Counterattack on the Moselle - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Kerling, 35km NNE of Metz, France: [Best played as Axis] Through the first days of November Patton's Third Army put the finishing touches on plans to renew its offensive toward the Rhine and Germany. After pausing for a month everyone was eager to get moving again even though the weather had turned bad. On 9 November, the 90th Infantry Division's assault regiments fought their way across the rising Moselle River, north of Metz at Malling and Cattenom. While the 357th and 358th Regiments finished clearing Germans from the old French forts of the Maginot Line, the 359th Infantry continued to expand the bridgehead to the southeast between Mount Altenberg and Oudrenne. However, the 90th's crossing of the swollen Moselle did not go unnoticed by Army Group G, responsible for the Metz region. Low on gasoline, it took until the morning of the 12th for the 25th Panzergrenadier Division, reduced to a kampfgrupe built around the 35th PzG Regiment, to get into position to counterattack. Supported by a small number of tanks and assault guns, the German troops struck the lines of the 359th near Kerling and thrust for the pontoon bridge at Malling.