Complementary info on the
Corsica scenario:
-> Some pictures can be found here:
https://dlockyer.wordpress.com/2015/05/ ... sica-1943/ (like Goumiers entering Bastia - an event once taken? - or some pics of the destructions and an mention to a destroyed railway)
-> Medal awarded to some after the Liberation of Corsica /Operation Vesuvius:
https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... gKegQIARBB
-> Some info as well, translated from here:
https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr ... 30145.html
"[...]
In 1943, de Gaulle welcomed the liberated Corsica. But he was also wary of this insurrection led by the National Front, essentially made up of communist resistance fighters. Very quickly, he had in heart to place "his" men, relatives or island personalities faithful to his projects. [...] The island was the first territory to be liberated from the fascist and Nazi yoke, thanks to the Resistance and the Free French Forces (FFL). On September 9, 1943, Ajaccio was the first city in France to be liberated.
Corsica thus had "the fortune and honor of being the first piece of liberated France", as General de Gaulle declared on October 5, 1943, in Ajaccio. However, the very particular context of these words must be put into perspective. General de Gaulle was indeed suspicious of this Corsican insurrection, whose courage he praised.
Under the impulse of the National Front, with a communist leadership, the imperial city was liberated nine months before the Allied landing in Normandy, on June 6, 1944 (the famous "D Day").
While the French commands in Algiers and London had considered the insurrection premature, the Corsican patriots were supported, from September 13, by the first commandos of the Bataillon parachutiste de choc (an elite unit of the French army formed in Staoueli, Algeria). They were supported by the Casabianca submarine, and then by the Moroccan riflemen, spahis and goumiers of the African Army.
The fighting that started the day after the secret surrender of Italy lasted a month against the elite units of the Wehrmacht, the SS and the Italian Blackshirts.
Corsica will open the way to France
The celebrations were also an opportunity to recall that nearly 12,000 Corsicans, when the population of the island was only 200,000, enlisted in October 1943 in the French Army. Alongside thousands of other islanders who had joined the FFL since 1940, they fought in Italy, then in Provence, in Alsace and in the heart of Germany.
The liberated Corsica was still used as a real aircraft carrier for the Allies, allowing them to bomb Germany in view of the final victory, thanks to dozens of airfields on the eastern coast. [...]"
From this, I would say that we could mention the Communists, but I don't think (at all) that's the main point.
Talking about Ajaccio, as the very first liberated city, mentioning De Gaulle's quote there, it is necessary.
Then, there is some nice information there, relatively unknown I think... enough to bring some little touches here and there, and reinforce the immersion!
-> Information (only available in French
directly, but 'could of course be translated using online tools) about the Free French "
1er Bataillon Parachutiste de Choc" here
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/1er_batai ... te_de_choc ...
-> Info (idem!) about the Free French famous "
Commandos d'Afrique":
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commandos_d%27Afrique ...
-> More on this unit:
"
THE SHOCK BATTALION IN CORSICA, Historical context
A special unit conceived by the BCRA (=Bureau central de renseignement et d'action, or perhaps Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action) in April 1943, the Bataillon de choc was an autonomous army corps whose strength approached 700 men. During the summer of 1943, before the landing in Corsica, they numbered 500. The average age was 22. In charge of surprise actions and commando operations, they had to be experienced in guerrilla and close-combat tactics. Created in Algeria, in Staouéli, this corps, made up of volunteers, was, in the words of Major Gambiez, appointed to head it in May 1943, the result of inter-army recruitment. Its men came from the African Army, the Foreign Legion, as well as from corps demobilized after the defeat: not all of them were soldiers. Among them, there were men who had escaped from metropolitan France or from prison camps. Many of them had passed through Franco's Spain and had sometimes been in prison: this was the case of Major Gambiez himself. The supervision was provided by active or reserve officers who had enlisted, such as Lieutenant Ricquebourg, a former finance inspector, who commanded the 4th company during the Corsican campaign: this company, formed on the spot, incorporated Corsican volunteers in September 1943. They wore the Corsican emblem, the Moor's head. The armament was light: Sten machine guns, pistols, edged weapons, grenades, rifles, plastic. The clothing was American. The battalion lacked maps and binoculars, so the Corsican guides became indispensable.
On September 8, 1943, the diffusion of the news of the Italian armistice triggered the insurrection of the patriots in Corsica, at the instigation of the National Front. It was an act of disobedience towards the general staff, but the resistance fighters could not remain without help. In Algiers, General Giraud organized Operation Vesuvius: a decoy intended to make people believe that the objective was Italian. The Bataillon de choc was the first unit to arrive in Corsica, in Ajaccio. The submarine Casabianca, which had successfully carried weapons and intelligence agents to the island, transported 109 men from the third company. They docked on 13 September 1943 at 1.15 a.m., 24 hours before the French torpedo boats Fantasque and Terrible. But the "shocks" were kept on standby in Ajaccio, which had become a bridgehead for the landings, while fighting was taking place on the other side of Corsica and the Germans had taken Bastia from the Italians. On September 17, General Henry Martin authorized them to march in three directions: towards Calvi, Corte and Levie. It was near Conca that Midshipman Michelin, head of the 4th section of the second company, was killed on 22 September. The Battalion was responsible for commando actions and for supporting the Tirailleurs and the Goumiers. It was the battalion that fought closest to the Corsican patriots. The same spirit animated them. The new 4th Company, already scheduled for a mission on September 24 at Puzzichello, joined the 2nd Company at the end of September, which was advancing towards Bastia. In its ranks was the son of the lawyer De Moro-Giafferi. It acquired on the battlefield an experience that no previous training had been able to give to its men, but which it would perfect in Calvi, after the liberation." (source: Hélène Chaubin, "Le Bataillon de Choc" in CD-ROM La Résistance en Corse, 2nd edition, AERI, 2007.)
-> Translated from
https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/socie ... 79753.html :
"
The surrender of Italy, which maintained a force of 80,000 men on the island, had served as a trigger for the uprising, against the advice of de Gaulle, who considered it premature, fearing in particular that it would leave the field too open to the Communists.
De Gaulle-Giraud confrontation (BUT who also agreed on some points related to Corsica...)
On September 9, the Ajaccio town hall was occupied by the National Front, the main Resistance movement led by the Communists. Sartène fell on the 10th.
In Algiers, General Henri Giraud, de Gaulle's rival supported by the Americans, decided to support the insurrection. He had the commandos of the Bataillon de Choc (shock battalion) disembark in Ajaccio on board the submarine Casabianca, followed by some 6,000 riflemen, spahis and Moroccan tabors of the African Army, to support several thousand Corsicans in arms.
The German armored divisions that were trying to reach Bastia to leave the island were severely attacked by the Resistance, particularly in the Alta Rocca, in the south, where dozens of men fell, weapons in hand, near the village of Levie, and in the eastern plain.
In Bastia itself, the Germans were fighting against Italian troops who had crossed over to the Allied camp.
Decisive fighting took place at the gates of the city, notably at the Teghime pass, where the Moroccan goumiers, who had already distinguished themselves in Italy, inflicted heavy losses on the Germans.
The damage was considerable, caused in particular by the very high altitude bombing of the American air force. Hundreds of Bastia's civilian population were killed.
On October 5, de Gaulle arrived in Ajaccio, then went to Bastia on the 7th.
"The events in Corsica then became one of the causes of conflict between the two leaders of Free France," explains historian Jean-Marie Arrighi.
In his History of Corsica and the Corsicans, he points out that de Gaulle ousted Giraud, "believing that he had left the field open to the Communists" and fearing that this would happen again in France. In fact, as soon as the Liberation took place, the National Front imposed itself in hundreds of communes.
But the liberated Corsica became above all an aircraft carrier for the Allies, allowing them, thanks to its dozens of airfields on the eastern coast, to go and bomb Germany for the final victory. A little detail Worth being mentionned?!
It was from Borgo, south of Bastia, that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, poet and officer of the Free French Air Force, took off on July 31, 1944, for his last flight before crashing into the Mediterranean Sea aboard his P38 Lightning No. 223. Some historical event, perhaps, after this scenario?"
I need your input on the number of turns versus the goals involved. Also gameplay balance, of course.
2 SS Panthers vs. 21 US Shermans:
but then it would be about France and not Free France directly... 
so not the very same thing. 
And directly a really nice briefing. 
