This was played over Skype with Alan Sawyer. It was another in that tough grind that was the 'West Wall'. I have to be honest here and confess that when I saw this scenario had a 0-2 advantage in wins to previous US players, and when looking at the low number of German Volksgrenadiers with a 7 morale, their less than average quality leaders having to face trained US troops with tons of tanks, leaders, OBA, engineers including flame-throwers and Crocodile tanks, I kinda had this pencilled in as a loss. What followed was, for me, a stern test and delivered an exciting result.

Merzenhausen had been left to 2 coys from the half-trained 246th Volksgrenadier Division to defend. Low on morale, low on decent leaders and generally low on anything that mattered. They had been promised a bolster to defences in the guise of 2 plns of Tigers, but these were not expected till 0800 hours or after.With 2 battalions of Hell On Wheels GI’s bearing down on them, supported of course by 7 plns of Shermans and Fireflys, Flame-Throwing Crocodiles, Engineers etc, the Volksgrenadiers were being asked to hold the muddy road and Merzenhausen for 5 hours in the face of this onslaught. A tough request !

One platoon of grenadiers were placed southwards to cover the road deployed amongst pillbox positions, behind which mortars and a 75mm Inf.gun pln had been placed. Once battle was joined in earnest, the main focus of the defence would centre around Merzenhausen, and to this end, the rest of the German forces were placed. At 0700 hours, the Americans had been reported approaching from the south along the main highway through the wooded terrain of the Eifel. American I&R coys surged forward in their jeeps rather recklessly and in a well zeroed bombardment, one pln were demolished as they drove straight into the maelstrom of shell leaving a whole lot of mess across the highway. In response, American forces aggressively attacked the forward grenadier pln and pillboxes on the road. Before brushing these aside after a vicious firefight, these German conscripts launched a panzerfaust attack on supporting armoured cars and destroyed them all. For the next half hour, the US troopers had to force the forward enemy defences and this they did well, suffering only some time eaten away and a small loss of cohesion.

From 0900 hours until 1000 hours, the battle now revolved around the Americans battling with muddy conditions to get an orderly attack line together. Neither side suffered casualties to speak of during this period and soon, an American line spanned the southern side of Merzenhausen. The Tiger tanks had also reached the defence of Merzenhausen.

From 1000 both sides pursued their objectives in determined fashion. At first, the Americans tried to weedle out defenders without losing too many of their own, but this laudible, but ineffective plan patently did not work. There was little aggression from American armour as it suffered ‘Tiger Fright’, and US infantry attacks revolved around firepower rather than up close & personal. The Germans clung in the town, waiting each time for the GI’s to expend their initiative before hitting back with varying results. In the course of this hour, the Americans lost 3 foot steps and an M3 pln and the Germans 4 steps and a pillbox position. But it was not a fast enough erosion of the German positions.

With an hour left, the Americans began to finally start ed throwing men headlong into at Merzenhausen. These attacks, supported by engineers and OBA, but not an AFV or flame-thrower in sight caused a lot of damage on the Germans without suffering as much in return. The Germans kept feeding troops into threatened and weakened sectors, and this kept the defence of Merzenhausen alive. The Tigers presence continued to keep US armour at distance and basically out of the battle. This would prove costly as in the end, the Americans ultimately came up short, capturing only half the town and still plenty of road kept open.

Victory appeared to be won by using the Tigers to keep US armour away and also relied on American hesitation at losing troops. As casualties were not an issue in deciding victory, it surprised the Volksgrenadiers to find themselves not feeling the full weight of Combat Command B upon them. For me, it was this paucity of TOTAL US resources that cost the Americans victory. The few turns eaten up at the start of the scenario with the roadblock units should not be forgotten either. These may well have 'bought' as many as 3 turns..... 3 turns that I would not like to have had to hang on for at the end. Alan I believe, will blame the mud and the toughness at capturing a town, but his higher morale against conscripts, and the fact that casualties were not an issue should have led to a far more vigourous attack. Of course we spoke about this after the game, and I know Alan disagrees, but ............... ???