Forgotten Battles: Raids in the European Theatre 1939-1945

Used by most nations to carry the war to the enemy, even when outnumbered or defeated, raids provided a means of harassing the enemy out of all proportion to the numbers of fighting troops committed. In 1940, after a series of significant reverses, Winston Churchill famously ordered the Special Operations Executive to ‘Set Europe Ablaze’. At the same time, he instructed the combined chiefs of staff to instigate a series of airborne and amphibious incursions into enemy territory to harass the enemy and equally importantly, let the defeated nations of Europe know that the British and her allies were continuing the fight in their stead. This was a classic example of how raids could be used and which across both the Allies and Axis led to the formation of some of the most famous specialised military units in history such as Commandos, Rangers and the Brandenburgers.

You will find 16 scenarios in this module, from Platoon to Brigade level. They are presented in chronological order and several of them are linked to enable mini campaigns to be completed. There are ‘Special Rules’ to enhance the playability and accuracy of each scenario. Some of the individual scenarios will be extremely challenging and have included campaigns and units not used before within our scenario sets – Finnish Jaegers during the Winter War in 1939 being one example.