Ring of Steel

"Citizens of Berlin! A ring of steel surrounds your rotten city! We will crush all who still dare to resist the will of the Red Army! Abandon your posts, abandon your homes, abandon all hope! Ura!"

- Commissar Markhov

Ring of Steel is the ninth mission in Call of Duty: World at War. It continues from the level Blood and Iron in which a train full of Soviet troops assault the surrounding area of suburbs and outskirts of Berlin (it is presumed that the train was carrying more troops, but only about 10 Soviet troops combat with Pvt. Dimitri). Half of the fighting then takes place in CQC but the beginning of the fighting takes place outside.

Walkthrough
After you get out of the train, stay to the left as there are four PPSH-41 laying around. Use them as a good starter SMG.

Both sides are equally defended, but stick to the right side since a T-34 will be rolling up there. Use the Mosin-Nagant to deal with the infantry at a long range, or come in close with a PPSh-41 from the two that are leaning on some boxes while gathering ammo from downed comrades. Hide behind the low walls in prone position if you are at low health. Continue to head up the stairs of the either building, but be careful as there are some Germans up the stairs with MP40s. Once all of the Germans are eliminated in the building, there is no need to enter the adjacent building; allies will finish that one off. Panzerschrecks can be shot at the building where all of the tanks are shooting at to speed up the event cues, but it is not necessary. Once Sgt. Reznov tells the team to advance, enter the building via a hole in the wall on the east of it. Once in the building, there is a choice to make: trade in a weapon for a near empty MG42 or not. If one decides to change, the 91/30 Mosin-Nagant should not be the abandoned weapon, as the Kar98k and more Mosin-Nagants will be less available in the next battles. Either way, stock up before continuing on and then go. There should be some comrades taking out German POWs, and then a T-34 tank should destroy the wall for the player to get through. There are now two options: continue to attack the Germans at the higher balcony

area with Commissar Markhov or battle the Germans defending the entrance of the Asylum with Reznov with and MG supporting the Germans. Both battles are almost equal in difficulty, but if the player takes the balcony area and then moves on to support Reznov, one will need to make sure to kill the Germans, a majority of them will be hiding behind cover (sometimes they will hide behind a car) toss a grenade at them to destroy the car in which its explosions should kill any surrounding Germans. Try to hide in the partially destroyed houses on the right, as no grenade can reach the player in there. Once the battle is done there, help Reznov and the comrades defeat the German defenders on the ground. Aim for the MG gunner first, as the MG mows down anyone quickly, then mop up the Germans hiding behind cover; the MG will sometimes periodically come back, though, one should be able to destroy all enemies before that happens. Enter the Asylum and continue on.

Now the CQC battle begins. Reznov will then tell the player to grab a shotgun, this is one of the only times the Double-Barreled Shotgun w/grip will be used. When the player comes up the stairs, there will be an MG42 leaning against the drawer behind the player. There is plenty of ammo here by taking the weapon. When Reznov will say that it is quiet; there will be Germans waiting to ambush the player when entering the area where there is a long low wall of makeshift items that create a barrier, toss a grenade and move a little further so they will spawn. They will only spawn when you are close enough. That should take care of most of them. The battle should be quick, and using grenades and Molotov Cocktails will speed it up. Proceed to the next area, it should have many Germans shooting Panzerschrecks from the rooftops, they are also armed with Gewehr 43s. Try to kill the Panzerschreck users first, but move to the left for there are Germans with a mounted MG42. There is also a stockpile of some Panzerschrecks and a Gewehr 43 to the adjacent room to the right of the open balcony area. Once majority of them are killed, proceed onwards to the next area, it should have a heavily sandbagged mounted MG42, quickly kill the gunner by tossing a cooked grenade or shoot through the tiny look-hole. Either way, with him gone, one can easily eliminate the rest of the Germans in the area. Exit this area and enter the next. The player should be outdoors and see Germans fleeing from T-34s. Keep moving forward. They will usually retreat, but can still be fired at. The player is in fact able to ride on the T-34’s MG turret, this is a better option on higher difficulties if one does not want to walk and get shot by enemies (though, the player can still be damaged while in the turret). Once the Commissar announces his speech, the mission ends.

Achievement/Trophy
Ruthless - Kill 15 German soldiers using any tank machine gun.

Note: The tanks are found at the end of the mission, when the German soldiers are retreating.

Trivia

 * If a Blue uniformed Russian's head is destroyed, legs or arms off with the shotgun, his uniform instantly changes to yellow. This happens for every mission in the Russian campaign.
 * In the Asylum, the player can see human figures drawn with blood on the walls, there is one near the little chest that the Sawed-Off Double-barreled shotgun w/Grip is lying on.
 * The player can use the T-34’s MG turret during the last part of the mission but the sound of the turret sounds similar to the DP-28, and the first person perspective is different compared the MG turret of the multiplayer T-3Afvafvafvag.jpg. It is as if the player has Greased Bearings and Water Cooler on the turret at the same time due to one's firing the weapon for longer periods of time and being able to rotate quickly.
 * The Machine Gun on the T-34 tank is a M1919 Browning machine gun.
 * The asylum is also used for Verruckt, but with some changes.
 * At the beginning of this mission the commissar says “with your bullets, with your bayonets, with your bare hands…” but no bayonets are present in this mission or at all in the Russian campaign. However, he could be referring to your knife.
 * In the place where the player gets the Sawed-Off Double-barreled shotgun w/ Grip sometimes there is only one shell loaded.
 * In this level the user passes through a Nazi Asylum that actually existed in real life. It was called the Wittenau Sanitarium and is the setting for the second Nazi Zombies map, Verruckt.
 * At the start of the mission the commissar says it is Hitler's birthday; The date is April 23, his birthday was the 20th. This could also mean the assault is a "surprise gift" for him, or it could also simply be propaganda on the part of the commissar, part of whose job it is to provide morale.
 * At the very end of the mission, Commissar Markhov speaks on what sounds like speakers from inside one of the tanks. However the Commissar is on the street alongside the rest of the men.
 * Also before the mission actually starts, the names of previous battles say 03' instead of 43'.
 * The Tank that Reznov tells the player to use for cover is actually the tank from Blood and Iron.
 * If the player throws a Molotov Cocktail at a tank that is moving on the Wii version, the flames will levitate on the ground when the tank moves on.
 * Also in the Wii version, if the player cooks a grenade near the beginning of the level, sometimes one can't throw it. However, when respawning, the grenade does the same thing, regardless of whether or not having pushed the button. The process will repeat again and again until one goes to the main menu and restart the level.
 * After clearing the asylum, the AI teammates start coming from the asylum's courtyard. If the player knifes them while they are climbing over a concrete slab, their heads will magically disappear and the teammate will die. This is disturbing as if one knifed a normal enemy, they would just die. Also, there is no blood spewing out when their head disappears.
 * The tank turret sounds like a DP-28. This is most likely the closest a player would get to a DP-28 in the single player campaignDaDf.jpg
 * When shooting at the two MG from the building where the tank is stuck and torn apart, Reznov will say "Yes" wherever he stands and may not be sure that he can see the two fallen.
 * Throwing a grenade at the comrades executing the German officers will cause only the German officers to die and the comrades don't have to draw their weapons to finish them.
 * At the beginning of the mission, the Germans who are crawling already start before the tank fires a round.
 * On the Xbox 360, if the player silences the background music, (i.e. plays music of there own, and then stops it) then keeps passing through the asylum, they can hear various noises such as, a rat scurrying, creepy music, flames, voices, Water dripping from the ceiling, lightning, and shouts of help.
 * Like above, the shouts are a man, screaming "OH GOD,HELP!" or "GET ME OUT OF HERE". The odd thing is the man speaks English, though it takes place in Germany.
 * Also like above, you can also hear a maniacal laugh.
 * Before Reznov tells Chernov they will break through the wall with brute force, the tank can be seen stationary. If the player jumps onto the back or front of the tank, one will not fall off as usual. However, if one does this, the user will immediately die for no reason once the tank starts moving.
 * The last Nazi being executed before the tank smashes through the wall, can not be killed by the player after being knocked down. If the player has a automatic weapon (PPSh-41, MG42, MP40, etc.) the bullets will go into his body, but will not kill him.
 * The person who committed suicide with the Sawed-Off Double-barreled shotgun most likely held the gun to their head, as the amount of gore on the surrounding wall and floor suggests so.
 * When entering the building and grabbing the MG42 near the window, there is also another one lying on the table in that room.
 * Inside the Asylum, players can spot several blood splatters that resemble a person standing in profile.
 * It has been mentioned, but not confirmed that players can see zombie drawings on the wall.