Call of Duty 2/Crossing The Rhine

The Crossing Point

 * Vollendor
 * 25 March 1945
 * Difficulty: 8/10

Crossing The Banks
This mission may be shorter than the rest, but because it's the last in the game, it's on par with the Hill 400 mission difficulty-wise. You start the mission manning a mounted .30-cal machine gun in a landing vehicle. The enemy will be firing at you as soon as you see the battlefield - but you shouldn't die, since they are quite far away. If you can, try killing the machine gunner in the window of the building opposite before leaving the vehicle. Once you have left the vehicle, crouch down and go to the left. You must get away from the vehicle, as it will blow up (and take you out too, if you're nearby). There are a few tree stumps and branches to the left of the vehicle, so hide behind them.

Aiming down with your M1 Garand or BAR (you might want to pick up the latter since ammunition is much more plentiful) you should see some Germans taking up position with some MG-42s just left of the large house. Keep picking them off. Fresh Germans will come to replace the ones you kill, but after you've killed about four per MG-42 there should be no reinforcements.

The Big Guns
The following is a step-by-step guide to taking out the five Flak 88 gun crews in Wallendar.

1. Throw a smoke grenade near the wall, and run towards the MG-42 position. If you run slightly to the left there's a path leading up to the courtyard where the MG-42s are. There could be a few Germans left around the corner so approach with caution. There could also be a few in the house. When they're all dead, the first Flak 88 is clear.

2. When you go through a few rooms in the house and reach the other side, there'll be another 88 gun crew. This is even easier than the last crew since there's little resistance. Make sure you pick off the men you can see from the second floor of the house. Then, when it seems the area is clear, make your way to the barrels on the right (a few of your troops might follow you). Check if you can see anyone. Move behind the crates to the left (all of your squad will follow you), and they should kill any remaining Germans. Good-bye, Flak gun crew #2.

3. You should have seen a street turn off left just before the second Flak squad. Go down that street next, but be aware that the place is swarming with Germans. You'll just have to grind forward, going from one place of cover to another. There's a house you can enter on the left side of the street. You will need to go in there, as you'll get killed if you carry on forward on this street. Run across the road into the house. You could use a smoke grenade to get past, but as you're already down to three it's not hugely necessary. The first room of the house is clear, but the second will open up to the third, which contains two German soldiers for you to kill.

This should be a checkpoint. Hide behind the table to the left; you'll see German troops moving into position both near the Flak gun and further up the street (which now veers to the left). Try and shoot as many as you can, but make sure you get the one on the corner up the street who keeps shooting at you. Then throw a smoke grenade forward so that it covers up the route straight ahead. Get out of the house and turn left. There's almost no cover in this part of the street, so you must make use of your prone position. Be prepared for anything and let your squad help you. There'll be around thirty to forty Germans in this square, and if you keep edging forward your squad should hopefully follow you. Some Germans come at you, and you should kill them first; some are in the house to your left and there's even an MG-42 in the window of the house in front of you.

When it gets a bit quiet, get up. You should now see a path straight forward, and a path to the right. Take the path to the right; this is that Flak gun you were pushing against when you first entered this street. There's a small contingent of gunners. Pick off the Germans from where you are with your Garand or BAR to eliminate the third Flak gun crew.

4. There'll be a house that you can enter near the AA gun. Go through that house, which leads to another road. Yes, you'll need to get to the end of that road, and the entire street is crawling with over 20 Germans initially. As you progress down the street, reinforcements will show up from the other end. There's no real strategy to this; you'll just have to make use of every bit of cover. If you have a good aim (meaning you can get shoot multiple Germans in the face before they can shoot you), this part of the mission will be made vastly easier, as you won't have to take cover to recover from damages as many times. Also, even when the coast seems clear, don't foolishly run down to the end of the street; reinforcements will ambush you and ruin your day. Instead, go forward just a little bit to lure them out, then go back to where you were (or perhaps another bit of cover closer to the end) and kill them.

At the end of the street, jump over the broken wall and run towards the gravestone on the left. At this point, there will be more Germans firing at you from the opposite end of the graveyard (which is where the fourth Flak gun is) and your squad will help you out here by charging forward at them. There's a variety of ways to approach this, but a good strategy is to keep to the left and hide against the church to take out the remaining Germans and rid the fourth Flak 88 of its crew. There won't be any nasty surprises here, so when you think it's clear carry on.

5. Run up to the main gun you'll see, if you face west, the Nazi HQ. Get on the gun immediately, and you might be able to teach the Germans on the far end of the street a lesson with their own Flak Gun. There aren't much of them there, though, since most will be facing the HQ from the opposite side waiting for you to come round the corner. Run forward whilst crouching behind the church wall, and you'll see for yourself. Once the nearby troops have been killed, make your way to the church door and stay there. You'll see another wall to the left of you; hide behind that and start firing. All your squad should be behind this wall with you and they'll help you out. The enemies will set up an MG42 in the middle of the road, and some Germans will shoot from the windows.

Make sure you promptly take care of anyone that mans the MG-42 and that there's nobody in the street; then, sprint to the left side of the street. There's a door here, and it leads to the house that the Germans are shooting from. Take care of anyone in here. If you get to the upper floor, you'll have a nice view of the house across the street and the enemies in there. Once they're dead, go through that house and you'll reach a checkpoint. There's a square, and the last Flak crew are on the other side. Exit the house and hide behind the stone walls. Keep going around the square until you get to the corner. Then, it's a simple matter of picking off the Flak crew one by one. When the crew is gone, your current objective is completed.

Two Tigers
But before you can congratulate yourself on completing the game, two tanks will appear from opposite sides of the square and you'll be ordered to blow them both up. Having two tanks in one square is hard enough, but if you stayed in the same place—behind the wall in the corner of the square—then one should be right next to you. Quickly attach the charge to it and run down the road (going out of the square) where the tank had come from and hide down there. There will be two Germans coming out from the hole in the wall there, though, so you'll have to whip out your Thompson and shoot them both. You'll then hear the sweet sound of that tank exploding. One tank down in less than 20 seconds! The other one is a little harder, but that's because you wasn't right next to it when it drove into the square.

As you come back into the square, where the flak crew was during the last objective, some Germans should pop up. Kill them and cross the road. Hide behind the wall and you should hear the tank moving. Slowly follow the wall while crawling, cross another entrance to the fountain, and go behind another wall. Do the same thing again but this time check if the coast is clear and hide behind the next wall so you are facing the outside of the square. Your squad should follow you, and there should be a large group of Germans that have positioned themselves in the house that you came out of in the last objective. Now, if any Germans come over the wall where the tank is, kill them quickly. The tank should now be coming in your direction; when you see the side of it then quickly come out from behind the wall, dart forward, plant the explosives and run back to the spot you were in behind the wall. There'll be more Germans coming out from behind the house now, so fend them off for about 10 seconds and you should hear the last tank explode.

Capturing The Town
They'll now be one short task - capture the town of Vollendor. They'll be a few Germans come out from the wall near the German HQ. They'll only be about 7 of them so quickly kill them and go back to the churchyard to meet up with the rest of the squad. They'll be a short cut scene and that'll be the end of the mission and the end of the campaign mode! Be sure to watch the end movie!