The Battle of Montelimar - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Montelimar, SE France. Seven days after the landings the VI US Corps in the Dragoon Operation, it had penetrated 250 miles into France. The failure of Wiese´s Nineteenth Army to stop the Allies on the beach was desappointing. The difficulty Wiese faced was in using his mechanized forces to delay the Allied advance while extricating his less mobile formations. The key to his withdrawal efforts lay in preventing the Allies from cutting his one escape route: the north-south road network running parallel to the Rhone River. The Commanding General of the VI Corps Maj.Gen. Lucian Truscott, ordered the 36th Infantry Division to block the German retreat in Montelimar, a decisive position on right bank of the Rhone. Wiese recognized the importance of Montelimar as well, lead elements of the 11th Panzer Division attacked the Americans. After eight days of fight the german units was attacked and the german units suffered strong losses by artillery fire.Long convoys were destroyed, and the entire zone was literally covered with a mass of burned vehicles, equipment and dead men. There were 11.000 german casualties, 2.100 vehicles were destroyed. At Montelimar the German Nineteenth Army was virtually destroyed. Aditional comments: Historically the bridges over the Rhone river at Montelimar were destroyed by P-47 American Ground Attack aircraft during the battle. In this scenario the bridges are intact, excluding the bridge over the Rubion river mouth.The players can decided if blow it during the game. At the begining of this game, the city of Montelimar is under german control, historically the Americans took the city and the main bridges over the Rubion river to stop the german advance to north.