Objective XYZ

Objective XYZ
Game	Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Chapter Details
Date	June 6th 1944, D-Day
Time	1015
Location	Normandy, France
Enemies	Infanterie
Objective(s)	Defeat the soldiers at the German barracks.
Game Progression
Previous Mission	Ambush at Exit 4
Next Mission	Foucarville Blockade

"I never asked to be squad leader."

— Baker's Monologue

Objective XYZ is the 5th chapter of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30.

Summary

Short of men after the mis-drop, Hartsock and Baker alone must clean up a Norman hamlet occupied by a German infantry company...

Plot

Baker and his men were talking about what the German eats for breakfast while Leggett attempted to contact their platoon with no avail. Mac order Baker and Red to eliminate the Germans on the village which occupied by a German company while Mac brings Leggett, Allen and Garnett to flank the village. Soon, Baker and Red faces resistance but swiftly dealt with. They proceed and met a machine gun nest firing down the road, they avoid the road and kill the Germans that are in the way before killing the machine gunner. They came to some more farm buildings where more Germans served as an obstacle. After they eliminate the enemy, they reach to an open plain where the German are in their defense. Using the Four Fs, Baker and Red cleared the defense and reach the big manor in the village. Once they enter the manor, they saw four Germans in the diner eating breakfast, they soon eliminate them before exiting the manor. Outside the manor, they saw the last building occupying the Germans and Allen and Garnett outside preparing the bazooka. However, Allen misfire and shot at the stables instead. This alert the Germans who are prepared for the Americans, Allen fired the second shot and the whole upper floor of the building is set on fire. This cause all the Germans to exit the building and attack the outnumbered paratroopers but the paratroopers managed to defeat all the Germans in the area with no casualties for the American side. They soon got an Opel Blitz and serve as transport for the 3rd Squad.

Objectives

Defeat the soldiers at the German barracks

Army intel reports noted an unnamed French village, labeled Objective XYZ, occupied by an entire Germany infantry company.

Characters

• Staff Sergeant Gregory Hassay
• Sergeant Matthew Baker (Playable)
• Corporal Joseph Hartsock
• Private First Class Kevin Leggett
• Private Larry Allen
• Private Michael Garnett

Weapons

Americans Weapons

• M1 Garand
• M1A1 Thompson
• M9 Bazooka (Unused)

German Weapons

• Kar 98k 
• MP 40 
• MG 42 (Mounted)

Teams

Fire Team

• Cpl. Hartsock - M1A1 Carbine

Walkthrough

You start with Red and have to clear the village of Germans. You head to the front and order Red to take cover and suppress the Germans in front of you. Do make sure to shoot at the Germans for a kill. Head to the left and go to the cover and prepare for the enemy heading to the left flank. Shoot him down and flank the suppressed team with your submachine gun.

You reach the main road where there are machine gun firing. Avoid it and cross the road, there is a German team taking cover behind a cover in the main road. You and Red can flank them easy enough. In your position, you can see a path to flank the machine gun and proceed there, there will be many enemies to engage so this will be the recommended and working strategy: First, order Red to suppress the Germans in front of him, then head to the barn and kill the German. You can flank the 2 Germans opposite of Red's position. If can, shoot the German at the window. If you can't, just suppress him and head upstairs to finish him. Then head to the machine gun position and let Red or yourself kill him.

Head forward and order Red to take cover and suppress the German near the door. Move behind the house to flank but be careful of one German taking cover behind the table and a potential one heading your way. Red can kill the German if they were careless. Move Red forward to a suitable cover where 3 Germans taking cover, you can flank one but the team can't be flank without taking cover. Therefore, you need to kill them CoD style when they pop out from cover or just take the risk of flanking them without cover.

Move forward towards a field where an enemy team is firing at you. Have Red take cover behind a wall near the enemy and suppress them. Try to kill some Germans as you can because one team would try and flank you. You can flank the enemy team before heading to a next battle. There will be 2 teams blocking your path with one on the high ground. Have Red to suppress the high ground team before the ground team since the high team can shoot you easily. Make sure the ground team is suppress before flanking them. Finally, flank the high team.

Head inside the house and throw a grenade in the dining room since there are Germans in there, kill any survivors as well. Head outside to find Allen and Garnett who are preparing a bazooka. Order Red to take cover to prepare for a German wave. Once the bazooka shot, 2 Germans would come out and you just need to kill them. The machine gun would be destroy by the bazooka and would unleash the enemies. Kill anyone who is not in cover, if there is still enemies after the wave, kill them with their head out or risk flank. Once the battle is over, head to Allen & Garnett to finish the chapter.

Transcript

Main article: Objective XYZ/Transcript

Extras

The Story of Objective XYZ - Easy

Page 1 of the Official After Action Reports relating to the action at Objective XYZ.

Page 2 of the Official After Action Reports relating to the action at Objective XYZ.

Close up of Page 1 showing Col. S.L.A Marshall's hand drawn map of XYZ complex. NOTE: Marshall's map is not as accurate as the game.

Sgt. Summers and Pvt. Camin clean out the XYZ complex as a two-man squad alternating in fire and assault roles.

House-to-House

Summers went through the next five houses in the same manner, one man aiding him—Pvt. John Camin, armed only with a carbine. They switched weapons from house to house, one covering with the carbine while the other rushed the door with the tommy gun. The houses were thick stone-walled and the walls were slotted with fire ports. The Germans kept firing on the road. The machine gunner kept plastering the embrasures. Summers and Camin went on, from bldg to bldg, taking no prisoners because no chances afforded, fighting and firing, and saying nothing to one another. Thirty of the enemy were killed in the dwellings before the two men rushed a building near the end of the line, kicked the door open, and found it was a troop mess hall. There were 15 men at the table paying no heed to the fighting. Summers cut them down as they started to arise.

The heroes of XYZ. Sgt. Summers earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in this fight.

Details about the bazooka fire that sets the house ablaze, bringing the XYZ fight to a fiery conclusion.

A bazooka had been sent along by Cassidy, S/Sgt Roy Nickrent in charge of it.

The Bazooka

The men waiting there saw the last bazooka round set the upper part of the houses in flames. Lieut Combs and Lieut Theodore S. Richards arrived in time to see it, also. The Germans began pouring out of the house and the men at the hedge poured fire into them as they fled backward. It was much too late for them.

House 1 of the XYZ complex photographed by the Gearbox survey team on location in Normandy.

House 1 of the XYZ complex as represented in the game.

Photographed by Gearbox, this is the "dining room" house that faces the courtyard where the final XYZ battle took place.

The "dining room" house as represented in the game.

Research at the US National Archives - Normal

Located in Washington DC, the US National Archives provided Gearbox with thousands of pieces of historical evidence used in the making of the game.

Co-Director, Brian Martel, at the archives. He discovered thousands of photos, US Army reports, eyewitness accounts, maps and spy plane images.

Official US Army After Action Reports provided volumes of detailed information about each unit's participation in the D-Day invasion.

The Party Forms

Cole figured he didn't want to engage until he could be sure where he was. So he bear on the door of the house at the edge of the town. An answer came back—from a woman—but she wouldn't open up, though Cole continued to pound the door for about 10 minutes. A boy from the 505th who spoke fairly good French came up and gave her an argument through the door. She opened it. She was reluctant to give them any information but finally told them they were at Ste Mere Eglise.

Aerial Reconnaissance Images taken by the Army Air Corps in 1944 helped soldiers prepare 60 years ago. today the photos are preserved at NARA.

Pages and pages of personal journals of paratroopers, such as this one, were discovered by the Gearbox research team at the Archives.

Maps hand-drawn by soldier in 1944 offer minute details about small unit actions. This map tells of Private Sterno's role in "Cole's Charge."

The US Army Signal Corps took combat photographs throughout the ETO. Gearbox accumulated about 500 such photos of paratroopers in Normandy.

Before D-Day, Army Cartographers scribed every road, house and hedgerow in France. The maps helped Gearbox rebuild Normandy 60 years later.

The Thompson Submachinegun - Col. Antal Briefing - Difficult

This is the U.S. M1 Thompson Sub-machine Gun.

The Thompson Sub-machine gun was the weapon of choice of the paratroopers of D-Day.

The Thompson weighs 12.5 pounds, when fully loaded and is 33 inches long. The Thompson fires between 600 and 700 rounds per minute.

Paratroopers would load their Thompson with either a 20-round or a 30-round magazine.

In Brothers in Arms, the 45 caliber Thompson is absolutely deadly in the hands of a trained paratrooper in close combat. Use this weapon for the close assault.

Normandy Photo Essay - Authentic

Gearbox made several trips to France to survey the battlefields. The following photo essay from one of those trips was compiled by Micheal Neumann.

Exit 4 to Utah Beach is now named after an army engineer who helped blow the seawall to link up the 101st Airborne with the 101st Airborne with the 4th Infantry Division.

Low tide, dawn, Utah Beach, 2004. Artist, Jennifer Wildes stands near a rusted reminder of the amphibious landing.

"Chariots" racers on Utah Beach in 2004.

A house near St. Martin-de-Varreville was the command post where the assault on Objective XYZ started. these children live there.

The Church of Foucarville. 60 years earlier, the 502nd PIR held the Northern most flank of the entire invasion.

The distinctive house at Dead Man's Corner was put up for sale in 2004.

The steeple of the church in St. Come-du-Mont was destroyed by artillery on D+2. It has since been completely restored.

The tannery near Bridge 2 on Purple Heart Lane has become a residence, Only close inspection betray traces of the battle that took place here 60 years earlier.

From under Bridge 3 on Purple Heart Lane, Lt. Col. Cole ordered his men down the bloody causeway.

An elderly man recounts Lt. Col. Cole's attack on Carentan - which he witnessed as a boy 60 years earlier just yards from this spot.

The factory in the industrial section of Carentan has been abandoned since the war. but is still standing.

A statue ear the entrance of the cathedral in Carentan is pocked by 60 years old bullet holes.

Designer, Erik Doescher is mobbed by school children in the central square of Carentan.

Art Director, Brian Martel scans the horizon at hill 30 looking for landmarks and anything of interest. He found a cemetery.

Gallery

PC Loading Screen

Difference in the PS2 version

• Baker's introduction was from the mission "Silence the Guns"
• Red doesn't speak until after Mac and Leggett has left.
• The part where Garnett was freaked out while looking at a dead cow was cut.
• Mac and Red uses an M1 Garand.