HG at Cisterna (Updated for V5)*
*
Date: February 29, 1944*                     
*
Battle Type: German Attack vs American Defend*
*
Design: CB Blackard*
*                              
*
Battle Description: On 30 and 31 January 1944, the American 3rd Infantry Division attacked south of Cisterna, Italy with massed artillery and tank support.  Its objective was to capture the town with the Via Appia and the railway station on the Rome - Naples line.  The attack was repulsed on the first day.  On the second day, however, the Americans attacked under cover of a heavy bombardment.  The Hermann Goring Parachute-Panzer Division led the defense in this sector.  The American attack was repulsed and Cisterna remained in German hands.  Counterattacks eliminated local penetrations.  Afterwards there was a brief pause.  The Americans were unable to pierce the ring around the beachhead to the north toward Aprilia or to the northeast toward Cisterna.  On February 12 the HG Division was taken out of the line and transferred to an assembly area near the Via Appia.*
*
The Germans commenced plans for a counterattack.  Following a failed operation in mid-February, a second German offensive, planned this time south of Cisterna in the east sector, and in which the HG Parachute-Panzer Division was finally to see action as a unit, was ordered for February 29, 1944.  The division was to attack on both sides of the Cisterna - Isola Bell - Montello road with all available operational elements and establish a bridgehead across the west branch of the Mussolini Canal.  As well, the 'Conrath Group', as the assembled regiment-size unit was called, was to be reinforced by a Tiger unit and an assault howitzer unit.  The attack began at dawn.  The Americans once again found themselves in combat with "those damned Goring boys."*
*
Note: If played against the AI, this scenario is best played with the human player as the Germans.* 
*
Source:  Kurowski, "The History of the Fallschirm Panzerkorps Hermann Goring", pp. 261-64; map p. 230*
*
   

