My Americans crept up to the Gustav line and spotted for smoke. Once concealed the engineers moved forward and discovered a nasty surprise. 4 minefield factors!

I fired more smoke charges but they were ineffective! So, I had to make a choice. Either wait and move down the Gustav line to a less mine-inflicted hex and pray the one smoke counter wouldn’t dissipate. Or move in some INF right now and try to get them across the river before I was spotted.

I chose option 2.

Two infantry advanced. 6 dice were rolled resulting in 5 sixes! Both were blown to pieces and to add insult to the injury, all 3 leaders also died!

And the smoke dissipated.

So, the Germans spotted my engineers and started a mass mobilisation to stop my crossing. I did manage to get a HMG and captain into the barracks, but although “dug in with first fire”, they waffled their attack and were eliminated.

My only success was blowing the StuG out of the barracks with my adjacent M4 from the Gustav line.

By this time, the Germans had congregated near my engineer. With +1 minefield, and +1 Gustav line, the German attacks were devastating. I managed a few more platoons across, but they were quickly eliminated by assault. I ended up with a real leader shortage and was not able to get another leader across, so the poor infantry were cruelly assaulted and eliminated swiftly.

My second M4 entered the Gustav line and was eliminated when a 5,6 was rolled.

Turn 9, the Americans surrendered.

This scenario would have been much better with two engineers. This would allow for a "double" spearhead attack, so the Germans would have to spread their forces among the two crossing attempts (like in Scenario 1). Also, a bad roll at the beginning could mean instant loss for the Americans if the engineer dies early.