C, C

Axis Player Turn

The Piave line is reshuffled with RSI Units taking over from SS Mountain units who are sent north to the fatherland to join the Battle for Mannheim where PzG units attack the French cadres holding the city. A massive air battle occurs as the Luftwaffe attempts to gain air superiority. The Allied air command is soundly thrashed and numerous LW bombers attack the city. French AA is totally ineffective in holding off the GS Aircraft and the Germans confidently launch their attack at 5:1. An AS is rolled when -4 ATEC is accounted for. Rats.

Units are pulled back to the Meuse River defence line and into the Westwall with an all out effort made to seal the breach over the Rhine. In the exploitation phase C/M units are able to block in the bridgehead, but with only limited defence strength.

At Roosendaal the probing Americans are soundly defeated by a quick German counterthrust and all are destroyed to the satisfaction of the German High Command. Their backs may be against the wall, but their sting is strong.

Allied Player Turn

The Americans smash into the Piave line, casulties are horrendous but Churchill willingly fills up the breaches with dead cardboard, a trick he learnt from Stalin on a visit to Moscow. Two breaks are made to the groans of dismay from Berlin…. At Trento, the Poles, Indians, Springboks and Kiwis assault the mountain fortress with the help of massed USAAF ground support. The criticality of this sector cannot be understated as behind trento there are no troops until Innsbruck, so the Luftwaffe again sacrifices itself in air combat. At 4:1 odds, an EX is the result and the poles graciously take the losses to allow motorised units to press into the mountains and onto the outskirts of Innsbruck. The Alps a barrier? Only if defended!

On the Westwall, the remaining training and reserve units south of Baden are cleared away by the Allies, only a lonely looking 21st SS Mtn cadre is left.

At Pforzheim an Anglo-French attack gets an exchange on the defenders. The German High Command can only pray for more of these results to slow the British down…… At Montmerdy British Armour eats up a SS/Heer Corp while the last pockets of resistance in Paris and northern France are mopped up. Osteende is cleared while US Army starts to clear Belgium. Fighting is fierce right across the frontline with the Germans generally coming off second best. DH result occur east of Charleroi and in Brussels itself where the Belgian capital is taken thanks to combat engineers – again more than 50% of Aircraft were aborted or killed by defensive AA! At Roosendaal an attack goes off poorly planned and half the assaulting forces are massacred to the chagrin of SHAEF.

In the exploitation phase, the Czechs race down the Swiss border to be 32 miles short of Augsburg while British Armoured and recon units race to Ulm. The bulk of the British Mechanised/Motorised units cross the Rhine while at Montmerdy the survivors of the earlier battle are overrun and the British units push north into the Ardennes to just south of Liege.