History repeats itself! Canadians and Germans square off D-Day +1

Brian asked me over for a game of Memoir '44 - he said he'd had an intro game but wanted a more fuller experience. So I took over the huge especially designed M44 backpack complete with everything I had got so far, plus a few other bits like a book on WW2 infantry tactics. I showed off the enormous Breakthrough maps plus the British and Japanese sets plus the campaign books. We had a look through the available missions that were not too light yet not heavily endowed with rules. We came across a fairly good one - Battle of the Bridgehead (Operation Neptune) - June 7-9, 1944 - involving Canadians moving across fields and hedgerows towards a German held town and airfield (Carpiquet). In the meantime the Germans, using a mixture of elite Panzers and Panzer Grenadiers and Hitler Youth prepared to repel the Allied advance.

The Canadians had to cross a lot of open ground to engage the dug in Germans who were also preparing tanks to strike out if any of the Allied tanks got too close. And this they did with lightning efficiency - as my Shermans of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers rolled across the open ground towards Cairon and Authie when two grounds of Panzers rounded the trees and opened fire, followed by small arms fire from the villages. Within moments, I'd taken heavy causalities and only within a few turns of the game, I'd lost three Medals to Brian out of a total five needed to win! I could see this being a very short game indeed!

Game start - the Canadians contemplate their move - that Armour Assault
card on the left proved to be a poisoned chalice as the armour on the left was
knocked for six by the experienced German tanks

Pausing to reconsider my position, I moved up infantry and tanks to the right, stopping in Norrey-en-Bressin to stop any sort of counter attack from Brians left. The German units in and around Carpiquet then took to the trees and hills producing a stalemate compounded with a tank unit providing covering fire. I moved up more tanks on the right and left - Brian moved in another Panzer unit and tried to conduct a pincer move on two of my tank units. Unfortunately his attack failed and one tank unit that had retreated to woods returned fire and knocked out several German tanks. The green Canadians were quickly turning out into experienced war veterans.

A German pincer move fails as the tank in the trees open fire against
the left side and the three Shermans force the Panzers on the right to retreat.
The left Panzer units were taken out!

Eventually the battle fought to a stand-still, the German infantry in good positions but their tanks had taken a beating, as had the Allied tanks so forcing the Germans to stop their counterattack and the Canadians to pause their advance; as happened in real life. Still I won enough medals to make this a win for me! But just - so a great game.