And this time, I've learned from the AAR I attempted years ago: don't rely on replays! I had to stop that one because my Guadalcanal replay was totally bugged. This time, I made screenshots as I played instead.
As a gimmick, I tend to try to utilize divisions with a roughly historical order of battle, even if I know (thanks to historical hindsight) doing so is a bad idea - things like Japanese divisions having 4 regiments before 1939 or British armoured divisions having limited artillery and infantry components. This also wasn't a perfectionist campaign - if I messed up, I lived with it.
Trondheim
Looking to secure their iron sources in Sweden, the Germans' next strike is not into France, but Norway. Britain moves quickly to counter this move.
However, by the time we arrive, the Germans have already seized the south of Norway and have leapfrogged behind the central Norwegian defences by landing troops from sea and air in Trondheim. To stop their advance, we are tasked with retaking it, and destroying the enemy vanguard advancing from the south. Destruction of the Kriegsmarine force in the harbour and retaking the airfield before reinforcements can be flown in will be critical to achieving this.
The 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions have been assigned to our corps; however, in our rush, we lacked the shipping capacity to bring all but the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division; as such, rather than landing at Namsos, this Brigade lands alongside the 1st Division at Andalsnes. The plan is for two brigades, the division AT guns and the division artillery to advance north to Trondheim once they reach Dombas, covered by the 1st AA Brigade to stop enemy aircraft from Trondheim. The other two brigades plus the auxiliary battalions will head south to stop the enemy vanguard.
In Namsos, a French Alpine division, covered by some of our AA guns, is to head directly south for Trondheim.
Unfortunately for us, Dombas has already been seized by enemy paratroopers before we could land.
To remove the enemy naval threat, a small task force with the brand new carrier HMS Illustrious, battlecruiser HMS Renown and 3 destroyers arrives.
At Dombas, the Norwegians north of town are assailed by the newly landed Germans.
A single destroyer stands watch outside the harbor; our destroyers move to screen the Renown against torpedo attack as all four move to sink the lone ship.
The French find Levanger and the bridge over the Helgaa already in enemy hands.
Our men hit the Fallschirmjager in Dombas right as the Norwegians are about to be overrun.
We immediately overrun and destroy most of the force, including their supply dump in down.
The French, meanwhile, surprise and destroy the lead German battalion on the bridge and sweep into Levanger with negligible casualties.
The lone enemy destroyer is certainly doomed; but with the entrance to the harbour covered by captured Norwegian coastal forts, we may be at a disadvantage regardless.
The desperate Fallschirmjager kill the few Norwegian survivors and attempt to flee into the hills, but are quickly caught. The division splits up at the road fork, as planned.
The French overrun another enemy battalion on the coast road, but begin to come under fire from the ships in the fjord.
806 Squadron from Illustrious finds Messerschmitt 110s covering the enemy's advance south of Trondheim; their Fulmars prove barely more maneuverable than the lumbering enemy fighters.
Pummeled by concentrated fire, the German destroyer quickly sinks, and our ships move to engage the harbor defences.
806 Squadron finds itself in a losing battle with the enemy planes and decides to return to the carrier.
Approaching the fjord, our destroyers spot a U-boat attempting to creep up on the Renown.
It too does not last very long.
The French are in sight of the Vaernes aerodrome, but are unable to make an effective attack against the dug-in mountaineers blocking the road while being pounded by land and naval artillery fire.
As the French attempt to regroup, more enemy troops land at the airfield and join in an attack supported by Stukas, causing heavy losses and forcing the French back to the north.
Our lead destroyers find themselves face to face with two German destroyers as they approach the fjord. 815 Squadron from Illustrious manages to slam a torpedo into one of the enemy ships as it moves to block us, but AA fire takes a toll on their old biplanes.
Thoroughly mauled, the French attempt to establish a more defensible position, but their units are battered and their unit cohesion bas begun to slip under the constant bombardment.
1st Brigade runs right into advancing enemy mountaineers on the road to Storen.
Meanwhile, our southern force spots enemy armor advancing from Lillehammer.
After initially ambushing the enemy tanks, following enemy infantry chase 2nd Brigade off the road and into the woods where the forward elements are overrun and surviving personnel flee haphazardly.
Under Stuka attack, 1st Brigade holds off the Gebirgsjager on the road at heavy cost as other units rush to support them.
With direct fire support from a destroyer, the centre of the French line is decimated as the fresh enemy infantry attack.
The Brigadier manages to reform 2nd Brigade's fleeing troops into a functional unit in Dombas, and not a moment too soon as the Germans reform to attack 4th Brigade.
3rd Brigade throws back the enemy on the road, counterattacks, and destroys the enemy battalion. 1st AA finally reaches the area and begins to down enemy planes.
After dealing with one of the coastal forts, the German destroyers surprisingly try to advance upon us rather than holding a blocking position - their boldness is explained when one of our destroyers begins receiving damage from the Admiral Hipper, which has sailed into the mouth of the harbour.
The French throw back the German paratroopers and infantry with heavy losses, and our AA guns down most of the remaining Me 110s, but enemy artillery continues to blast the French, leaving them too weak to exploit the opportunity.
South of Dombas, enemy infantry are decimated by 4th Brigade at the roadblock; the remaining Panzers attempt to bypass it and attack our artillery, but find their advance blocked by AT guns.
Just when respite seemed possible, the French situation turns to disaster. A fresh Fallschirmjager unit landed and immediately attacked the battered French centre, throwing them back over the mountain. Infantry on the road then passed through them and chased down the survivors, wiping out the entire brigade.
The German ships concentrated all their fire on our lead destroyers from all directions and quickly sent one to the bottom.
Our ships, in turn, blew up the remaining coastal gun in spectacular fashion, leaving us with what should be, on paper at least, a fair fight.
The French pulled back and reinforced their lines, but they still had no time to dig in and were under constant artillery fire - and now, they were outnumbered.
With enemy forces advancing north from Lillehammer, it was decided to detach 3rd Brigade and the division anti-tank guns to block the road to Trondheim; hopefully, the 1st Brigade and the division artillery would still be enough to take the town.
German attempts to bypass the roadblock were foiled and the leading enemy units destroyed.
Sensing weakness, the Germans hit the French brigade on the coastal road with a heavy barrage then attacked it with their entire force, nearly overrunning the division's entire position.
Our destroyers' attempts to block the enemy ships were foiled by the Admiral Hipper, which sunk another of our destroyers, allowing the two enemy destroyers to line up torpedo attacks on the Renown; fortunately, it suffered minor damage.
Enemy infantry and armored cars again attempted to brute-force the roadblock, which led only to the loss of the armored cars.
Looking for revenge for their earlier humiliation, 2nd Brigade counterattacked the exposed Germans next to the road and drove them into a nearby wood.
1st Brigade reported finding Storen deserted - there were, apparently, no enemy forces between them and Trondheim. The French, at great cost, had served as a great distraction. However, no assault would succeed without artillery support, and our artillery had been held up by air attack.
The French attempted to give their shattered brigade time to reorganize by putting it behind the other; however, more Stukas had appeared to support the enemy attack.
The Renown and its lone destroyer helper concentrated their fire on the already-damaged German destroyer; the ship quickly floundered and sank. 815 Squadron, meanwhile, had lined up for another attack run and scored a direct hit on the other destroyer.
With no effective screen, the Hipper made a successful torpedo attack on the Renown. The timing could not have been worse - the Swordfish had lost heavily from AA fire and, in any case, needed more torpedoes, so they had to return to the Illustrious.
Though suffering increasing losses, the Germans' persistence in attacking the French paid off. The covering brigade on the road was overrun by a simultaneous attack by infantry on the road and Fallschirmjager from the hills above. The battered brigade behind them was now the only remaining functional part of the division, besides the artillery.
The German vanguard hit 3rd Brigade with 2 battalions; given the higher then expected number of enemy troops attacking down the road, the 1st Division commander decided to keep the division artillery in place to fire on them, since the Germans were already within range. However, this would leave the 1st Brigade to fend entirely for itself.
1st AA Brigade had by now downed most of the marauding Stukas attempting to interdict the artillery.
2nd Brigade cleared the forest west of the road of Germans, who had by now brought up heavier infantry to combat what they must by now have realized was not a minor blocking force.
The Germans' aim was now clear as they sailed past the British ships - they were aiming for the carrier! The Hipper, as it turned out, was a more dangerous ship than it had been anticipated - sailing past the Renown at knife-fight range, a full broadside wrecked much of the ship's superstructure and hampered efforts to stop flooding from the torpedo hits. The ship was ablaze and appeared incapable of responding to the Hipper's fire.
The Germans' bullheaded attacks on the French did not bear fruit this time - the diving Stukas ran into both AA fire and the returning Fulmars of 806 Squadron, while the infantry on the road ran headlong into the French defences and were destroyed.
The remaining German destroyer sailed too close to the Renown for her own good - crippled she was, but helpless she was not. Between her fire and her as-yet undamaged escort, the German ship was riddled with shellfire until it slowly came to a stop and rapidly sank. Illustrious, meanwhile, seeing the Hipper's approach, sailed west.
Hit by Stukas, the French did not want to be caught on the low ground by the enemy paratroopers again and decided to withdraw back across the river.
The assumption that 3rd Brigade could stop the Germans turned out to be a bad one. Though they took heavy casualties, the Germans scattered the brigade into the hills with a flanking maneuver that left the troops low on ammo, tired and demoralized. Only the suicidal intervention of the anti-tank units blocked the Germans from cutting right behind 1st Brigade, which was now ordered to retreat from Trondheim to stop this attack.
3rd Brigade received more troops but not more ammunition, and proper mountain gear was not even available. The Stukas were, however, finally put out of action, so at least our artillery could fire unmolested.
Rather than directly block the Lillehammer road, our troops ambushed the Germans from either side of it. 2nd Brigade then counterattacked the exposed enemy and threw them back down the road.
The German Admiral must have chanced his mind upon losing his last destroyer; the Hipper abandoned its dash and circled back around to engage the Renown.
However, the burning Renown could do little to damage the Hipper with most of her guns out of action and the ship barely able to move.
Nearly all the Stukas attempting to attack the French were shot down, and the enemy paratroop attempt to pursue was stopped just south of Steinkjer.
The Germans' attempt to finish off 3rd Brigade came to naught; while our men did little damage to the enemy, their fire kept the Germans pinned down on the slopes, and the few Germans who made it to the adjacent summits could not safely advance.
To save 1st and 3rd Brigades, 2nd and 4th Brigades were ordered to go on the offense and cut the road to Lillehammer behind the German attackers.
The loss of the Renown to the Hipper was not just unexpected but deeply embarrassing for the Royal Navy - but more importantly for the moment, it meant the Illustrious had no surface protection! Only her lumbering Swordfish could save her now.
Though one brave destroyer would try to stand in her way, even her torpedoes would be unlikely to do much good.
The remaining Stukas attempted to find safety in their hangars, but they were all shot down attempting to land.
Frustrated by their lack of progress, the Germans committed an entire regiment to forcing 3rd Brigade off its mountain perch.
Their hopes were dashed, however, when 1st Brigade came charging up the slopes on 3rd Brigade's right, wiping out the German positions on the summit.
Initial attempts to destroy the enemy engineers at the rail junction did not succeed.
Just as the Hipper came bearing down on our last destroyer, 815 Squadron came...well, to slow to really come "roaring" in, but they scored several lethal torpedo hits on the German ship.
The French finally eliminated their pursuers; however, with most of the division lost, any renewed attack towards the airfield would be hard-pressed to succeed.
The Germans tied once again to wrest control of the mountain from 3rd Brigade; but while the Brigade suffered heavy losses, it did not budge.
Then, 1st and 3rd Brigade swapped positions - thus putting the battered German right wing in front of the fresh 1st Brigade.
The second attempt to cut the road from Lillehammer succeeded, but the price was high. Our green infantry had difficulty overcoming entrenched enemy positions.
The German attempt to skirt 1st Brigade only saw them cede the high ground, and pay the price.
In any case, with their supply route cut from behind them, the Germans were doomed regardless.
The remaining Germans continued to attack the hapless 3rd Brigade who could do little to fight back; but they still made no progress.
1st Brigade decided to go for the kill.
More reinforcements arrived at Trondheim; there was truly no realistic way the French could now retake it.
The Hipper, meanwhile, had sunk our last valiant destroyer - but had now been hit by so many torpedoes it could barely move, and was listing heavily.
1st Brigade flanked and decimated the remaining Germans.
Outnumbered and again under heavy artillery fire, the French were barely able to approach the enemy before being shot up again.
The few remaining German infantry were now surrounded.
German attacks had depleted the French units to such an extent that our AA guns were compelled to drive up to the frontline to fire on the advancing enemy.
No sooner had the French made their second attempt to advance than they had been forced to retreat.
With the German vanguard destroyed, our units were safe from imminent destruction. But it was too little, too late - our attack on Trondheim had been aborted, and the town was now a fortress.
The French were so hard pressed they decided to retreat all the way to Namsos to regroup while our AA acted as a rear guard.
After floundering for a short while, a Swordfish put a final torpedo into the Admiral Hipper and put her out of her misery.
It was ironic that the navy's outdated biplanes had performed their job better than their vaunted warships; had it not been for the Illustrious, the sea battle would not even have been a draw, but a lop-sided defeat.
All our units reunited around Tynset; however, their effort were for naught.
Destroying the enemy vanguard had only bought us time - with the stream of reinforcements flooding into Trondheim, the chances of our forces taking it quickly enough not to be caught from behind were slim, and with the French nearly out of the fight and the navy able to provide only minor air and no fire support, the decision was made to retreat to Andalsnes and return the 1st Division to France.
