While Europa presents the most thorough coverage of World War Two's European Theater of Operations by far, the only game in the series that yet gives full import to land, air and sea is Their Finest Hour (TFH). While FITE/SE and Fall of France give the sweep of land operations and struggle for air supremacy, the addition of complete fleets in TFH presents not only the importance of the naval arm, but also adds the trickiest element in the game system.

TFH is, in my mind, the most challenging game in the system, notwithstanding the size of FITE/SE, the tactical complexities of Narvik, or the scope of War in the Desert. It is also the most balanced game, due to this amalgam of forces, and the opportunity for both sides to juggle them into a stunning victory (or ignominious defeat).

When I speak of well-balanced, I rely on the experiences of many a game of TFH played over more than a decade. In most games (versus live opponents and solitaire) I have played the German side. Victory has been, to the best of my memory, equally split between the British and the Germans. In these games I have seen all extremes. In one game the Germans managed to conquer all of Great Britain except for Ireland, north and south, and a tiny beachhead in Northern Scotland, including Fortress Orkney. In another game the Germans "had their clocks cleaned" on the beaches of Cornwall and East Anglia. In the latter game only the end of the game prevented the loss of almost the entire German invasion force.

Relying upon my experiences as the German commander of these several invasions, I wish to present a short, but hopefully controversial, discussion of strategies to conquer the British Isles.

The Air War

By rules, as well as by common sense, the first part (half?) of this game is strictly an air affair. While the British ground forces to be faced in an invasion do not appear to be much of a threat in August 1940, the Royal Air Force is respectable, and the Royal Navy is awesome! Many older articles and reviews have provided advice and calculations on reducing the R.A.F. and knocking out those all-important radar stations.

The old conventional wisdom was that you strove to knock out the bulk of the R.A.F., radar stations being the first targets, followed by airbase hits and lastly, elimination of air units. Aircraft factories were also to be targets of choice. Once the R.A.F. was sufficiently pushed into the interior, blinded by radar hits and unable to produce aircraft replacements, the invasion could begin.

The conventional scenario above is nothing less than a recipe for Gotterdammerung. I propose a radically different air strategy. The first and foremost targets of air strikes, after radar sites, must be the ships of the Royal Navy (notice that I do not quibble with radar strikes, in that this is still the way to do the most with the least, effectively eliminating British interceptor abilities with some well-placed Stukas).

To understand my reasoning, in an early game I was treated to the sight of the Home Fleet meeting a brave, but tiny, Kriegsmarine off the coast of East Anglia, making short work of the surface ships, despite some good U-boat coverage, and then playing "cat and mouse" with the transports and supply lines. Before any invasion may go in, the largest British capital ships must be sunk or seriously crippled, and any vessel of any size must be cleared from all ports between Milford Haven and Kingston-Upon-Hull. A tough order, but not impossible when you forego strikes on air targets.

Implausible, you say? A successful German landing is not possible while a substantial part of the Home Fleet remains afloat and close to the invasion site. At any rate, reduction of the R.A.F. will take care of itself as it attempts to cover the fleet. The superior German fighters should be based as close to England as possible (use those construction engineers!).

Contrary to popular myth, air-to- air combat should be encouraged early on to whittle the R.A.F. down. If sufficient British fighter losses occur during the air battle, the British bombers will be able to do little (except get shot down) when the invasion begins. Even the loss of German bombers on long-range (unescorted) anti- shipping missions is worth it if the result is to reduce the R.N.

Once the R.N. has been significantly reduced and forced to move north out of harm's way, the invasion should begin immediately, with no more than one turn of pure anti- air strikes. It will be found that the Luftwaffe can spend the balance of the game doing two missions. One, keeping the R.N. at bay and two, supporting the Wehrmacht.

There is only one turn where ground support should be the primary mission of the Luftwaffe, that being the invasion turn. It can be expected that German units will likely land in hexes adjacent to British units defending the coast. Air support will be the only way of bringing up the odds, unless a German ship or two is lucky enough to get a shot in.

Once German units have established a beachhead and recombined into their divisions, ground support should only be needed for great breakthroughs or to take city hexes. Fighters should be transferred to England to put down any R.A.F. bombers still trying to interfere with the ground battle.

Ground and Naval Operations

Since an amphibious invasion is nothing but the combination of ground and naval operations, they will be discussed together.

The most important decision to make in TFH is where to land the invasion. The flat terrain of the British Isles provides ample choices. You are hindered in the game only by the increasing transport costs as you move away from the Continent, and the resulting reduction in air and naval cover, not to mention the extended supply line. Your serious choices are limited to a beach, or beaches, between Milford Haven and Kingston-Upon-Hull. Your criteria are that it must not be more than one sea zone away from the Continental ports and within air range of most bombers, long-range fighters and airborne transports.

The classic invasion ground, predicted by many "Operation Sea Lion" researchers, and advised by many a gamer, is the Strait of Dover coast (the game even provides a special chart for this area). You can be assured that this will also be the most heavily defended area. Dover is favorable, not only for its proximity to air bases and ports on the Continent, but also because of the ability to concentrate German naval power there to best defend against the inevitable sortie. It also commends itself as an area scarcely four hexes from London. Its disadvantage is that it can be contained quickly and easily. From personal experience, the game where I mounted a concentrated invasion into this region succeeded in overrunning the entire island, less northernmost Scotland.

Another area to consider is Cornwall, although this can be sealed up and isolated by the British with a line from Bristol and Exeter. Yet another is East Anglia, although this places units as far away as possible from any crucial objectives, and is exposed to a Royal Navy sortie from Scapa Flow.

The other choice to be made at this time is whether or not to split your forces and invade in two areas. My most devastating defeat came from trying this once. I landed a balanced force on infantry and armor in Cornwall, on the south coast west of Exeter, and a second force in East Anglia between Harwich and Great Yarmouth. My Cornwall force got ashore, as the Brits simply formed a line anchored on Bristol and Bournemouth and turned that front into something akin to Ypres.

In the east, my reduced force in East Anglia could barely cling to three coastal hexes, not even adjacent to each other. The R.N. made a devastating run on my supply transports and my East Anglia force never even made it off the beaches. With these units wasted, the Cornwall force didn't have the strength to push further east than Reading and the game ended with the invasion force withering away in Devon and its commander fearing an imminent visit by the Gestapo!

This is not to say that splitting your invasion force should never be done. However, the British internal communications net is too good (and everything is too close together) to cause the British much difficulty in fending off widely separated invasions. Any split invasion should still come ashore close enough for mutual support to occur. I have done this successfully by landing a force around Southampton and another around Brig hton/Eastbourne/Dover.

The first landing prevents a British line from forming to bottle up the Dover landing while being close enough to provide support should the Dover landing bog down. The two forces can then quickly combine for a push on London by the second or third turn of the invasion. This latter strategy also prevents your already inadequate naval forces from being split and annihilated piecemeal.

As far as German naval forces are concerned, they should be kept warm and happy in port until the turn of invasion. If you choose a single landing site, concentrate everything you have, including the S.M.S. Kitchen Sink, in that sea zone. An exception would be some U-boats to hover outside major naval bases and in adjacent sea zones to get their licks in on any R.N. sortie before it reaches the flock of transports off the invasion beaches. Mines should likewise be carefully husbanded until this turn and laid to maximum capacity starting with the invasion sea zone and then the next zones in the direction of the largest R.N. concentration.

Use those torpedo boats only as escorts for the transports, don't squander them attacking R.N. units in other sea zones. (My experience is that their return of hits balanced against losses in combat alone does not warrant their use independent of the rest of the fleet.) Lastly, while the bulk of the Luftwaffe will be concentrating on ground support on the invasion turn, detail all of your Stukas (if they can reach) plus a few fighter escorts to naval interception in the inva'sion sea zone if there is a chance of a significant R.N. force reaching the invasion fleet. If no major British sortie materializes, all of this concentrated Kriegsmarine power can provide some worthwhile ground support and suppression of coastal defenses.

The question of timing is related to the commitment of the Kriegsmarine. The invasion must begin as early as possible, both to allow for maximum time to capture objectives and to allow the British the fewest possible turns to upgrade their Army. To play it even minimally safe, however, you should wait until October I for the arrival of sufficient naval escorts (Oct II would bring you a much- needed battlecruiser).

Once the invasion force has succeeded in getting ashore and established a firm front (I mean more than just beach hexes), the only act left to play out is protecting the supply lines back to the Continent. Once again, this must remain the Luftwaffe's primary role until you are absolutely certain that the Royal Navy is no longer a threat.

You may wonder why I have not mentioned the paratroops. In most games that I have played, they have been used in the obvious role of flanking attackers, landing one hex behind the beach defenders and adding their attack values to those units coming ashore. To assure that your units make it ashore during the invasion, I would not deviate from this role.

However, in the event your landing beach is so lightly covered that no assistance is needed, holding back the paras will provide you with an excellent strike force to employ in the next few turn for a breakout, to help form a pocket around a British concentration, or to cut off vitally needed British reinforcements from arriving on time in your area. I even used them once in a successful operation against the Orkneys, ala Crete, based out of Norway.

The land campaign against Great Britain, given adequate supply lines, needs no special elaboration here. My experience has been that the British will put their greatest effort into holding London and the Midlands. All else is easily overrun by German Panzer corps. Once the Germans have broken into the Midlands and assaulted the cities there, the game is all but over. Fast units may have time to sweep north into Scotland, but I have yet to see anybody have the time or ability to get into any part of Ireland.

No, I have never seriously contemplated an invasion of Ireland, for with all the distance problems this might as well be an expedition to the Canary Islands (Hitler actually planned the latter, but not the former).

Conclusion

In writing this article I have attempted to combine into one fairly short piece what might have been better covered by a series of articles (or a recurring column). Much detail is left out, both for the sake of presenting an operational/strategic overview and a chance to write for TEM again. My hope is that this article will stimulate discussion of this and other Europa games besides FitE/SE. I therefore welcome spirited critiques, commentary, and hopefully a lot of contrasting points of view. How about an opinion from the British side?