Call of Duty 2/Not One Step Backwards!

Repairing the Wire

 * Stalingrad
 * 8 December 1942
 * Difficulty: 5 out of 10

When you start, Lieutenant Leonov will give you a briefing about the battle plan. 1st Squad will follow you through the entire mission. Enemy MG-42s will be pouring bullets down the street in front of you. Throw a smoke grenade in the middle of the street to conceal yourself from the guns (or if you don't want to use your own, a comrade will throw one for you). After the smoke has filled and the guns stop shooting, go behind the crates on your left and pick up ammo for your PPsh. Now, go inside the ruin you see on the right.

At the very entrance is the first phone wire spot. Fix it with your Use key. Germans will come from the other side--take cover behind the furniture and walls and take them out (you should kill the MG-42 gunner at the end of the rubble first). Also, on the rooftop of the intact building across the bullet-filled street are two snipers to be dispatched (they won't be there if you are playing on Easy). Advance to the end. See the disconnected wire inside the broken wall? Don't just run out to fix it, because there are enemies waiting for you. Take cover behind the wall and shoot at the Germans upstairs. Only after you have done this should you fix the wire. Now go upstairs. The very same MG-42 gunners from the beginning will try to climb up to where you are. You can just mow them down, but it's also fun to practice your melee attack skills here. Adding to this are the fuel barrels right next to the gunners. These come in very handy during the entire game. When you shoot them once, they will start burning and blow up after a while, killing everyone in the vicinity. If this is too slow for you, just shoot it three or more times and it will blow immediately. It's a great way to conserve ammo, and makes terrific screenshots.

Drop down to the ground and turn left. The street ahead of you is filled with Germans, and more will come as you advance. Slowly, make your way to the end. There's a fuel barrel at the middle of the street, so make sure to take advantage of it. This is the hardest part of the mission, and can take up to ten minutes on the Veteran level. Use smoke grenades if necessary, but bear in mind that you will not be able to see your enemies as you advance, but they will. Somewhere around this point in the mission, a friendly soldier will drop a PPS-42 submachine gun, which carries substantially less ammo than the default PPsh but is more accurate. Once at the end of the street, fix the wire and go inside the building on your right either through the window or door.

After clearing the room, go through the hallway on your right. You will come to a clearing, but don't stay in the open--there are lots of enemies in the destroyed building in front of you. Instead, hide behind the sheet of rock and shoot back at the Germans. There are more here than meets the eye. When you step out from the rock, the piano on the third floor will drop, revealing two more Germans.

When you are sure you finished everyone off, take the stairs on your right. Fight the enemies upstairs, then come back to fix the wire (should you attempt to fix this before taking out the Germans, they might kill you while you're doing it). Now, approach the MG-42 in the corner. Push the Use key, and mow down all the enemies out there. Note that just a sweep from a stationary machine gun will blow up fuel barrels, and take in the area you're shooting at--later in the mission, you will come back here. Do this until you hear a battle cry; you will see Lieutenant Leonov's 2nd Squad storm the remainder.

Now fix wire spot #5. Then, take a few Germans out that are shooting at you from the other side of the buildings. Walk across the planks and chuck a grenade or two through that door blocked by sandbags. Go inside, and methodically clear the place room by room. When you have done so, don't go downstairs immediately. Take cover behind the sandbags, and use your rifle to kill as many Germans on the far side as you can. Only then, go down, but throw a grenade down first to clear your way. Around here, if you are using a SVT40 rifle, you may be running out of ammo. Pick up a Gewehr 43 from your enemies. It offers slightly better aim than your weapon, and ammo is actually littered around.

Move down the stairs in front of you. Note that once you are all the way down, you won't be able to come back up. Fix wire spot #6, then go down the hallway, picking off all the enemies. Now that you have fixed all the wires, the phones will be in working order. Use the phone in the second room from the left. After the other guy finishes giving you orders to destroy three Panzers, pick up the sticky bombs on the floor. As soon as you do this, the barred door further up the hall will bust open. Kill the Germans that come out of there, then move in. Get to the end of the whole building. After all the enemies are dead, a Panzer tank will appear outside. DO NOT STAND ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROOM, because that's the part the tank will shoot. From here, you can choose to do two things: first, you can go outside either through the hole made by the tank's shot or the one on the left side of the room (the second approach is safer and easier), then fight your way through the small rubble pile to get to the tank. Alternatively, you can take the stairs on the back of the left side to reach the third floor, where you will be able to pick off all the Germans first before going down. When you have reached the tank using any of the two approaches, walk up to the glowing portion of the tank's tracks and push Use to attach the sticky bombs. Run back to where you came from--don't worry about the Germans shooting at you, if there are any.

After the tank blows up, pick up some ammo for your PPsh (if you are using something else, ignore this). There are lots of PPsh guns strewn around the tank. Now, go down the narrow alleyway and watch another tank pass through on the other side. Rather than going straight, enter the building on your right. There are a few Germans up there who could be a real problem if you don't kill them now. Then, go back outside and go straight. You will notice that this is where you started the game. When you go a bit further, the tank on your right will blow a wall off and retreat back. Don't follow it--instead, keep going straight and chase the other tank. When you catch up to it (or when it comes to you), stick the bombs and take cover. The last tank is the hardest to destroy, because you have to first defeat a lot of infantry. Use the fuel barrels to your best advantage, and advance toward the tank's position. If it's too hard to get to the tank without the machine gun killing you, throw a smoke grenade right in front of it and approach it. Once you stick the bombs on, two comrades will pull out a dead tank gunner. The end of this long mission is when the tank blows and the remaining Germans are dispatched. But you can't relax yet--the trainyard needs help.

Railroad Station No. 1

 * Stalingrad
 * 8 December 1942
 * Difficulty: 6 out of 10



This is one of the most unique and exciting missions of the game. Crouch and get inside the pipe. Follow the two guys in front of you. When you come to an opening, take a look around the battlefield of the mission, but when you come to another one on the bottom and your comrades stop, wait until a troop carrier parks right below. Shoot 'em all, and get a feel for this. When you turn a corner, don't follow your comrades. Soon, they will be engulfed in a shower of enemy gunfire from below. The sunlight shining through the bullet holes is a very thrilling effect. If you started this mission from the Mission Select menu, you will have started with a SVT40 and a TT-30 pistol. Exchange the pistol with the PPsh your fallen comrade dropped and continue. Whenever you come across an opening in the pipe, there will be enemies below for you to shoot. You don't have to, though.

Turn left at the intersection of pipes. When you reach a bunch of graffiti on the pipe wall, turn right and go on. At one point, someone will throw a grenade into your position from below. Just hurry past it. When you reach the end, you will be in a warehouse. Before following your comrades outside, pick up ammo for both your weapons, located on top of the crates next to the exit. Once outside in the trench, pick up the sniper rifle and shoot the MG-42 gunner on the second floor of the train station. It won't be much use afterwards, though, so it is recommended that you pick your weapon back up as soon as you have done so. You can take any route you wish to get into the station, whether it be along the low walls or through the train cars. When you clear this building out, start at the right side and move to the left. Go upstairs (watch for the guy hiding in the stairs) and kill everyone there to take control of the station.

Now defend this station. If you choose to stay upstairs, bear in mind that grenades will be flying in from all directions, and you will have to run continually just to dodge them all. You should shoot at the enemies outside, but do not use the MG-42; you won't be able to dodge any of the grenades and besides, there's hardly anyone to shoot out on that side. Also, beware of enemies sneaking up on you. Always keep a watch on those stairs, and periodically chuck grenades down to stop anyone from coming up. If you go downstairs, you will be safe from grenades, but enemy soldiers will come from all the entrances, making it hard for you to do anything at all.

Destroying the tank is very difficult. Go out the back of the station, and lie prone as you approach the tank, using the train cars as cover. It's a good idea to take down as many of the ridiculous number of Germans guarding this tank before you charge in or throw a smoke grenade, for obvious reasons. After you stick the bomb, run back to the train car. Taking the ammo depot is fairly easy, as long as you stay out of the MG-42 fire.

After this, the game will give you three objectives to take. How you approach these and in what order are your decisions (thanks to the game's "context-sensitive AI"), but it's the easiest to attack these in the order of C, B, and A, mainly because this is the geographical order of the objectives. Alternatively, you might want to take C, cut across the windowless side of B, capture A, then flank and surround B. This walkthrough will only detail the former strategy.

Advance straight from the ammo depot. After dispatching the enemies coming from behind the broken wall on your left, use the same strategy as for the tank to take point C. Usually, you won't even have to go there--all the enemies can be killed simply by staying away and shooting with your rifle (if you did keep that sniper rifle from the beginning, it comes in handy here). There are three entrances into building B, but one faces position A, so discount that one. For the easiest entrance, go back to the broken wall, climb over, and continue down that side until you come to an opening. Depending on which entrance you take, you will fight through this building in different ways. Following the above directions will have you go straight upstairs and walk through the hallway, while using another will have you come from the opposite side, going through the mail room. It's not very hard either way.



After you have cleared this building, go to the exposed, brick-construction end of the building. Use the sniper rifle there (or the one you have) and kill everyone in the machine gun position A. If you run out of ammo (you shouldn't, though), you'll have to physically approach them. When this position is taken, the battle is over!