Feature: Medal of Honor: European Assault -- Fact & Fiction Subscribe to this RSS feed
The adage "the truth is stranger than fiction" certainly stands watch over Medal of Honor: European Assault.
As a entry point into fascinating, sometimes unbelievable real-life episodes from World War II, Medal of Honor is like no other videogame series around. The games bank on historical accuracy (with some creative license), and the missions in European Assault's four campaign areas (St. Nazaire, North Africa, Russia, and the Battle of the Bulge) as well as other aspects of the story are based on actual events. Here's a look behind the screens at a couple of "war stories" from Medal of Honor: European Assault.
Lieutenant William Holt and the O.S.S.
It's entirely possible that an individual American O.S.S. "observer" like European Assault's main character, Lt. William Holt, may have secretly tagged along with British special forces including the commandos during their raid on St. Nazaire and the Desert Rats when they terrorized North Africa (as featured in the game). But he wouldn't have been wearing a fully-outfitted American G.I. uniform.
World War II began on September 3, 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany, whose army was rampaging across Poland towards Western Europe. Medal of Honor: European Assault kicks off in 1942 (two years before D-Day) when the outcome was still in doubt.
Seeing the writing on the wall, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (the O.S.S.) by General William J. Donovan to provide intelligence for American wartime activities and operations. The branches of the O.S.S. included Secret Intelligence (S.I.) and Special Operations (S.O.), which carried out intelligence gathering and "wet" work like that conducted by Holt in the game.
The fledgling O.S.S. provided clandestine support for Britain's Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) spy organization throughout the early days of the war in the European and the Pacific Theaters of Operation. Later, the two secret agencies collaborated in Europe by parachuting three-person teams (comprised of one American agent, one British agent, and one native agent) into occupied territory to organize and coordinate resistance to the Nazis.
GAME CAMPAIGN: St. Nazaire
MISSION 1: Operation: Chariot
This opening level of European Assault is insane, but it's nowhere near as outrageous as the actual Operation: Chariot. War historians often refer to this action as one of the greatest commando raids in the history of British warfare. In fact, up to this time the British had a sort of lock on commando raids. They created the tactic of landing specialized teams of berserker soldiers by sea and had successfully used it since the sailing days of the old man-o-wars. Commandos had already wreaked havoc at German facilities from Africa to Norway.
The opening St. Nazaire mission is a fairly accurate depiction of actual events in Operation: Chariot.
England was fighting for its life. The country was holding on by a thread--which was the Atlantic shipping lanes, the only way to receive food and supplies from America. And these were being terrorized by German U-boats, raider cruisers, and superbattleships like the Bismarck and her sister ship, the Tirpitz. St. Nazaire was the only port big enough to care for these seagoing behemoths. After lucking out and sinking the Bismarck the Brits set their sights on the Tirpitz, but first they wanted to make sure she had nowhere to run for repairs.
Operation: Chariot was essentially a suicide mission composed of about 378 soldiers from six commando troops. They were given a one-way ticket and told that they were not expected to survive the mission.
The plan was two-fold. First 256 commandos would sail into St. Nazaire on little wooden motor launches. Their job was to get quickly ashore and just destroy anything German. One key target was the submarine pens, just like in the game. But unlike the game, some of these soldiers were armed only with pistols so that they could carry 90-pounds of T.N.T. in huge rucksacks on their backs!
The second part of the plan was equally explosive. An old American destroyer, the Campbeltown, was packed with 4 tons of T.N.T. and turned into a gigantic floating timebomb. The clock was to start ticking as the ship sailed into St. Nazaire. The goal was to ram into the main repair docks and scuttle the Campbeltown to block access to them.
As depicted in Assault, the destroyer would steam into the port without a flag to confuse the Germans. Then they would raise the Union Jack, smash the Campbeltown into the docks, and a team of commandos onboard would launch their portion of the attack from there.
Medal of Honor: European Assault begins with you aboard the Campbeltown (however, no American was actually credited as being a part of this raid). Although it's never explained in the game, the ship is making a final but heroic trip.
Accounts of the battle at St. Nazaire make it sound like some sort of nightmarish killing spree. It was surely much worse. Suffice it to say that neither this article nor the game, although it's very well-done, intense, and murderous, can do justice to the actual tale.
Just like in the game, the commandos who survived the initial attack discovered they could not return to the sea so they had to fight their way through St. Nazaire for possible escape into the countryside. Of the 256 who began the raid, 70 were still on their feet that point.
Your sailing timebomb? The Campbeltown? Again just as in the game, its crew succeeded in ramming the main dock, and the commandos onboard began their attack from there. That's the last you see of the Campbeltown in European Assault, but in reality there's more to the story. After the fighting was finished and the smoke had cleared, 40 German officers and an estimated 400 curious soldiers were on or near the ship to inspect the damage it had done. That's when the timebomb went off.
Operation: Chariot was deemed a success. The docks at St. Nazaire were not used again until the 1950's. Without a home port the German raider Tirpitz was not able to return to France for repairs and was eventually destroyed by the British in Norway. The action resulted in 169 British killed and 200 taken prisoner or wounded. Just five commandos escaped all the way through France to Spain and returned to England.
Medal of Honor: European Assault will keep you entranced for days but after the fighting's done do a little homework, and you'll discover more tales of valor and sacrifice than you could ever imagine.
