American Campaign One: D-Day

The Battle of Point du Hoc

Pointe Du Hoc: June 5, 1944

Pointe Du Hoc was the site of the first accomplished mission on D-Day, 1944, in which three companies of Rangers landed on the beach beneath the huge cliffs there, scaled the wall, tracked down large artillery guns that were trained on Omaha Beach, and rendered them almost useless to the Germans. How does all this play out in the game? Well, let's find out.

The beginning of this level begins with a lengthy scripted sequence, so just sit back and watch until you regain control of yourself at the bottom of the cliff. You're armed with a sniper rifle, but you only have five rounds for it; you'll need to use it to fire on any Germans that happen to be standing on the cliff before you find your rope and start your ascent. You can't be killed while you're on the rope, so just ascend and get to the first trench atop the wall.

Here, you'll come under heavy fire from a pillbox and other mobile MG42s in the area, but luckily for you, you won't have to deal with most of them just yet. When you're in the trench, you'll note that it branches into three paths. You'll want to follow down the one heading to your right, which should be somewhat to the west. You'll know you're heading the right way if it terminates in a crater that leads into a German bunker.

Let your teammates do the risky work whenever possible.

If you follow through the bunker a bit, you'll come to a pair of MG42s looking out and up the earthen ramp beyond. There's nothing to fire at here, though, as most of the Germans are in a trench to the southwest. What's more, there's a large gun off to the west a bit that'll tear you up if you head outside. You'll need to lay down smoke in front of it if you want to make it to the trench here, but when you do, you'll be able to follow it to the east to reach the pillbox you passed by earlier. Your teammates will destroy the gunner and start running towards the box, so follow them, but be careful, as there may be three or four more Germans coming at you from the closed door below the bunker.

Through The Town

After the far gun gets destroyed by artillery, stick with your men and start making your way to the west. You'll have to punch through it to reach the far side, which can be difficult, since there are a bunch of individual houses, and an MG overlooking the main square. You're going to be asked to lay down smoke here, but if you're a decent shot, you can snipe out the gunner with a Garand or Gewehlt a few times until the Germans stop manning it and proceed from there. Your teammates will sometimes get stuck if you don't lay down smoke, but if you proceed forward and kill all of the Germans in the building where the MG is, they should move up.

Get behind the halftrack and kill its gunner as quickly as possible.

After you hit the garden behind the town, flank the halftrack by scootching around to its left; if you're quick, you can get there before the Germans start to pour out its back side, and kill them before they scramble for cover. After that's done, you'll find the 155mm guns; disabling them is a simple matter of walking up to them and placing your thermite on the hydraulics that are responsible for moving them.

Your goal then becomes to fight your way back to the bunkers on the beach and clear out the remaining German resistance there. Getting through the town should be uneventful, but when you reach the craters again, you'll have to move out to the east and wrap around the worst of the fire to reach the gate leading into the bunker compound. Be careful not to get too close to the gate itself, as the charges that are set on it have a pretty big explosive radius and can kill you if you don't keep your distance.

When the gate's been destroyed, you'll have to find and kill the inhabitants of the three bunkers scattered around the area. There are still plenty of Germans in the trenches that line the fenced-in area, though, so you may want to start by hopping into one of those and clearing it out, just to ensure that you don't get shot in the back while you move. When all three bunkers are cleared, the mission ends.