Snowstorm of Steel:
Scenario Preview, Part Three
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
November 2025

I designed Panzer Grenadier: Elsenborn Ridge, and it’s the best-selling game in the series (longevity has a lot to do with that – it’s been popular for a very long time). It’s had to achieve that pretty much on its own, with relatively few supporting materials to boost interest compared to other Panzer Grenadier games.

Panzer Grenadier: Snowstorm of Steel finally gives Elsenborn Ridge some long-overdue love. It’s a Campaign Study, what we call our series of small scenario booklets. Snowstorm of Steel is double the usual size (32 rather than 16 pages) with 23 scenarios for Elsenborn Ridge; a few scenarios also need some pieces from Dragon’s Teeth.

Older versions of those scenarios appeared as decade and a half ago in the long-retired Winter Soldiers book; Mike Perryman designed them and I revised them for the new book. They’ve received fresh development, gained the chapter structure of current Panzer Grenadier practice, and been brought into line with the Fourth Edition series rules. Let’s have a look at the third chapter, where the American 7th Armored Division faces and defeats the SS party militia’s 2nd “Empire” Armored Division.

Chapter Three
Lucky Seventh
The American 7th Armored Division came ashore in Normandy in August, and fought extensively in France and Belgium afterwards. From the start, it followed the “light” organization of three battalions of tanks and three of armored infantry, and assembled a good combat record during the late summer and through the autumn of 1944.

Heavy fighting in the Netherlands during September and October racked up heavy casualties, and the division pulled out of the front line in November to receive a new commander and large drafts of replacements. Absorbing the new manpower took up most of November, and late in the month some elements returned to the front in support of American infantry divisions.

An American 8-inch howitzer and its prime mover near Manhay. December 1944.

When the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive, all of the division hit the roads for the Belgian town of St. Vith, in the center of the enemy drive. Along with elements of three other American divisions, the Lucky Seventh held St. Vith for four days, forming a “fortified horseshoe” that acted as a breakwater to disrupt the German advance. They pulled back across the Salm River, and there the 7th and 3rd Armored Divisions dealt with the 2nd SS Panzer Division/

Scenario Twelve
Manhay Crossroads
24 December 1944
To the right of the 82nd Airborne Division holding the high ground behind the Salm River, the XVIII Airborne Corps placed Combat Command A of the 7th Armored Division, with Combat Command B on its left. Lucky Seventh, worn from days of combat at St. Vith, would have to hold in front of the vital crossroads town of Manhay. James Gavin of the airborne division had chosen the line, but corps commander Matthew Ridgway told both divisions to pull back to what he considered more defensible positions. Combat Command A had just begun to do so when the SS militia arrived on the scene.

Conclusion
The Americans had dug in around Manhay, but mistook the approaching SS militia tanks and infantry for friendly retreating forces. By the time they realized their error, most of the American tanks had been knocked out and the SS had driven well into the small town. Reinforcements would soon arrive, but for now, Manhay had been lost.

Notes
It’s going to be a tank battle; the Germans have the firepower (Panther tanks) and the Americans have the numbers (Shermans of both flavors, plus a much-needed Hellcat tank destroyer). Given their numbers and position, the Americans should be able to do better than their historical counterparts, but there’s no guarantee.

Scenario Thirteen
Miserable Failure
24 December 1944
Major Olin F. Brewster had been sent to hold an otherwise unremarkable spot called Belle Haie on Belgian maps, with a platoon each of tanks and armored infantry, plus a company of paratroopers from the 509th Battalion. More paratroopers, and tank destroyers from 9th Armored Division, had wandered into the position. Higher headquarters (Task Force Richardson, Combat Command A, and 3rd Armored Division) wanted Brewster to drive off the SS militia threatening his position, and sent him a company from the green 75th Infantry Division’s 289th Infantry Regiment. Brewster send them forward to clear away the SS advancing down the road. “The Company commander brought his company up,” Brewster recalled in a 1990 oral history interview, “and after I briefed him and gave him orders, he assured me that he took no prisoners. He took off across the open field that was white as snow.”

Conclusion
The American attack failed miserably. “They never made it to the line of departure,” Brewster said of the raw infantrymen he sent to attack the SS. “I found out later, that was their first day in combat and had never heard a gun fired in anger. If I had known at the time, that the company had not seen combat, I would have given them more instruction and leadership.”

Notes
The Americans have numbers, but their morale isn’t very good compared to the militia, and for once their artillery doesn’t give them that unbeatable trump card. They do have some tanks, and they can win this with some care.

Scenario Fourteen
Return to Manhay
25 December 1944
With 7th Armored Division’s Combat Command B now on hand, division commander Robert Hasbrouck had orders from Ridgway to take back Manhay from the Nazi militia infesting the town. His Combat Command A had been mauled on the 24th, but all of his troops had been shaken by their experience at St. Vith. But their line could not be held with Manhay and the high ground to its north in enemy hands.

Conclusion
Seventh Armored Division’s tank strength had been badly depleted both at St. Vith and in the fighting that followed the American withdrawal. The Americans themselves had blocked the road into Manhay, cutting down trees behind them to slow down any German panzers following them. Those same fallen timbers now halted the advancing Shermans of 7th Armored Division, turning the road into a shooting gallery for the party militia holding the town.

Notes
The Americans don’t have an edge in infantry; their striking power rests with their tanks. So they’re going to need to maneuver that armor up to the town to clear the way for the foot soldiers. At least they have plenty of artillery this time.

Scenario Fifteen
Misbehavior at Belle Haye
25 December 1944
Since Lt. Col. Walter Richardson had received no orders to retreat from 3rd Armored Division, he emphatically directed Maj. Olin Brewster and his tiny task force to hold his ground. By the time Richardson realized his error and told Brewster to pull back, SS militia had infiltrated around either flank of the major’s small tank-infantry group. With the road to Manhay blocked, Brewster tried to seize a secondary road through the woods as an alternate escape route.

Conclusion
The attack by Brewster’s motley force failed to open the road back to the rest of Task Force Richardson. German anti-tank fire knocked out a Sherman at either end of his small column, and following Richardson’s orders, Brewster told his men to destroy their remaining vehicles. The major and his men walked through the woods and returned to American lines, where 3rd Armored Division commander Maurice Rose berated Brewster for destroying government property. “I call that misbehavior!” Rose shouted, ordering Brewster court-martialed. Rose would be killed in action before Brewster faced a military court.

Notes
The Americans are trying to escape, with the aid of pretty stout morale and a slender allotment of artillery. The Nazi bastards are in their way, and there are more of them than there are of the good guys, so it won’t be easy to bop their way past.

Scenario Sixteen
Night Assault at Manhay
26 December 1944
With the 517th Separate Parachute Infantry Regiment’s 3rd Battalion, just released by 30th Infantry Division, Matthew Ridgway of XVIII Airborne Corps directed enormous firepower (heavy airstrikes and a 20-minute barrage by eight battalions of artillery) to flatten the crossroads village. Then the paratroopers, aided by a few 7th Armored Division Shermans, would make a night assault.

Conclusion
Under the heavy American artillery fire, the vaunted “warrior ethos” of the SS party militia could not stand. At least some of the village’s garrison broke and ran, and the paratroopers rooted out the rest of them, securing Manhay by 0400. Engineers cleared the trees that had stopped the 7th Armored Division’s attack on the crossroads, putting the Americans in position to continue pushing back the SS Empire Division.

Notes
Night fight! The Americans get to plaster the war criminals with massive artillery fire, and then march in to finish them off. The Germans need to hang on to the ruins as best they can.

And that’s all for Chapter Three. Next time: Chapter Four.

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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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