Otto Mayer's Last Blizkrieg - The Matrix Games version of West Front

St. Charles de Percy, 25km SW of Caen, France: [Best played as Axis] Aware that a German force was being concentrated in the Orne Hills for a flank attack into the advancing American Army in the bocage, the British 21st Army Group turned its sights to Vire. If this important communications centre could be taken then the advancing Americans would be safe from interference. Additionally, the massing German forces in the area would be cut off from their reserves. Ordered to take Vire, the Guards Armoured Division, closely supported by the 11th Armoured, raced down highway D577 in an attempted coup de main heedless of yet another German build up, this time on their exposed eastern flank. The Germans were not unprepared and 6km short of Vire the 2nd Panzer Division, supported by elements of the 9th SS Panzer Division, stopped the British around the village of la Bistiere turning the advance into chaos. Determined to fully exploit the Allied confusion, the 9th SS was ordered to counterattack. On 3 August the division struck, but was turned back by a tenacious British defense. Undaunted, the Germans struck again on the 4th. In the van was Kampfgruppe Mayer equipped with the last and best of the 9th SS's remaining armor. Their mission was to penetrate to highway D577 at St Charles de Percy, where the road runs through a narrow gap in the hills. If this point could be taken then the overextended British units would be caught in a trap of their own making and could be destroyed in detail. For Otto Mayer, holder of the Knights Cross and Hero of Tarnopol, command of this almost insignificant force was to be his moment of glory. It had been 74 years earlier when the Prussian Uhlans made their first death ride, charging the French machineguns during the advance on Paris in the Franco-Prussian War. Scorning fear, they earned for themselves the same Death's Head badge that Mayer's panzertruppen now proudly wore. With a handful of tanks and a few companies of battle-weary men, this was Mayer's death ride, his chance for immortality, his last blitzkrieg. (Otto Mayer survived the battle but was killed a month later to be buried in Belgium)