I presume that when the SS labelled themselves the Trash Division it was not to comment on their combat capability. Here they are charged with taking a road away from a smaller Italian force. The Trashies come with substantial firepower support and even with armor. Unfortunately they also come with lousy morale which immediately causes problems.

The Italians have read the victory conditions and set up the bulk of their force in the woods on the crossroad near the west edge of the board. They leave a small outpost on the hill to the northeast of the crossroads and another in the town to the east to delay and hopefully disrupt the SS entry.

The Italian hopes were immediately and decisively met as the bulk of the SS were caught up in an attempt to destroy the outpost in the town. As a result many were disrupted or demoralized and therefore less then useful the rest of the scenario. A scratch force incluing the assault guns attempts to shake the outpost on the hill and instead suffers an AT gun hit from the crossroads and a couple of nasty counterattacks from the dug in defenders of the hill and the SS gave up any hope of even getting to the crossroads to try to compete for the road.

Mr. Benninghof loves to have the SS in situations where they face slaughter and I have caught the bug from him. Many of the SS units were merely criminal enterprises masquerading as troops. This is a great example of what happens when they face anyone with a gun. I give it a "4" for the joy of watching the Trash Division get disposed of.