Carentan Counterattack

Carentan Counterattack is the fourth mission of the Invasion of Normandy campaign of Company of Heroes.

Mission Description[]

Having secured Carentan, Fox Company must now face a determined German counterattack. Shortly before sundown, lead elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division launch an offensive to regain Carentan.

Mission Events[]

This mission takes place in the same map as the previous mission, Carentan. The same units are imported, with the same amount of health. Captured territories remain unaltered. Any alteration to the terrain, including mines, barbed wires, sandbags and destruction of doodads are preserved. Hence, it is possible to prepare for this mission in advance. Additionally, two unmanned allied AT guns, two new Airborne Squads, three new Engineer Squads and one new Jeep are given to the player.

This mission gives the player, on any difficulty, 15 minutes to prepare and dig in around Carentan, plus possibly capture any points not captured in the previous mission. However, capturing the two munitions points beyond the bridges is complicated by two snipers in buildings, if they are not killed in the previous mission.

After 15 minutes, Germans will attack with a force mainly composed of squads of Volksgrenadiers, Grenadiers and Pioneers, as well as StuG IV self-propelled guns. Other units, such as BMW R75 Motorcycle and SdKfz 251 Half-track, rarely participate in the attack. Also, a Gr. 34 8cm Mortar Team takes position north of the bridge but never pushes forward.

Several minutes into the attack, the player will be made aware of imminent artillery strikes. Three strikes hit, between which the Germans try a push.

The first strike hits the north side of the bridges, the bridges and the river.
The second strike hits the south side of the bridge. The street north of the town hall is simultaneously hit by four barrages. Additionally, the clearly south of the east bridge is fully engulfed by two barrages. One additional barrage hits the small alleyway connecting the east bridge to the town center.
The third strike fully engulfs both the town hall, town center and south of the east bridge with artillery rounds.

After the final artillery strike, Germans launch a massive invasion, not just from across the bridges but also from the west. Eventually, a small German detachment attacks from the south too. Their target is the church.

After four minutes, the Able Company of the Allied forces arrives. This force is composed of four M4 Sherman tanks (as of Update 2.602) and four Riflemen Squads. Two of the tanks arrive with a short delay, but in the heat of the battle, they are could be neglected. The unit bar to the right could be used to find or select them.

Inflicting 200 casualties on Germans[]

The bonus objective of this mission is to inflict 200 casualties on Germans. However, casualties inflicted by artillery strikes, German friendly fire, or mines whose planting unit is dead, are not counted.

Trivia[]

Only when this mission is continued from the last stage and fully loaded, an autosave will be generated containing the legacies from pervious mission, including units and territories captured. However, if quitted from 3rd mission victory menu and entered through 'Continue Campaign' or Mission Select page, the mission would start with a default unit load-up and territory (particularly, with no control points across the river). In this scenario, it will be much harder to get the medal. The same principle is true for another two-part mission later in the game.
The real life operation is known as the "Battle of Bloody Gulch" information about the operation can be read about here.