Played via Skype with Vince Hughes

Weeks of trying to break through the West Wall were beginning to take a toll on Capt. Woosey and his company. Ordered to accompany Combat Command B (CCB) of the 3rd Armored "Spearhead" Division, Capt. Woosey and his men left the warm, dry shelter of their recently captured German village quarters and loaded onto their M3's. The dreary, wet November weather had turned the surrounding German agricultural lands into a quagmire of mud and slow-going. Capt. Woosey neglected his instructions to coordinate closely with the tanks of CCB and most of the division's Shermans, Fireflies, and Stuarts attempted to circle around to the west and flank the German defenders in Hastenrath. The equally exhausted tankers cursed the infantry for being cowardly slaggards and not properly defending them from the feared Kraut AT prowess and refused to head straight down the road. The tankers had also heard tales of heavily mined roads and powerful German StuGs and had no intention of facing them without a proper infantry screen.

Both the infantry company and armored platoons seriously underestimated the terrible weather conditions and soon found their forward progress to be extremely slow as boots, tracks, and wheels all slogged through the muddy farm land. The frustrated and fairly timid Captain Woosey(7.0.0) eventually decided his men could move almost as fast on foot as their laboring halftracks and ordered the company to unload and advance. Alas, a German spotter in the Hasternath church steeple called in mortars and artillery on the doughboys. Capt. Woosey was the first to find cover in a deep, soggy shell hole (disrupted) where he remained for the rest of the battle. Disgusted with the behavior of his commanding officer, Lt. 10.0.1 assumed command and order the company to continue slogging through the fields to the southeast of Hastenrath. The first men to make it to the edge of the farmfields in sight of Hastenrath, an infantry and engineer platoon, were obliterated by the German Grenadiers and machine guns on the edge of town.

The German StuG IV's fired several effective shots demoralizing the few foolhardy Shermans and Fireflies who had boldly moved down the main road. Laughing at the poorly coordinated American movements and realizing that any threat from the south had been effectively terminated, the German armor leader ordered the StuG IV's to move to the opposite side of Hastenrath and fend off the rest of Combat Command B that had finally broken through the German fields. Not to be outdone by the armor, the German Major ordered his grenadiers and engineers to assault the encroaching American AFV's. Even though no panzerfausts could be found, the Germans clearly sensed the uncoordinated and hesitant movements of the American tanks and rushed forward to assault. In no time at all, fully two thirds of CCB's tanks had been reduced and demoralized and the American attack had become a complete disaster. Lt. 10.0.1 cursed the futility of the day, called in some artillery, and took some small satisfaction in demoralizing or disrupting the German infantry that were still swarming around the burning hulks of Shermans.

The West Wall would not be breached today!

Result: Major Victory for the German defenders.