This was a dynamic, fast scenario. Panzer Lehr had a battalion of infantry, half gepanzert, and a battalion of Pz-IVs to try to take a town on a hill and exit off the far end of a narrow, two-board battlefield. The British had a battalion of infantry with a company of Shermans and an Achilles with which to stop them.

The British set up a forward dug-in line of two infantry companies backed by an AT battery, with their armor and the rest of the infantry in and around the town on the hill farther back. The Germans sent half their infantry to take the west side of the British front, with the majority of their tanks on the east side hoping to blow past the British and quickly deal with the tanks behind the line. The rest of the German infantry, gepanzert, and a company of tanks, waited in the middle to break through and take the town.

The game developed quickly, with the Germans attempting to overrun and cut off the British front rather than methodically reduce and eliminate them. Some of the German panzers advanced adjacent to two stacks of British infantry, hoping the massive DF would quickly dislodge them. Two platoons of British took the risky initiative to assault the panzers, wiping out 3 steps in a fusilade of PIATs. Meanwhile, the German panzers on the east flank took losses due to long range tank fire from the hill. Using a bounding overwatch they reduced some Shermans to flaming wrecks, but by the time they had reached the base of the hill their force was shattered, just 2.5 platoons left out of 6 that started out.

In the center, the German reserves committed themselves, racing past the still grappling British and Germans in the front lines and using some fields as cover to advance on the town. A panzer company marched right up to the first town hex where the Tommies worriedly eyed them. Unfortunately, most of the gepanzert infantry was wiped out on the move by British AT fire. The remnants diverted to try to deal with this threat, leaving the panzers alone in front of the town. They in turn blasted the British infantry, but were caught in a deadly AT crossfire, including the last gasps of the British armor to the east of town. Suddenly in a precarious position, the tanks were then assaulted by British infantry from the town, who again wielded their PIATs to great effect.

At this point the Germans had effectively lost, having sustained massive losses without anything to show for it. I played on for a few turns as the German leadership tried to round up a company or so of wounded and stragglers to try to bypass the town hexes controlled by the British in order to capture a few in the rear. Judicious artillery fire broke up this attempt and the Germans threw in the towel.

Huge British victory.

I think I was way too aggressive with my German advance. I had more time on the clock but I gambled that bypassing half the British force in isolated front line dugouts would work. Unfortunately they kept morale nicely and made an orderly retreat, mixing it up with the Germans as they fell back and preventing any kind of concentration of forces capable of taking the town. Nicely done, lads, pip pip!