JP045: St. Joost: 20th January, 1945. Saint Joost, Holland.

History: To the 8th Hussars fell the task of breaking out towards Montford and River Roer. In their path lay the
village of St. Joost, a straggling settlement parallel to the Krom Beck, an unfordable stream with but one heavy
bridge across it. St. Joost was thought to be held by approximately one company of disorganized. second-line
German reservists. At first light on that bitterly cold morning, Lt. Colonel Goulburn of the Hussars conducted a
reconnaissance and decided it would not pose too tough a fight. He ordered I Company of the 1st Rifle Brigade,
supported by C Squadron and self propelled guns, to clear the village. Artillery support for the two-pronged
attack was laid on. Meanwhile, the other armored troops were kept in reserve to break across the stream as soon
as the bridge was seized. At 1430, the attack opened. It was "a bit of a shock" that the Germans in the town
were anything but the riff-raff Goulburn thought he was facing.

Aftermath: The attack was met with furious opposition. Gone was all hope of a walk-over and reaching the 
Roer in 24 hours. From the village came a terrific din, where the infantry were forced to fight house-to-house
along either side of the main road. Some men of I Company did manage to reach a grass coveered square about 300
yards into the village, but casualties had been severe (the left platoon being more or less wiped out). The armor
had ben punished too; the leading tank of No. 2 Troop was burning and the second hit, while so exposed was the right
that the Germans were able to knock out two tanks among the reserves parked on the Hingen-Schilberg road to the east.
But the self propelled guns and their infantry support lumbered through the back gardens on the western edge
of St. Joost and cut in behind the enemy-held houses. In the exceptionally close and hard fighting that followed,
the British at last managed to clear about half the village before dusk, taking some 60 prisoners. These were
certainly not the reservists that had been expected, but men from the notoriois Huebner Parachute Regiment, who
had unquestioningly obeyed the "No Retreat" order from their Oberst.


Play Mode: Best head to head, any difficulty.

Setup:
Germans: Setup west of canal and on/or north of hexrow marked ##.
British: Enter south edge west of canal on Turn 1.

Units Human Players (AI player units may vary)
German: Squads, Leaders, Crews, HMG, MMG, LMG, PF, Ordnance, AFV's
British: Squads, Leaders, MMG, LMG, PIAT, Lt. Mortar, AFV's

Off Board Artillery Module: (Yes) British have one module 80+mm.

Map: Up direction is to the north, two maps (1x2).  

Visibility: 12 hexes.

Terrain: Rural, Town, Woods, Canal

Scenario Length: 8 Game Turns.

Victory Objective: The side with the most Victory Points at the end is the winner. Both sides get VPs
at the end of the scenario and killing enemy units and controlling victory point hexes.

Scenario Designer: John M. Pirman [Matrix Callsign: Big Ivan] Special thanks to Pat Jonke for his development
of the original scenario in Advanced Squad Leader which was used as a guide and modified to fit 
Tigers on the Hunt game system.
