been captured by the Russians. Despite this the Germans were very bullish about their progress and believed that they could hold what they’d taken in the West while re-capturing East Prussia if the war was to continue. Reason wasn’t a key feature of these talks, and in the end Russia and France decided not to pursue them further and walked out. This was after a number of reasonable compromises had been tabled by the British, the Americans and the Belgians. The Austrians were also keen on an immediate armistice and said so at the time.

The conclusion was that the war continued, and the Italians declared war on the allied side when the news of the behaviour of the Germans was made public by the press.

While the talks were going on the BEF used the opportunity of a stablised line to absorb a dozen replacement Territorial Force battalions and managed to rotate its Corps out of the ine to rest them too.  In addition the Belgians negotiated a deal to re-equip their shattered forces on the French Channel coast with British equipment so that they could share lines of supply with the BEF. The Royal Navy also arranged to deliver these supplied and maintain contact with the Belgians in Ostend and Zeebrugge.

Turn Eight  –  Iron Dice  –  Turn Ten

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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 8

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The first full week of October 1914.

Iron Dice umpire map about 14:27 (Turn 8)
Iron Dice umpire map about 14:27 (Turn 8)

BEF Report to the War Office

Orders are to entrench from south of marshed terrain In Dixmuiden towards Arras. Right flank tries to attempt a limited attack from Arras and surroundings directioned to the east to conform to the German line. It seems that a solid trench line is being built from Nieuwpoort (Swamped) Dixmuiden, Arras (in German Hands, a salient), BEF will try to widen her covered Area from east from Ypres (still in German hands), towards Arras (still in german hands, but a saillant) to Cambrai, to free up some French troops to attack elsewere. The Belgians are moving to cover our left flank to the coast.

Team Control Gloss

The orders happened mostly as written, but with a small amount of confusion. The Belgians had specified where their left and right flanks would be as places rather than indicating conforming to the British, so there was a slight gap. Fortunately the British had order their cavalry screen to remain in place until the Belgians were there.

Turn Seven  –  Iron Dice  –  Turn nine

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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 7

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29 Sept to 4th October 1914.

Iron Dice Umpire map at 14:04 (Turn 7)
Iron Dice Umpire map at 14:04 (Turn 7)

BEF Report to the War Office

Some more confusion, Germans frontline is from the Marsh area (Dixmuiden) to the South, direction Arras (which the Germans appear to have abandoned?) which means that the British advanced somehow without orders to do so. It seems that a change in warfare is taking place, the first trench lines are appearing.

Team Control Gloss

The Germans went firm and started to entrench in front of the British, with more active operations in South East Belgium where the French made a counter-attack and cut off the Western Belgium-France area from railway communications with Germany. This meant that the Germans were unable to advance this turn.

In tandem the British set their cavalry to screen the flank, and being cavalry they found the German front lines and conformed to them. The rest of the BEF remained in their defensive positions (as ordered). ARRAS was still held by the Germans, but the RFC suffered from bad weather and could see the depth entrenchments behind ARRAS so made an erroneous report that it had been abandoned. Had the Germans been able to attack the cavalry screen wouldn’t have slowed them down much at all.

 

Turn Six  –  Iron Dice  –  Turn Eight

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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 6

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The last full week in September 1914.

Turn 6 Umpire Map

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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