This battle was played ftf against Wayne Baumber and was chosen via a random selection. It is meant to portray the SS attempts at relieving Peiper and requires the Germans to open up a road across the board. I hate that as a task as I find it very difficult to contain an enemy that try to get round your flanks and harass the rear. That said, lets be positive and attempt to open those roads up.

1000 hours: American deployment was forced to cover quite a large frontage thus thinning their lines, whilst the German entry was likewise thinned as they were forced to enter in two groups (along a three board long side frontage) . Their mission was to open up a roadway from the south going north towards Stavelot in an effort to relieve Peiper’s men. Despite their split status, they did their best to enter from the south as close to each other as possible. Both groups passed by the empty town of Ster and pushed northwards towards the American dispositions in other villages further along. At this point, the main town of Petit Coo in the the north-west was not given priority by the German advance. For them, their only desire at this stage was to open a road up anywhere from south to north. The American commander saw this fact and sent out two platoons of M5’s eastwards from Petit Coo, leaving just a recon infantry platoon and one further M5 platoon in the town.

In the centre, at 1100 hours, the grenadiers of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler in Schnellgruppe Knittel began to make first contact with the American 117th infantry. Fire was exchanged and it was the Americans that suffered the first losses, losing 1 step to HMG fire backed up with rifle fire. Then, at 1115 hours, the 2 x platoons of M5’s sent from Petit Coo were ambushed on the main road to Ster. German grenadiers attacked the tanks as they passed by on the road, eliminating them all within 20 minutes. This was a wasteful loss by the Americans and achieved nothing. KG Hansen and SG Knittel meanwhile now funneled their attack around either side of the American positions in an attempt to cut off Petit Coo to the west and Renardmont in the east. At the same time, they continued to inflict more losses then the defenders and by 1145 hours (half-way), the US losses were 9 steps, German 2steps.

The Americans sent out a platoon of M4 Shermans to probe east and occupy the main road from Renardmont. In response, the Germans sent out a grenadier and machine-gun platoon to dispute the road with the US tanks. The left flank of the German advance now fanned out west and away from the central battle and headed towards Petit Coo. Their mission would now be to remove the M5’s and IR platoon there. They would be assisted in this by a German armoured car recon unit backed by some half-tracks coming up directly south from Petit Coo. Both these actions on the flanking roads led to a game of cat & mouse as the American forces attempted to remain elusive but at the same time, controlling parts of the road. With the Germans concentrating their efforts here, the Americans in the centre became more aggressive in their approach and actually counter-attacked German positions to their front. With good OBA supporting them, they were able to cause a good few casualties (4 steps) over the next hour, whilst losing about half as many themselves. Ultimately, this aggressive action would prove pointless as it was not going to affect the final flank battles. Some more American infantry pushed out east to try and cause disruption on the roads, but these were headed off without too much trouble. They would never reach their objective.

On the east flank, the German troopers finally made their ground on the tankers and in a 30 minute battle, destroyed the enemy platoon, thus putting to an end any US prescence on this road. To the west, the German armoured cars surprised the American M5’s in Petit Coo and in a short sharp volley, destroyed the US tanks in a blink of an eye. The IR unit remained elusive for some time, but were finally caught up with after running out of escape routes, and they too were rendered hors de combat by 1315 hours.

Both flanking roads were now open, including the important main road through Petit Coo. The troops the Americans did have would not be able to get through to them within the next 30 minutes and therefore, the battle had been lost for them. Final losses – USA 17 steps, German 9 steps. Two roads forced open including Petit Coo means a German major victory.

Well, the roads were opened successfully, but such battles are always nip and tuck. As for rating, its one of those 3.5 type of scores that can't be given. As it was not one of the greats, but was fun, I'll have to rate it as a strong 3. There will be plenty of replay value in this as their are just so many options.