Elsenborn Ridge:
Scenario Preview, Chapter Seven
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
November 2025

Like our other Panzer Grenadier games (and those from the sister series, Infantry Attacks and Panzer Grenadier Modern), Elsenborn Ridge is organized into chapters. Each chapter’s scenarios tell the story of a particular phase of the battle. Plus, there’s a “battle game” for each chapter, so you can play all of its scenarios together for a larger-scale result.

By this point in the battle, the scenarios make clear that the Germans are pretty much done. They’re still dangerous, with experienced cadres and powerful weapons. But this is not the army that rolled over France in six weeks, or the Armed SS militia of recruiting posters and propaganda films. The Americans are beginning to scent victory. A major, war-winning victory.

Chapter Seven
The Offensive Dies
The German Wacht am Rhein plan called for a massive breakthrough that would see the Germans on the coast of the English Channel within seven days. It acknowledged that a few more days might be needed to reach the huge port city.

M36 tank destroyers of the 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, advance in the Ardennes.

Short of intervention by hidden lunar colonies of raygun-wielding Space Nazis, this outcome was never in the realm of possibility. The Germans set out without enough fuel to reach Antwerp, let alone enough combat strength. They attacked a weakly-held sector of the American line and inflicted heavy losses on those units. And then the Americans used their operational mobility to pour well-supplied, experienced reinforcements into the battle area.

Those fresh American units, some of them pulled out of combat hundreds of miles away, still had to crush the German spearheads. Hard fighting remained, but the Germans were on their way to devastating defeat.

Scenario Twenty-Nine
The Small Solution
27 December 1944
While top American generals like Omar Bradley, George Patton and Matthew Ridgway urged Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to attack out of the Elsenborn Ridge area and cut off the two German panzer armies, Ike chose a more cautious approach. The counter-offensive would take place farther to the west, with less risk but of course a lesser potential reward - a choice derided by Eisenhower’s counterpart, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, as the “Small Solution.” One of the first of these attacks fell on the 9th SS Panzer Division. A favored unit, the division had meandered through the German rear areas since the offensive’s start and suffered many more losses to American planes than in ground combat.

Conclusion
The 9th SS lost both villages and reported that one of its grenadier regiments had been “cut to pieces.” Even though the paratroopers lacked tank support, they had powerful artillery behind them and considerable attitude. The SS corps commander informed army headquarters that 9th SS was no longer capable of combat operations and requested that it be withdrawn. The request was denied; for once, even the favored SS party militia would be left in the front lines just like the regular army divisions.

Notes
It’s going to be a bad day to be a war criminal; the Nazi scum have tanks and some artillery support while the Americans have no armor. But All-American morale is sky-high, the heavy snow makes tanks harder to use anyway, and there’s a massive steel rain of artillery coming down onto the unrighteous made even deadlier with the VT fuze.

Scenario Thirty
The People’s Grenadiers
28 December 1944
On the northern flank of the German Ardennes offensive, the stout American defense of the twin villages and other locations totally disrupted German plans. The German command removed all panzer and panzer grenadier divisions from this flank, but the American salient at Wirtzfeld jutting into the German lines remained a danger due to the heavy American artillery concentration on the Elsenborn Ridge. After a delay of several days, Gen. Otto Hirtzfeld sent the remains of his 67th Corps forward.

Conclusion
The American artillery on Elsenborn Ridge was not packed wheel-to-wheel as junior officers told their men, but it came close. Without the proximity fuze it had been deadly to Germans in the open, but now the clear fields between the twin villages and the Elsenborn Ridge became a killing ground. The People’s Grenadiers lost hundreds of men and did not come close to the American positions.

Notes
There’s not a lot of American infantry to hold their ground, while the German “Water Buffalo” Division has plenty of troops. They’re going to need them, since they have to cross open ground under a massive artillery barrage armed with the deadly VT fuze. This is going to be a black day for the German Army.

Scenario Thirty-One
The Sad Sack Affair
29 December 1944
Not quite ready to abandon their offensive, the Germans launched a night attack into a gap in the lines of the green American 289th Infantry Regiment. The attackers apparently became disoriented, and found that their radios would not work. The defenders also got lost in the dark, and their radios would not work either. A confused fight broke out around the tiny crossroads of Sazdot, known to the American soldiers as “Sad Sack.”

Conclusion
The fierce firefight known as the “Sad Sack Affair” erupted in the wee hours of 29 December and continued until late morning, when American paratroopers finally closed a ring around the SS militia that had penetrated to Sazdot. Daybreak brought improved communications, and artillery fire rained down on the militia who were eventually wiped out.

Notes
This is a small scenario, an infantry-onl fight taking place mostly at night. Any battle with a description including the phrase “the SS militia (were) wiped out” is one worthy of memory. A statue, even.

And that’s Chapter Seven. Next time, we wrap up this preview with Chapter Eight.

Order Elsenborn Ridge Here.

Order Elsenborn Ridge (Anarchy) Here.
No rules! You’ll need the Fourth Edition rules from another Panzer Grenadier game. Earlier edition rules will not work with this game.

Elsenborn Ridge Playbook Edition: Downloadable Upgrade
Includes Snowstorm of Steel Campaign Study
You can transform your old copy of Elsenborn Ridge (the boxed edition) into the splendid Panzer Grenadier: Elsenborn Ridge Playbook Edition, bundled with Snowstorm of Steel. It’s $39.99, but if you’re a Gold Club member, you can download for $27.99 using your Gold Club link (That’s the only way to claim your Gold Club discount).

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children.

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