A Familiar Enemy - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Gerbini, 25km W of Catania, Sicily: [Best played as Allied] After securing their respective beachheads on Sicily, the Allies prepared plans to push inland. Montgomery's 8th Army would drive northward toward Messina while Patton's 7th Army covered his left. As the British entered the Catania Plain they began to encounter increasingly heavy resistance. On 12 July, Montgomery ordered 30th Corps to make a left hook to the west and eventually swing around Mt. Etna to land on Messina, an ambitious undertaking against the very heart of the Axis defenses. On 25 July portions of the 154th Infantry Brigade pushed across the Dittaino River to cut the rail line through the Simeto valley and seize the airfield at Gerbini, southwest of Mt. Etna. Supported by the 46th RTR, the attack was delayed until full daylight while engineers cleared the river crossings. Waiting for them on the other side were units from an old familiar enemy, the Hermann Goering Panzer Division, with a few new arrivals from the 1st Parachute Division.