From: niekd@sci.kun.nl (Niek van Diepen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Defiant Holland (FGA)
Summary: Whatever it is, it's not history
Date: 15 Sep 92 13:56:56 GMT
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Two days ago a rather saddened member of our local games club brought
along his newly bought copy of "Defiant Holland, The German 18th Army's
conquest of Holland, May 1940", Volume II of Fresno Gaming Association's
Europe at War Series. We had about a 10 minute look, and found it hard
to come up with something positive (but we succeeded: our hometown is
spelled correctly, something that cannot be said of all Battle of Arnhem
games....).

A bit of history is in order, since most foreigners only get along the
fact that The Netherlands surrendered after only 5 days fighting. For
this there were two reasons:
1) it was the first corps sized airborne drop ever, which exhausted all
   available reserve formations, and requested reinforcements from the
   main allies Britain and France were not coming;
2) the Germans (by accident or by design) managed to bombard Rotterdam
   into a fire-storm, and threatened to do the same to Utrecht and Am-
   sterdam.
The actual attack by German Army Group B included two armies: the 6th
aimed for Antwerp, and the 18th for the core of the Netherlands: Holland
proper. The 6th is not included in the game (though the area where they
operated is!?) which is acceptable. They sort of marched through. The
18th attacked along three lines:
- In the North the German 1st Cavalry division cleared the area, and 
  aimed for the Afsluitdijk (closing of the old Zuiderzee, now called
  IJsselmeer, and access to the north of the province of North Holland).
  The local Dutch troops fought a holding action and retreated in good
  order across the Afsluitdijk. The assaults by the Germans on the
  fortified head of the Afsluitdijk were all bloodily repulsed.
- South of the IJsselmeer two reinforced divisions attacked the main
  Dutch position, the Grebbelinie. SS assault troops managed to dislodge
  the southern end (the Grebbeberg, a hill) after all available reserves
  were exhausted. An orderly withdrawal on the second main line: the
  Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie (New (17th century) Dutch Waterline) was
  just completed when the surrender came.
- The main attack came through the south: two airborne divisions (7th
  Flieger Division and 22nd Luftlande Division with elements cross-
  attached) landed on the line Dordrecht-Rotterdam-Den Haag, securing
  most crossings across the same rivers as the Anglo-Americans four
  years later. The 9th Panzer Division with some supporting divisions
  and the Leibstandarte AH rushed in to relieve them. The drop went well
  but the following airlanding on various airfields resulted in the 
  destruction of valuable transport craft (all in all about 500 got
  lost). Also, the last bridge proved to be one too far, with a small
  bridgehead only in Rotterdam (about company-sized... shades of Arnhem
  again). After four days of fierce fighting the most exposed German
  division (22nd Luftlande) was all but destroyed, but the 9th Panzer
  reached Rotterdam, with only one bridge to go. The Germans threatened
  to bombard Rotterdam, after which the Dutch accepted to withdraw, but
  still the attack went through and started the first fire-storm of the
  war, claiming 900 civilians. The rest is described above.

So what did FGA put in:
- No Afsluitdijk...
- Only 3 airborne battailions instead of 14 or 15...
- no reasons to put the main line of resistance where it was...
- various map errors...
- the SS Wiking division (rather crude: it was formed in december 1940,
  and at least one regiment, Westland, was formed of Belgian and Dutch
  volunteers), but not the regiment which assaulted the Grebbeberg...

In short, whatever it is, it's not history. But then, what would you
expect of FGA by now.

Niek van Diepen
Newsgroups: rec.games.board