Nefarious PBEM Turn outcome.

I just experienced something very strange with a pbem opponent who will remain anonymous out of kindness.

Here is the just of my issue... At the end of my turn a two man scout team get to a trench and a lone German soldier is in it hiding.

In my orders phase I give the scout team a direct fire command on the spotted target.

I send the file to my opponent. 

It takes 2 days to get a return file all the while Im excited to see how that went down and too my surprise the replay starts with them already dead.

K now I think I'm tripping so just to make sure I reload the previous turn and watch it play out and in that turn they get whipped out.

So now I think I am crazy or there is some sort of glitch going on here.

Im not asking on how to do this as I'm not interested in cheating but if someone cares to reach out to let me know I'm not loosing my mind that would be helpful. 

Here or PM works...

What the heck...

Best and yes I ended the match and spent over a week planning it... ffs...