INTRODUCTION This battle evolved into a 2-act play. The first act was a battle between US paratroopers and the outnumbered Grenadier units in two cities. The second act dealt with the US attempting to hold the gains against German reinforcements trying to save the day.

ACT 1

Things move along rather quickly. The paras start on the northern edge and move up en-mass to 0509. At that point, knowing that reinforcements will be arriving soon, he splits his force in order to take the victory objectives. He sends a lone, highly motivated Lt and a squad of stragglers to take the lock (0711) and a bridge to the east of the towns on the other side of the river (1013). That leaves him to take the towns (0412 &0613) with one other Lt and two full platoons. He receives notice that the reinforcements are about an hour away from catching up with him. He decides not to wait for them and hurries up the road. He takes some incidental opportunity fire, but is easily able to avoid it. He reaches the first town and lays down direct fire. The Germans retaliate, but are outgunned and flee after a pitched 45 minute battle. Just as the Germans start to break, the reinforcements arrive and turn a retreat into a full-fledged rout.

Once the rout was completed, the LTC moves toward the second town. He finds some relative safety in a nearby Hedgerow and brings his reinforcements up alongside. Then, his highly motivated (2-1) Lieutenant starts weakening up the Grenadier unit in the town. After 30 minutes, they're sufficiently shocked and the assault into the town removes the remaining stragglers.

In the meantime, the lone Lieutenant takes his motly crew through hedgerows and swamps and assumes control of the lock and bridge. He can hear the sounds of battle to the west and knows that there must be Germans somewhere that can also hear it. He gets to work, building up his defenses at the bridge and then hunkers down to wait.

So far, it's been all US, but that's about to change.

ACT 2

The rules have the Germans roll two dice after turn 15. On a roll of 10 or more, the reinforcements enter along the southern edge. The US had finished the fighting by turn 10, so they just sat and waited.... and waited... Turn 15 arrived... and they still waited. Turns 16 & 17 pass quickly. Finally at turn 18, there's a rumble emanating from the south. The Germans have arrived.

The Germans entered along the southern edge, due south of the paras holding the bridge. It soon became obvious that their plan was to attack the bridge en-masse in an attempt to over-run it. The US LTC ordered a full unit to double time over to the bridge, but didnt' want to send any more in case the move to the bridge was a ruse.

It wasn't. The German Grens & HMGs moved over the hedgerows toward the bridge, the 75mm made a run along the edge of the hedgerows but still out of sight of the Americans in the towns. On the second turn, the US Inf LT finally got a glimpse of the formation and called in a barrage. The 75mm was disrupted, but recovered quickly. The German Infantry moved up through the hedgerow and adjacent to the bridge. One HMG and one Gren unit took to the swamp to cross behind the bridge, but miscalculated. Instead of coming out on the road, they came out adjacent to the bridge and were immediately attacked. The Germans were afraid to assault a healthy position, so contented themselves with direct fire at the paras at the bridge. Unfortunately for the Germans, the US leaders in the hex were very strong (10-1-1 & 9-0-1) and quickly overcame all the disruptions. The Germans moved the 75mm onto the road (0814), but another barrage was followed by a strong direct fire attack from the town and the 75mm ceased to exist. The Germans had almost surrounded the bridge and were laying down significant fire, but with only minimal success.

The US LTC then decided that he had to do something to relieve the bridge and sent two paras up to where the 75mm met its demise and laid fire into the rear of the German seigeline. The paras took out the 81mm mortar and disrupted the Gren unit with it. The Germans, realizing the threat, turned their attention to the paras, but again were unable to deal any serious damage. The Americans, encouraged by their success against the mortars, then crossed into the hedgerow, only to come face-to-face to a full gren unit with a 9-2-1 Major. The Germans pressed forward and assaulted the paras. While the paras outmanned the Germans, the odds weren't with them and they started taking damage. But they dealt out as good as they got, and by occupying the Germans, the bridge was able to recover from some of the earlier attacks.

Then the German HMG dealt a devastating blow to the bridge. The reduced platoon was destroyed, one officer was demoralized and the full platoon disrupted. The time had come and the germans went in with an assault. Again, though, the US leaders came through. They recovered and were able to gather the Para unit back into top fighting form. A Gren unit joined the assault about the time the HMG was cut in half. Soon the Gren unit was also disrupted. Just as it looked like the Paras would hold, the Germans surged and took out half the Para platoon and demoralized one of the officers.

With only 15 minutes left, the Germans had one more chance. unfortunately, they weren't able to break the remnants of the paras and the game came to an end.

RESULTS

This was a very fun game. Much better than Scenario 6. There was enough firepower here to actually do some damage. The first half was a rush by the Americans to take the Germans while the second was a push by the Germans to overcome their earlier losses.

The biggest problem the Germans faced was trying to figure out how to mass enough units to take the bridge. I didn't want to mass them on one hex, but that kept them from really being able to inflict pain. The board doesn't lend itself to attacking from adjacent hexes, due to the hedgerows.