Invasion of Freiga Proper

The Invasion of Freiga Proper was the German invasion of the Freigan Mainland in June 1940 to remove the last remaining presence of Aliied forced on 'continental' eorupe in preparation for operation sea lion, the invasion of Great Britain. In many ways the Germans used the landings on Freiga to test a supposed invasion of Britain using the same tactics as planned for Britain.

The Islands were defended by a mixture of Freigan, Dutch, Danish and British contingents that only managed to hold back the Germans for 4 days before the official Capitulation. Sporadic fighting did continue that later consolidated into the Freigan Resistance that operated until liberation in 1945. The war was characterised by fast moving mobil infantry movements by both sides over the flat terrain of southern Freiga and the heavy use of Artillery and Aerial Dive bombing to weaken Freigan strongholds. The war ended in the evacuation of Allied forces and the Occupation of Freiga.

Background
Freiga entered the second world war on the 9th April 1940 with the German invasion of Denmark and North Frisia leading to the a declaration of war by Freiga upon Germany. North Frisa had no military personnel from Freiga as defence was operated by Danish Armed Forces. A nearby Freigan vessel did manage to evacuate 53 Danish soldiers and some 20mm Madsen cannons that were later used in the defence of Freiga. Further to this a section of the Danish Navy and a contingent of the Army did escape after they received a release note from the King of Denmark which he later denied issuing. The order is presumed to be fake yet still some of the forces that escaped reached Freiga.

On 5th May Germany issued Fall Gelb the invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Frisia) which saw the first engagement of Freigan soldiers against Germans. Freigan forces were easily out gunned by the mechanised German panzers and found the vintage WWI Streijke M03 rifles ineffective against armoured cars. 3,000 Freigan soldiers did make it to the coast where the Freigan navy which still had relative control over Freigan waters managed to evacuate most and some 2,500 Dutch personnel including a DAF M39 armoured car squadron.

The Blitzkrieg continued into France ending on the 25th of May. During this time Britain and Belgium had been obliterated. Britain in an attempt to counter german aggression did deploy an unknown amount of soldiers and heavy equipment on Freiga to help resist the inevitable invasion that started the day after France fell, the 26th.

Freiga and Allies
The core of the defence of Freiga was in the hands of the Freigan armed forces whom numbered 30,000 combat personnel. Freiga had a small military due to low population resources. The military was split into a number of armies that roughly followed that of the states under a central command. The Freigan naval forces had all but retreated to Britain by the time of the invasion thus did not take part in the fighting. This was due to air superiority of German forces. The Freigan air elements had also been either evacuated or more seriously destroyed.

The average Freigan soldier was trained to a high professional level having a higher level of training than that of the German forces. This especially focuses on agility over the flat wet farmlands or the northern mountains and a night level of long range marksmanship. Large quantities of gun optics had been acquired after the First World War through war reparations and setting up of optics factories with ex German machinery. This gave the aqud firepower of the Freigan a significant boost. The average squad also had a Madsen LMG chambered in 7.8x60mm Freigan round. These guns were proven in the first world war but were old and were out performed by German MG34s. Submachine Guns were almost unheard of in the Army though a few left behind by marine forces were distributed to some assault designated urban units. The standard rifle was the Strejka which was first introduced in 1905 yet the robust action and acceptable ammunition saw the gun as adequate counter to the German mouser rifles.

Around 2,000 Danish and 5,000 Dutch military personnel all armed with their original national equipment found themselves thrown into the defence of Freiga. They had little heavy equipment and a small number of armoured vehicles. The Danish sections did possess a significant quantity of Nimbus motorcycles some armed with 20mm Madsen auto cannons which scored a number of victories in hit an run tactics. The tactic was so successful that a large number were donated to the resistance by the exiled Danish in June which scored a number of successful armour kills.

Britain also had begun to deposit significant numbers of heavy equipment and soldiers for the defence of the last of 'continental Europe'. The heavy equipment included a number of artillery guns and armoured vehicles. Unfortunately British armour was no match again the German panzer divisions.