A Fateful Encounter - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Bad Hersfeld, 50km SSE of Kassel, Germany: [Best played vs Human opponent - This is the original Doug Bevard scenario "A Chance Encounter" adjusted for H2H play by Mike Shepard] Even as Task Force Balm was making its ill-fated attempt to liberate American POWs at Hammelburg in late March 1945, the rest of the 4th Armored Division began to exploit its small bridgehead across the Main River from Hanau. The advance east was swift, with the combat commands splitting into smaller formations to cover more ground and increase the disruption of the northern wing of the German Seventh Army as it struggled to establish a cohesive defense. At Bad Hersfeld the commander of the Seventh Army, General von Obstfelder, was trying to put together an armored force to counterattack into the flank of the American advance using Panzer Brigade Thueringen. Obstfelder's attack would never take place! On the 29th, the last of some forty hoarded panzers were completing unloading from railcars and joining with the 300th Assault Gun Battalion south of the village. Suddenly a column of tanks and tank destroyers from Task Force Battaglia stumbled into the German infantry outposts along the highway to Frankfurt and immediately opened fire, beginning a mad free-for-all along the banks of the Fulda and Haune Rivers!