From 08:15 to 21:15, just before dusk, combined American paras and glider troops, slugged it out with some determined German resistance in the hedgerows of Normandy. This time the Americans had a good deal of artillery support both on-board and off to help clear the way. The Germans were set up in three lines of defense with a few strongpoints to the rear, two of which were occupied. Very quickly the first line fell but the secondary line, containing the town in hex 0509, held out until the last two hours, just after American armored reinforcements arrived. The initial push north looked as if it would easily roll over German posts but American casualties mounted to 5 step losses at 13:00/turn 20 and the drive was stalled as one more step loss would give Germany a victory regardless of whether territorial objectives were taken. So American units dug-in all around postponing any assaults while relying on artillery and small arms DF to drive the defenders out until desperately needed tanks arrived. Of course the battle could not be won this way and the advance had to be continued by foot units. The Americans suffered their 6th step loss at 19:00/turn 44 and that sealed the German win.

However, the fight was far from over and there was now nothing holding the Americans back now as they made that last push, eliminating the second line along with taking the town and shaking out German units from the third line, driving them through the swamps. Of course it was all in vain and once the battle had ended the Germans still held control of 5 hexes within 3 hexes of 0408, making it a major victory all-around. However, all but one of those controlled hexes were occupied by units that had been dislodged from their original dug-in posts, chased out of the hedgerows and they were in horrible shape. No doubt that they wouldn't have held out much longer. Oddly enough the Americans never lost more than that 6th step by battle's end and perhaps had they pushed harder, earlier they would have at least achieved their territorial objectives but there is no possibilty of a draw for this scenario as it states if both or neither player wins, the German player wins. German losses were to the tune of 4 leaders, 19 steps of foot units along with almost all support units save one 81mm that managed to stay intact. I believe the scenario is decently balanced but will take a lot of patience for the American player and managing their time, which there is a lot of with this scenario running at 53 turns.