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

""На дне рождения Fьrher's, заграждение ракет Katyusha разорвет Берлин на части! С вашими пулями, с вашими штыками, вашими голыми руками - делают то же самое их несчастным солдатам!""

- Commisar Markhov, from the Russian version of Call Of Duty; WaW, heard at the beginning of the mission

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. Dmitri). Half of the fighting then takes place in CQC but the beginning of the fighting takes place outside.

Walkthrough
Both sides are equally defended, but stick to the right side since a T-34 will be rolling up there. Use your 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 which can kill you quite easily if you do not shoot first. Once all of the Germans are eliminated in your building, there is no need to enter the adjacent building; your allies will finish that one off. Shoot Panzerschrecks at the building where all of the tanks are shooting at to speed up the event cues. Once Sgt. Reznov tells you to advance, enter the building via a hole in the wall on the east of it. Once in the building, you have a choice to make: trade in one of my weapons for a near empty MG42 or keep your weapons. Your Mosin-Nagant should be your abandoned weapon, as the Kar98k and more Mosin-Nagants will be available in the next battles. Either way, stock up before continuing on and then go. You should see some of your comrades taking out German POWs, and then a T-34 tank should destroy the wall for you and your comrades to get through. You now have two options: you can 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 an MG supporting them. Both battles are equal in difficulty, but if you do take the balcony area and the move on to support Reznov, you will need to make sure you kill the Germans, 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 you in there. Once your battle is done there, help Reznov and your comrades defeat the German defenders on the ground. Aim for the MG gunner first, you should have an STG44 for this job, if not, a Mosin-Nagant or Kar98k should do the job (SMG with short bursts as well). Mop up the Germans hiding behind cover; the MG will sometimes periodically come back, though, you should be able to destroy all enemies before that happens. Enter the Asylum and continue on.

Now the CQC battle begins. You should have an MP40, or a low ammo PPSh-41. I recommend on keeping the MP40 as ammo is abundant, keep an STG-44 out as well. Reznov will then tell you to grab a shotgun, this is one of the only times you will use the Double-Barreled Shotgun w/grip so if you want it, then use it. It’s not extremely effective because of the only two bullets you get, but it works if you use it up, and then switch to your SMG, and then switch back to your shotgun to reload after the battle is over. When you come up the stairs look behind you there is an MG42 leaning against the drawer. You get quite a bit of ammo you do not use, so use it while you can. Reznov will say that it is quiet; there are Germans waiting to ambush you when you enter the area where there is a long low wall of makeshift items that create a barrier, toss in (don’t cook them) grenades and then immediately rushing them. Once they spawn, they will get blown up, and you can kill the stragglers. The battle should be quick, if you toss a few grenades and a few Molotov Cocktails since you wont be needed most of them the rest of the mission. Proceed to the next area, it should have many Germans shooting Panzerschrecks at you from the rooftops, they are also armed with Gewehr 43s. Try to kill the Panzerschreck users first, but move to the left to kill some Germans with the 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, immediately mop up the rest of the Germans in the area, there will be some hiding behind cover just behind the MG42 gunner. Exit this area and enter the next, you should be outdoors, and see Germans fleeing from T-34s. Keep moving forward, kill as many as you want, but they will usually retreat. You are in fact able to ride on the T-34’s MG turret, this is a better option on higher difficulties if you do not want to walk and get shot by enemies (though, you still can be damage while in the turret). Once the Commissar announces his speech, the mission then ends.

Trivia

 * If you blow a Russian in a blue uniform's head, 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, you 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.


 * You 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-34. It is as if you have Greased Bearings and Water Cooler on the turret at the same time due to you firing the weapon for longer periods of time and being able to rotate quickly.
 * The MG on said tank is actually a Browning .30 Cal.
 * The asylum has some similar features as the one in Verruckt.


 * Kill 15 Nazis while mounted on said tank and receive your Ruthless Achievement/Trophy. This Achievement/Trophy can also be gained in co-op games if you are having difficulty getting this in singleplayer.


 * 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.


 * In the place where you get the Sawed-Off Double-barreled shotgun w/ Grip there is only one bullet in it, perhaps indicating that someone committed suicide with it.


 * In this level you pass through a Nazi Asylum, that actually existed in real life. It was called the Wittenau Sanitorium and is the setting for the second Nazi Zombie mission, 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.


 * In the beginning when the first mission starts it say the name of the mission, where it is and the date and the date says that it is the 23rd of April. In the beginning cutscene where it shows the train moving towards a city it says April 20, 1945


 * Also before the mission actually starts, the names of previous battles say 03' instead of 43'.
 * The Tank that Reznov tells you to use for cover is actually your tank from Blood and Iron.
 * If you follow Reznov when he enters the asylum, look over a pile of boxes and you can see a bird fly off. This is the only animal in the game, apart from the crow in "Vendetta," Dogs and Hellhounds.