Siege of Lille

**Siege of Lille** is a scenario in *Panzer Corps 2*.

## Briefings

General %playername%, my vanguard has just returned with confirmation: the French are still unaware of our advance on them from this direction.

I will be focusing my efforts here, to cut Lille off from behind.

Mein General, his attack avenue presents us with two options.

We could join 7th Panzer directly, and throw all our weight into Lille from a unified direction.

Or we could focus our attacks in a pincer movement from this direction. Caught between 7th Panzer and our forces, we could create quite an encirclement around the French defenders.

I will dispatch a few units to guard these southern bridges, to support a potential encirclement.

**Primary Objective: Capture 2 Lille Victory Hexes**

**Bonus Objective: Capture all other Victory Hexes before Lille.**

While we will be catching the French off guard, we should not underestimate the sizeable garrison at Lille itself.

We must either hit them quickly from behind before they can react, or strangle their supply lines all at once through encirclement.

I take my leave to prepare my division for combat.

*Hauptmann Wagner returns Rommel's salute and then watches the General depart.*

As before, I would expect Rommel to be difficult to maintain radio contact with once the battle begins. If we want to keep track of 7th Panzer Division forces, we will need our units to maintain visual contact with them. A recon aircraft would definitely help keep an eye on their progress.

To victory, for Germany!

### Debriefing

Victory is ours, Herr General!

With the fall of Lille complete, we have dealt a mortal blow to the French presence in the Low Countries. With the best French divisions scattered, the remaining British helplessly cling to their foothold on the continent at Dunkirk.

I believe, Herr General, we have executed Manstein's plan to it's fullest potential. If...

*Rommel is interrupted by an exhausted looking motorcycle courier, who hands him a message.*

Hmm, it looks like High Command has finally caught up to me. Your unit and my 7th Panzer are being ordered to rest, and I am being summoned back to Berlin.

You sound disappointed, Herr Rommel. Surely they will be pleased with our successes?

Perhaps, but such a personal summons is extremely unusual.

If you will excuse me, I believe I will rest for a few hours before leaving for Berlin. General %playername%, congratulations once again.

*Rommel salutes and departs.*

*Before Hauptmann Wagner can speak, the telephone in the communications tent begins to ring.*

Ja, this is Wagner.

*The person on the other end of the line is speaking.*

Understood, thank you.

An update on our own orders just came in. It appears the effort at Dunkirk could use some reinforcement, they have asked if we can spare any of our aircraft to support the operations there.

It will be extremely unusual to only deploy our aircraft without any ground forces. Might be dangerously overextending our air power if we go.

We might want to just claim we cannot spare our fighters and bombers to support, and rest our whole force until the next full deployment.

The decision is yours, Herr General.

**Historically, the Siege of Lille lasted for mere days. Before the French could set up a proper defensive position, Rommel's arrival from the south had them outflanked and encircled.**

**Even so, the French resistance managed to buy precious time for the evacuation now underway on the coast of the English Channel. While tens of thousands of French would be taken prisoner at Lille, their sacrifice helped enable the escape for hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers at Dunkirk.**

**Under Rommel's command, the 7th Panzer Division was one of the hardest fighting and furthest advancing units of the campaign against France. Their speed was so rapid, not only had the French and British often lost track of them, even German High Command struggled to keep up with their progress and positions**

**For this ability to advance so fast and appear where they were completely unexpected, the 7th Panzer Division was nicknamed the Ghost Division.**

## Locations

* Arras

* Lille

* Lens

* Douai

* Tournai

* Ypres

* Merville

* Roubaix

* Kortrijk

* La Scarpe River

* Canal d'Aire

* Deule River

* Arras

* Lille

* Lens

* Douai

* Tournai

* Ypres

* Merville

* Roubaix

* Kortrijk

* La Scarpe River

* Canal d'Aire

* Deule River

## Messages

* Bonus Objective to Capture all Victory Hexes completed.
Earned Commendation Points: 1.
Total Commendation Points: %d.

* ***Hauptmann Wagner:*** Mein General, some of our forces have found a hidden French aircraft depot. We've commandeered the contents and you can access them as captured equipment.

* Bonus Objective to Capture all Victory Hexes completed.
Earned Commendation Points: 1.
Total Commendation Points: %d.

* ***Hauptmann Wagner:*** Mein General, some of our forces have found a hidden French aircraft depot. We've commandeered the contents and you can access them as captured equipment.

## Notes

* Capturing all 8 non-Lille victory hexes will award 1 Commendation Point.
* Capturing the airfield at (23, 3) will give players 35 Strength points worth of D.520 Fighters.
* Notable allied formations:
	+ 7th Panzer Division
* Notable enemy units:
	+ 2nd Chasseurs Alpins, which is Level 1 and has 20 Strength points and a hero with the No Supply trait.
	+ 40th Char B1, which is Level 1 and has a hero with the Fearsome Reputation and Aiming Assistance traits.
	+ 54th Somua S35, which is Level 1 and has a hero with the AT Support, Tank Killer and Fast Entrenchment traits.
	+ 100th D.520, which is Level 1 and has a hero with the Resilent and Survivor traits.