ChappyCanuck vs. Stonecutter

Rarely has a battle ever provided the ebbs and flows that this one did. At first, the Italian infantry (my side), were initially cornered by the edge of map & river and were punished by US mortars/MGs. Then the tankettes arrived, and they combined with the now consolidated Italian infantry and hurt the US badly. But then the US halftracks with 75mm cannons and crack crews arrived, and they proved to be a game changer, eliminating the Italian armour fairly easily. But the battle continued right to the final minute, when the central objective was claimed by US forces. An entertaining battle for sure!
Two things of note for Italian players: the tankettes have brutal acquisition capability. At one point I had two tankettes at the crest of a hill, open topped, with infantry around them to aid with acquisition. To their immediate front, a mere 100m away, was a US haltrack, broadsides, that was firing and moving, yet the tankettes failed to acquire them. Yikes!
Secondly, I have never had one, let alone two, tanks get blown sky high by sympathetic detonation of a friendly tank nearby. Thin skinned for sure!

This was definitely a great battle with massive swings in the tide of war. As a former tanker myself, I wholeheartedly agree with ChappyCanuck's comments on the poor performance of the Italian tankettes and amazing effectiveness of the US 75mm HTs. Equally effective however were the MGs on the other HTs as they provided mobility and suppressive fire for much of the battle. The Italian 45mm mortars were my nemesis in this fight as they inflicted a large number of casualties owing to what seemed like a limitless ammo supply!