Historical Background:
During the Battle for the Colmar Pocket, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division, attached to the 1st French Army for the occasion, bravely inched through the snow-covered plains of Alsace despite the bitter cold. The 15th U.S. Infantry Regiment had just seized the village of Riedwihr and the Holtzwihr woods when the Germans launched a counter-attack. Two battalions of the 136th Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) Regiment, backed by a half-dozen "Jagdpanthers" of the 654th Panzerjäger Abteilung (heavy tank destroyers battalion), attacked from the villages of Holtzwihr and Wickerschwihr. During the fierce engagement that followed, Lt. Audie Murphy, a future Hollywood star in his own right, showed exemplary courage: left alone on the battle field, armed with a campaign phone in one hand, he directed American artillery fire onto the incoming waves of Germans while using his other hand to fire the turret's machine gun of a tank destroyer in flames onto the enemy infantry approaching his position. His heroic action allowed the GIs to contain the the Germans and restore the situation and earned him the highest American Military decoration, the prestigious Medal of Honor.

The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history!

Briefing:
Axis player [Germany]
Take 5 command cards.
You move first.

Allied player [United States]
Take 5 command cards.

Conditions of Victory:
6 medals.

The village of Riedwihr and the Holtzwihr woods are Temporary Medal Objectives for the Axis player.

Special Rules:
All Axis armored units are elite tank units (Troops 2 - Specialized Units). No badge is required.

The Allied units marked with a battle star are camouflaged at the start of the game (Actions 16 - Camouflage).

Despite its appearance, the Ill river is not frozen enough to cross over: it remains impassable (Terrain 8 - Rivers & Waterways).