Operation Marston - The Matrix Games version of West Front

The success of Montgomery's British Eighth Army drive to Messina required the siezure of three bridges along the coast road between the landing site and Messina. The furthest of these bridges was the girder bridge over the river Simeto (the Primosole bridge) near the village of Catania. The Allied plan to sieze the Primosole bridge ("Operation Marston") called for an attack by the 1st Parachute Brigade, 1st British Airborne Division (the "Red Devils" as the Germans would soon name them) to secure the bridge until relieved by Montgomery's main body. Only a fraction of the troops sent made it to the landing, as friendly fire from the invasion convoy off the coast of Sicily badly scattered the airlift. Unknown to Allied planners, the Germans planned to drop a regiment of Kurt Student's "Hunters From the Sky," the First Fallschirmjager Division, to secure the bridge against Montgomery's drive. For the first (and only) time in WWII, opposing brigade level airborne landings were made simultaneously to secure the same objective!