This is a German hasty night attack against a reasonably prepare American force. Colonel Maucke opposed the attack, and his commanders protest to him. Still the attack went forward, mostly to avoid being caught in the open by the American fighter-bombers, which were expected later in the morning.

The game was played as we normally do, but without TOT artillery fire. I was the Americans. We should have played double-blind, but didn't. We both made decisions based on way too much information.

My setup had my HMGs a couple hexes from town, sort of extending the perimeter a bit. And otherwise just hunkered down into siege mode. The Germans deployed in a column, armor to the rear.

The German advance was rather predicable at first, then veered to the south of the town. The exchange with my HMGs went well at first. Then the Germans got a couple lucky rolls and wiped them out. The advance continued around the town. The maneuver release the paratroopers. I started one on end run to the other side of the board, the rest moved into town to help with the defense.

At 0500 the German luck ran out with a logistics shortfall. At 0515, I sent my tank destroyers after a loaded halftrack, and fried it (something that would not have happened in double-blind). It turned out that besides the HMG, which was the inspiration, the halftrack also was carrying the German commander. My opponent ran tanks up to my tank destroyers, and next turn won the initiative. Guess the outcome.

Town defense was firming up and German reserves were committed. My artillery extracted a severe toll on the uncommitted infantry and supporting mortars. Just after the sun was fully up, the German artillery ran out of ammunition (random event). The attrition rate in the assaults wasn’t working out the Germany either, even with the assault gun support.

At 0700 I got my 15th & 16th steps, which ended the game. The outcome was roughly parallel to the historical accounts. While I benefited from German bad luck, it was also clear that the Germans had barely enough infantry to take the town, certainly not enough to chase the survivors far enough away for victory. That and the attrition was not in their favor.