This scenario tasked the Germans with holding on to a lot of territory, outnumbered and with no armor support. The main British victory objective was to breach the lines, forcing a corridor at least seven hexes wide running from the East edge to the West edge, free of undemoralized German combat units. So I did what I could with the German deployment and in order to keep these areas blocked across the entire North-South perimeter. I had to divide units into four separate groups. There were no East edge restrictions for where the British forces could enter the map so weak points in German lines could be swiftly approached. Also, there was a bit of hill cover in the Southeastern edge and a small hill before the main ridge in the Northern portion of the map. With the German deployment I kept the stronger of the battlegroups central with most of the trucks and support weapons there, prepared to move and reinforce areas threatened with being breached.

The Britsh advance in two main groups, evenly dispersed in foot units with the 3-inch mortars supporting the Northern group with the Valentines and bren carriers supporting the Southern one. The brens of course dropped off the useless 2-pdrs safe and sound in Eastern edge hill area before catching up with the rest of the units. The plan was simple as to go for the two weakest spots hoping at least one of them would give way and exploiting it, keeping the corridor open until the scenario's end.

Early on at 08:30/turn 3, both sides begin to trade indirect fire resulting in one British HMG being demoralized and left behind in the advance for a few turns while British OBA eliminates one of the German 81mms and demoralizing another. At this point it is clear that German AT and AA guns will not be needed in the Northern sector so they are limbered on trucks and begin to travel South where all the armored units are approaching. At 09:00/turn 5, the Northern British force has made it to the lower ridge area relatively unscathed while the Southern force takes a little more time reaching it's objective. Soon, however, the British second in command, the Lieutenant-Colonel is eliminated after it's stack of INF takes a step loss from opportunity fire. At 10:30/turn 11, British OBA takes out a 37mm and a step of German INF in the North-central area and units are moved in to make assaults while defenders are weakened and have failed a few morale checks.

By 11:00/turn 13, midway through the battle, neither side is gaining the advantage until one of the demoralized German leader character Lieutenants fails a recovery roll with a '12' result and deserts. No reprimand is given and that LC is removed from the campaign. Unfortunately it was also the best LC in play. This seemed to be a harbinger for events that followed as now not only are the British assaulting German positions but they are successful.

At 12:00/turn 17, the first German post is cleared of defending units and German casualites are staggering though gaps are still being filled in by reinforcements. But now, even if the British failed to force a corridor through German lines they have won this in victory points just from the amount of German step losses inflicted whereas the British have incredibly only lost two steps of INF. Eventually, at 13:15/turn 22, the corridor of seven hexes has been formed as well. German reinforcements get mowed down before they can attempt to fill in the breach. Only two turns left to keep the corridor open and there is no credible opposition except for a few ineffective rounds of German OBA.

So this battle ends with an incredible and decisive British victory. The ending VPS were:

Britain: 39 Germany: 2

The British now have a strong lead in the campaign after being down by 13 CPS from the opening phase of Crusader are now ahead by 24 CPS. An incredible comeback. The Germans will have a lot of work ahead to catch up but there are still six battles left in the campaign. However, the German losses were horrific. The final butcher's bill sat at:

German losses: Captain(10-1-0); Lieutenants(10-2-1)and(9-1-1); Sergeant(10-1-2); 16 steps of INF; 2 steps of HMG; 1 81mm; 2 20mm; 3 37mm and 5 trucks.

British losses: Lieutenant Colonel(10-1-1) and 2 steps of INF.

As for the leader characters, the Germans only have one of the original Lieutenants left though both of the ones that survived this battle made it through with positive net LPs. Of course the British LCs fared much better and all have been promoted to Captain and received mentions in dispatches, along with skill and attribute improvements. I have to admit that the balance of play may have favored the British in this one but I still felt compelled to rate it a 4 because it was very enjoyable. It wasn't necessarily an easy win and the Germans resisted very well in the first half of play but somehow they just kept losing steps, again and again. In most cases the British would have suffered a LOT more casualities but somehow they were almost bulletproof. Still six battles left of this campaign and it is far from over.