Advances in France
Close on the heels of the Liberation of Paris came victories for the French army in the areas around the towns of Chateaux Thierry and Belfort, with Napoleon IV’s troops following hot on the heels of Reichsheer as they steadily fell back towards Germany itself.
These victories were followed almost immediately by an armoured offensive into undefended western Flanders and Wallonia, with French tanks bursting through the gap between the lines of the remaining Royal French forces in Pas-de-Calais and the northern flank of the German army in Rheims.
While this offensive was forced to halt outside well-defended Bruxelles, prongs of the offensive were able to reach Namur and the river Meuse as well as the small sea side town of Dunkerque, trapping the remnants of the Royal French forces in an immense pocket stretching from Calais to Dieppe at the same time as a major French offensive was nearing the point of liberating Rheims.
Seemingly unstoppable, the French victories continued with Rheims being taken on the 17th of June and Sedan, site of the downfall of the Second French Empire, being taken on the 18th. And to those looking at the maps of the front lines on the 19th it was clear beyond a shadow of the doubt that the German goliath, while still mighty, was reeling in the saddle from the League onslaught and might fall completely in the near future.
But nor was everything going in favour of the League - as evidenced by the turn of events in the Middle East where, thanks to neglect by all but a Portugese expeditionary force, Persia had been almost entirely overrun by a Ukrainian offensive launched via the steppes of Central Asia.
Close on the heels of the Liberation of Paris came victories for the French army in the areas around the towns of Chateaux Thierry and Belfort, with Napoleon IV’s troops following hot on the heels of Reichsheer as they steadily fell back towards Germany itself.
These victories were followed almost immediately by an armoured offensive into undefended western Flanders and Wallonia, with French tanks bursting through the gap between the lines of the remaining Royal French forces in Pas-de-Calais and the northern flank of the German army in Rheims.
While this offensive was forced to halt outside well-defended Bruxelles, prongs of the offensive were able to reach Namur and the river Meuse as well as the small sea side town of Dunkerque, trapping the remnants of the Royal French forces in an immense pocket stretching from Calais to Dieppe at the same time as a major French offensive was nearing the point of liberating Rheims.
Seemingly unstoppable, the French victories continued with Rheims being taken on the 17th of June and Sedan, site of the downfall of the Second French Empire, being taken on the 18th. And to those looking at the maps of the front lines on the 19th it was clear beyond a shadow of the doubt that the German goliath, while still mighty, was reeling in the saddle from the League onslaught and might fall completely in the near future.
But nor was everything going in favour of the League - as evidenced by the turn of events in the Middle East where, thanks to neglect by all but a Portugese expeditionary force, Persia had been almost entirely overrun by a Ukrainian offensive launched via the steppes of Central Asia.