Golden Journal No. 60
9 April 1940
Publisher’s Preview
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
July 2024

David Kirk wanted Danes in his Panzer Grenadier games. And so, we have Danes!

Golden Journal No. 60: 9 April 1940, sponsored by David, has a very narrow theme: the German invasion of Denmark on, you guessed it, 9 April 1940. On the morning of 9 April 1940, two German infantry divisions and a tank-reinforced motorized brigade surged over the border into Denmark. Airborne landings helped pave the way, and some of the troops landed on the Danish islands from German warships. The small Danish Army, with one day’s preparation as the government hoped to avoid provoking the Germans, resisted for about four hours and could not stop the occupation. Total casualties are still unclear, but about two dozen Danes and slightly fewer Germans were killed in the sporadic fighting.

9 April 1940 is a small Panzer Grenadier expansion based on this brief campaign. We cover all of the (small) battles that took place, and the (larger) battles that German planners expected they might have to fight. Along with those eight new Panzer Grenadier scenarios, you get 24 new die-cut and silky-smooth playing pieces (just like the beautiful pieces in our other books and games). And they’re Danish, with a unique color scheme and national symbol (the traditional Dannebrog battle flag), not generic “Minor Country” pieces. Generic is boring. We don’t do generic.

You’ll need 1940: The Fall of France to play the scenarios. And nothing else.

It’s hard to judge how an army that did not fight, might have fought. The voluminous German outpourings on other campaigns are absent for the most part from this campaign. The Nazi regime wanted to portray their invasion as a bloodless occupation carried out with the acquiescence of the Danish government, and so their propagandists suppressed any talk of combat against the Danes. Not that there was a whole lot to suppress, but the Danes did offer resistance in places despite their orders not to do so.

From a game-design standpoint, I chose to portray the Danes from two separate points of view. The first chapter is based on the actual campaign, with its handful of skirmishes. The Danes are confused, with contradictory orders, and surprised to find the Germans right on top of them. Their morale and initiative, in game terms, are not very good.

Then there’s chapter two, which posits a more prepared and active defense: the Danes have mobilized prior to the attack, and have direct orders to resist the invaders. These Danes are much tougher, and able to fight the Germans toe-to-toe, at least in terms of Panzer Grenadier’s crucial soft factors (initiative, morale and leadership, and a lack of restrictions seen in Chapter One). They’re still out-gunned and out-numbered, and they wear goofy helmets.

That approach is loosely based on what happened in Norway during the same month. Norway had six infantry divisions, and five of them collapsed quickly as the Germans arrived right on top of their mobilization centers before they could fully arm themselves and deploy for battle. But the 6th Infantry Division in far northern Norway had the chance to get ready, and its troops fought very well at Narvik despite being uniforms that made them look like armed mailmen. I decided to treat the mobilized Danes similarly to the mobilized Norwegians: still not very well-armed, but willing and ready to put up a fight.

The Golden Journal offers a lot of leeway to the game designer (who is almost always me), both in terms of topic and the parameters of the scenario set. Since David sponsored it, the topic is clear, and it fits the format pretty much perfectly. The Danes only fought in small units, and the Germans obliged by invading with a minimal force. So those 24 pieces of a standard Golden Journal are sufficient to cover this little campaign.

For a Journal, I don’t mind drawing on multiple sources for maps and other pieces, to make sure the story is everything I wanted; since the Journal only goes to the true hard core, I know they’d rather have completeness and almost certainly already own the required books and games. 9 April 1940 doesn’t really need more than 1940: The Fall of France. The Fall of France has plenty of Panzer I and II light tanks, nice flat terrain, and hordes of German infantry (with their vehicles and support weapons).

Outside of Copenhagen, the historical battles were no more than skirmishes between the Danish forces – some of them motorcycle-borne – and the German spearheads. Resistance didn’t collapse so much as fade away when the orders from Copenhagen became clear (under threat of German bombing, and despite the fanatic insistence of the Royal Guard to keep fighting). Within the capital, the Guards fought like, well, Royal Guards should fight.

In the second chapter, everyone fights like the Royal Guard. The Danes are fairly well-equipped with light anti-tank weaponry (37mm and 20mm cannon; the latter are also found in their machine-gun platoons), and the Germans very obligingly have only sent light tanks and armored cars that are vulnerable to the Danish pop-guns. While the Danes have no combat experience, neither do the Germans (all three of their major formations, two infantry divisions and a motorized brigade, formed in December 1939 and had not yet seen any combat).

This being an Avalanche Press product, there’s more than just scenarios. We use them to tell the story, and also include extensive background on the campaign and the armies that fought it. You an get game-play without context anywhere; we’re looking to craft an immersive historical experience for you, through the framework of the game.

We’ve published a variety of Panzer Grenadier topics in the Golden Journal, almost all of them based on historical topics (the Italian invasion of Albania, the German 78th Storm Division) or history-adjacent (Soviet tank designs, Polish tank designs, over-aged American tanks). It’s an opportunity to tackle topics that might not have a wide audience (and let’s face it, the audience for Danish military history is . . .well, better than that for Albania).

This is a great little package, even if I did design it myself. It’s the sort of topic I want to tackle in both the Golden Journal and Panzer Grenadier, and I’m deeply grateful to David for giving me the opportunity to tell this story.

The Golden Journal is only available to the Gold Club (that’s why we call it the Golden Journal).

Click here to join the Gold Club.
See your Gold Club Insider newsletter for ordering information.

Sign up for our newsletter right here. Your info will never be sold or transferred; we'll just use it to update you on new games and new offers.

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

Want to keep Daily Content free of third-party ads? You can send us some love (and cash) through this link right here.