Grumble Jones August Scenario - GJ048 Marvie Melee

For the August Grumble Jones Scenario, I focused on an excerpt from John C. McManus' outstanding book, Alamo in the Ardennes. If you have not read this, I cannot recommend it more highly. ASL scenarios appear on nearly every page. The challenge is picking one. It's like a apple tree with hundreds of shiny red apples...which one will I pick...

The initial assault on Marvie occurred on December 20th. Fritz Bayerlein, commander of the Panzer Lehr Division would commit a small, armor heavy unit to seize the town and open the door to Bastogne.

For the Germans, mobility and armored firepower were the key elements of their attack.

The American defenders of Team O'Hara were composed or recently arrived Glider Infantry of the 327th. A light tank platoon supported their defense, but would prove inadequate to the task, when the German Panzers arrived on the scene.

Bayerlein's forces would ultimately enjoy some early success as they fought house to house in Marvie. But a timely counterattack led by Sherman Tanks managed to reclaim the town for the US forces.

Ultimately, Marvie was simply another example of dogged US resistance to the German onslaught. By December 21st, the German timetable had been thoroughly compromised.

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, the PDF for this scenario can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).