Swallows of Death:
Scenario Preview, Part One
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
February 2023

We promised to support the release of the new Playbook edition of 1940: The Fall of France with expansions, and we’re delivering with 1940: Swallows of Death. It’s a book with 35 scenarios highlighting the battles waged by Moroccan troops in the service of France. It also comes with 88 new die-cut and silky-smooth pieces showing the Moroccans in their own color scheme, and adding a few additional French units and weapons.

1940: Swallows of Death highlights the battles of the French Army’s toughest outfit, the 1st Moroccan Division. During the years after the Great War, the French had tried to create a true “Nation in Arms,” building an army of small cadres requiring the infusion of reservists before seeing combat. But the great losses of the First World War made it difficult to draw men away from their civilian occupations for too long. Even first-line divisions suffered deficiencies in training and readiness.

That wasn’t the case with the Moroccan regiments: long-service regulars with experience in France’s colonial conflicts. They had earned a reputation for hard fighting in World War One, and would prove it well-deserved in 1940 and again during the Liberation.

Like other Panzer Grenadier books and games, 1940: Swallows of Death follows our chapter structure, with a battle game linking the scenarios together. Let’s have a look at the first chapter’s scenarios.

Chapter One
The Moroccans at Gembloux
Once the German offensive began, the French First Army surged into central Belgium to meet it head-on. The armored Cavalry Corps skirmished with the panzers in the tank battle at Hannut, while the French III and IV Corps settled in around Gembloux. The Gembloux Gap had few natural obstacles, and presented a clear pathway for the Germans across Belgium and into northern France.

On the French left, III Corps had two divisions, 2nd North African Division on the left and 1st Motorized Infantry Division on the right. Both stood at full strength, but like all French divisions included a sizeable proportion of reservists. On the French right, the 1st Moroccan Division occupied the left of IV Corps, with its center directly at the town of Gembloux where the strength of the German attack could be expected. On the right of the Moroccans, 15th Motorized Infantry Division held the line, under the command of Alphonse Juin, who had served in the Moroccan troops during the Great War and would later become a Marshal of France.

The Moroccans had a far higher proportion of regulars than the metropolitan French divisions, though they lacked all of their support weapons including the crucial 25mm anti-tank guns. The “Swallows of Death” had a very high reputation, however, which led to their placement at the crux of the coming battle.

Scenario One
First Contact
Between Ernage and Gembloux, Belgium
14 May 1940
The Allied “Dyle Plan” had called for a line of anti-tank obstacles around the Belgian cities of Wavre and Namur that would slow the German advance long enough to allow French infantry to dig in behind it. But when the Cavalry Corps retreated, the defenses might as well not have existed at all and only delayed the panzers very briefly. Around the small city of Gembloux, the crack 1st Moroccan Division feverishly dug in to meet the armored assault. On the morning of the 14th, the first German tanks arrived – a company from the 35th Panzer Regiment, along with some armored cars, that had simply followed the retreating tanks of the French Cavalry Corps as though they belonged with them.

Conclusion
The Germans struck quickly, hoping to take the French by surprise. By 1000 the German tanks had penetrated into the town of Ernage, up to the railway line. Two companies of the 1st Moroccan Tirailleurs held the town, with a third behind the railway embankment. They opened fire with their 25mm guns at point-blank range, destroying nine of them while the rest of the panzers fled behind a screen from more tanks of the 35th Panzer Regiment. The Germans would try again in the afternoon, supported by Stuka dive bombers, and again in a third attempt, but the Moroccans held their ground.

Notes
This is a very small scenario, just half a map and a few companies of Germans – but the Moroccans meet them with a full battalion, anti-tank guns and sky-high morale. This one is not likely to result in blitzkrieg.

Scenario Two
Fais ce que tu fais
Between Ernage and Gembloux, Belgium
14 May 1940
After calling in more air support to work over the Moroccans, the Germans came up the ancient Roman road again in a frontal attack ordered by XVI Corps commander Gen. Erich Hoepner to “eject the mechanized enemy force to the front and advance . . . in the general direction of Gembloux.” But the long-service regulars of the 2nd Moroccan Tirailleur Regiment prepared to receive them with their simple regimental motto: Aamal li aalik oua kamal. Do what you do.

Conclusion
Shortly after 1630 the Germans appeared in front of the railway embankment. Following another Stuka bombardment, they surged forward, aiming at the La Croix bridge (Hex 0705). There, they met French 25mm anti-tank guns which destroyed eight tanks at the cost of two anti-tank guns lost. German infantry and more tanks entered the village to clear it and even captured 50 Moroccans. Despite the rescue, the Germans eventually had to retreat under the cover of mortar fire. Their armor pulled back about 600 meters to find cover.

Notes
This is another small battlefield, with more troops jammed on it as this time the Germans eventually bring some infantry support for their tanks. The Moroccans are still eager for the fight, which is going to make this very difficult for the Germans.

Scenario Three
Sart-Ernage Farm
Between Ernage and Gembloux, Belgium
15 May 1940
Both German attacks against the railway line at Gemboux failed on 14 May, with the “colored” Moroccans turning back the Master Race with ease. On the next morning, the Germans ruined a magnificent sunrise by sending in a flight of Stukas to pour loads of bombs into the Moroccan lines. Soon afterward, the tanks and infantry of 4th Panzer Division attacked in much greater numbers than they had the day before. But the French artillery got the jump on their German counterparts, silencing the enemy guns and depriving the pioneers of the covering fire they’d need to push through the railway obstacle. Meanwhile south of Ernage, the French built their defense around the Sart-Ernage farm, turning it into a strongpoint bristling with mortars, machineguns and antitank guns (including the powerful 47mm APX).

Conclusion
The 4th Panzer Division’s tanks joined the fray far too soon, allowing French heavy artillery, minefields and well-sited anti-tank guns to wreak havoc in their ranks. Squad leader Louis Brindejonc commanding one of the 25mm anti-tank guns claimed seven German tanks that morning. Fierce and bloody fighting raged along the sunken railway before the Germans retreated and allowed the Stukas to pummel the defenders again. The German infantry then continued the assault alone, and at a high price they successfully infiltrated the railway to move into the fields beyond it. Forces diverted from the heavy fighting near the railway station at Gembloux eventually joined them, once the Germans figured out that the Moroccans could not be dislodged from there. By noon the French forces had lost heavily themselves in numerous close assaults, but the counterattack to restore their line was ready for launch.

Notes
This scenario is a lot of fun: huge numbers of troops jammed onto one board, fighting it out nose-to-nose. The Germans are very good, as befits a crack panzer division, but the Moroccans have even better morale and just as many leaders.

Scenario Four
Red Dusk
Gembloux, Belgium
15 May 1940
The German assault on Gembloux itself had gotten nowhere. Rebuffed by rock-solid Moroccan infantry backed by extremely accurate French artillery fire, the Germans paid a heavy price in men and machines. The one bright spot for them was a point between Ernage and Gembloux where they had been able to punch a hole through the railway line and overrun the hidden antitank guns there. Then word came around midday that 3rd Panzer Division had pierced the line at Perbais and Ernage, and that brought on a new German attack with air support. The French began to give way around the Lagasse farm just north of Gembloux, but then the armored counterattack that had been ordered at 1130 finally began.

Conclusion
The Germans poured heavy fire into the French, whose infantry became separated from their tanks. Around the Lagasse farm, some of the R35s ran into the minefields laid by their own infantry while others were disabled by German anti-tank fire or pinned down by German tanks arriving from Ernage to the north. By 1830 the counterattack had ground to a halt, but the Germans had been stopped and ended up withdrawing behind the railway. Unfortunately, as darkness fell on the battlefield the French success at Gembloux would be voided by German victory farther south.

Notes
It’s just a one-board scenario, but there are lots of troops running around. The French are on the attack with numbers on their side, Moroccan morale, and armor superiority. It’s going to be a tough close-quarters fight.

Scenario Five
Furia Marocchina
Northwest of Gembloux, Belgium
15 May 1940
Denied in the morning, the Germans returned to the attack with the full strength of two panzer divisions. The Moroccans continued to hold firm, but Ernage remained a soft spot. Only the obstinate Lt. Jouval’s 3rd Company still fought on, in the south end of the village, and 3rd Panzer Division began to bypass the village and push further west and to the southeast, to close the gap with the 4th Panzer Division stalled in front of the railway.

Conclusion
General Albert Mellier of 1st Moroccan Division committed his entire reserve to the counterattack, intending to retake the railway line. The forces moved out early in the afternoon but were slowed by Stuka attacks and German artillery fire. Then as they neared the scene of action, all of the supprting Renault 35 tanks were abruptly rerouted to Gembloux. That left the infantry no armor support, but nonetheless the arrival of reinforcements stiffened French resolve. Around 2030, French antitank guns destroyed five panzers in the space of just a few minutes. Then the Moroccans at the front, the 7th Company of the 7th Moroccan Tirailleurs Regiment, stood with a shout of Allahu Akbar! and charged the Germans. The Moroccan bayonets forced the Germans back behind the railway. The day ended with a clear French victory, if a Pyrrhic one. The Gembloux battle would be the lone example during the 1940 campaign of an infantry division successfully blocking an armored advance.

Notes
Anytime you get to shout Allahu Akbar at the game table, at Nazis nonetheless, it’s a good day. The Germans have good numbers and morale, but the French are Moroccans. And they have an outside chance of seeing some actual air support.

And that’s it for Chapter One. Next time, Chapter Two.

You can order Swallows of Death right here.
Please allow an additional three weeks for delivery.

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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.

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