Chain of Command "29 Let's Go!" campaign game 2

Gary and I played the second game in our pint sized campaign. After the failure of the first American probe at La Cambe Colonel Goode's outlook became worried. A second attempt was therefore ordered using a fresh platoon supported by three more Shermans, a mortar battery and some engineers with a flamethrower.

The patrol phase resulted in deployment points similar to the first attempt:

The first Sherman rumbles onto the battlefield. The American plan this time is to get all the tanks and the mortar in place first then advance a scout team to force the Germans to deploy. Once they have deployed the tanks and mortar should be able to deal with them even in cover:

The second Sherman arrives:

The tanks advance with the remaining Sherman bringing up the rear:

The Shermans are almost in their allocated firing positions:

Disaster strikes though as the third Sherman is ambushed by a Panzerschrek team and destroyed:

US Infantry deploy to support the tanks:

To try to capitalise on their success the Germans unveil a MMG and their senior leader. They open fire but are quickly wiped out by the massed return fire of the Americans putting a big dent in German force morale especially as the senior leader with them is killed:

The Panzerfaust team opens fire again from ambush but only manages to destroy the Sherman's hull MG and inflict some shock on it:

Yet another ambush sees the Sherman destroyed. American force morale is low now as well:

The Americans deploy a scout team that advances down the road:

The scouts almost make it to the German entrenchments and threaten the jump-off point:

The Germans deploy a squad and wipe out the scouts:

With both sides force morale down to three there followed some desultory skirmishing before the Germans decided to retire to avoid further losses. With only a single Panzershreck shot left the remaining Sherman could sit back and pick off the Germans with HE so it probably was a wise decision on Gary's part.

Colonel Goode's opinion went up to "worried" after the victory but an unfortunate episode involving the US airforce quickly took him back to "nervous" so General Cotta was called in to give the Colonel a pep talk. I was hoping the next scenario would be easier but it in fact looks even harder!