Only Loose Canon has yet to confirm. I think we can go ahead and start. One final note to help town: this game was created using the 2d3 system.
PrologueMarch 21, 1918 St. Quentin
We knew the Germans were planning on something. For two months we saw them massing across the trenches. There were a few deserters also who told us things that left no doubt - they were coming. We only lacked the exact date and time they were going to attack. At 04:35 on March 21 it began.
Winston Churchill wrote:And then, exactly as a pianist runs his hands across the keyboard from treble to bass, there rose in less than one minute the most tremendous cannonade I shall ever hear...It swept round us in a wide curve of red leaping flame stretching to the north far along the front of the Third Army, as well as of the Fifth Army on the south, and quite unending in either direction...the enormous explosions of the shells upon our trenches seemed almost to touch each other, with hardly an interval in space or time...The weight and intensity of the bombardment surpassed anything which anyone had ever known before.
The tear gas, mustard gas and chlorine gas started filling the trenches, combining with smoke and dust from the explosions. 3.5 million shells had been launched in just a few hours. The telephones didn't work - the lines had been cut! As we attempted to retreat we realized that the Germans were already behind us. The day was just getting started, but already we had a massacre. Those who didn't run out of ammo ended up burned by the flamethrowers. As the fog cleared, the planes roared into action above us. Some squads fought on the bitter end, awaiting reinforcements that never came - the orders had already been given to fall back.
In 24 hours, almost 80 000 men lost their lives.
In some bizarre twist of fate, several of us generals met in one trench. "The Germans won't find us here". We camped together for the night and when we awoke, somebody had been stabbed in their sleep!
March 22, 1918
We kept falling back, not knowing what was to either direction. We could here fighting in every direction but we weren't sure if the trench we were in was friendly or not. Once again it was a foggy, chaotic day. As we stopped for lunch we figured it was time to figure out who had carried out the late night stabbing. It was truly a cowardly act, probably some personal grudge from years ago.
Day One Begin