Early afternoon of July 11, 1944, saw the British 7th Armored division – with an edge of 15 AFV platoons to 6 – advancing against Panzer Lehr in the woods north of Lingevres. Both sides also had infantry, the British with a 3-2 edge there. Both sides kept their foot troops to the rear at first, as the armor occupied front and center.

The British used their superior numbers and mobility to seek out the enemy and set up crossfires, mostly in the light woods. Meanwhile the trucked infantry hung back, ready to move up when the German tank threat had been neutralized. But the quantity was offset by quality, the German Panzer IVF2’s and IVH’s having superior armor and armament to the British Cromwells and Stuarts which were 12 of the 15 platoons - and better armor than the Fireflies and Achilles. Early on, the Cromwells were slaughtered, very quickly losing about half, to just a couple of Panzer steps.

Gradually, the Germans were whittled down, though at heavy cost to the British. As the German armor dwindled (one reduced platoon being demoralized and fleeing, taking over an hour to recover) the British infantry trucks, led by a reduced Stuart platoon, moved up the left flank. But the German grenadiers, aided by halftracks, jumped the Stuarts in the trees, and took them out before the infantry arrived, the Tommies having had to dismount early rather than seeing their trucks taken out by the other halftrack platoon while still loaded.

The British infantry did take out the halftrack platoon, but were then set upon by the German infantry and other halftracks, and as the scenario drew to a close had lost half of the infantry and a sergeant, while reducing one grenadier unit. Meanwhile the last of the panzers up front was destroyed, while the half platoon that had fled finally recovered and, at the end of the combat, was on the forest road ready to face the oncoming remnant of the British armor (one and a half Cromwell platoon, and half a Firefly platoon.)

No British units came close to exiting, so it all came down to losses. The British lost 26 of 30 AFV steps and 2 of 6 infantry steps, giving the Germans 54 VP, plus a leader. Panzer Lehr lost 11 of 12 tank steps, a halftrack platoon, and a grenadier step, for 24 British VP. A clearly Major victory for the Germans. I rate the scenario as a 3; it does seem imbalanced due to the relative capabilities of the armor, but perhaps another British approach would work better. Also, the scenario calls for one Daimler and one Stag platoon each, which I don’t; find in the Beyond Normandy counter mix. (I substituted a second Stuart platoon for them.)