Decisive Victory 1918 - Vol. I Soissons

Game scale
Unit size: Regiment/Division
Game Turn: 6 Hour Day/ 12 Hour Night
Map Scale: 1 Kilometer per hex

Whatever you do, you lose a lot of men – General Mangin, commander French 10 Army.

The Battle of Soissons, 18 July to 28 July, 1918, is little known today, particularly in the English-speaking world. It is significant for a number of reasons; it was the first time that the French army used a large-scale attack with tanks supported by a surprise (i.e. not pre-registered) artillery bombardment, similar to the British attack the previous year at Cambrai, and it was the first time that full-size US divisions went on the offensive incorporated in the French army. But most importantly, it was the opening of the Second Battle of the Marne. It was not known at the time, although suspected by many, that this battle was the death-knell of the German army.

French 10 Army, reinforced by US troops, had been assembled to strike the over-stretched German forces on one side of the Soissons – Château Thierry – Reims salient. The French had sixteen infantry divisions, including two US corps-sized divisions, as well as over three hundred tanks. The Germans facing them consisted of ten divisions, the quality of which varied widely although all had taken a battering during the Spring Offensive fighting. The German positions had been reached a few weeks previously during the final thrust of the offensives and therefore there had been no time to extensively fortify it; thus the battle was far more mobile than most of those previously on the Western Front. In addition, German artillery was sparse at the start of the battle because all of the heavy & super-heavy artillery in the area had been sent north for the planned Hagen Offensive in Flanders, giving the French a roughly 2.5:1 advantage in artillery. Although the battle continued beyond when the game ends, it was largely over by the 23 July, progress after that day being very slow, which is why the simulation terminates on that day. The German defence at Soissons was skilfully executed, particularly as the attack had been a complete surprise.