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Incoming! The subject of this article is a recent or unreleased addition to a Battlefield game. It may contain speculation or errors. Have new, relevant information to add? Why not help out? |
Through Mud and Blood is one of the chapters featured in singleplayer campaign of Battlefield 1. It is available to play in the First Trial for EA and Origin Access.[1]
Taking place late in the war, the player assumes the role of Danny Edwards, a British recruit joining the crew of a Mark V Landship named Black Bess as their new tank driver. New to the war and inexperienced in driving the unreliable vehicle, Edwards is given a trial by fire with his first mission: punch through the German line at Cambrai with a broken tank and a crew that has no trust in him.[2]
Synopsis
Over The Top
Daniel "Danny" Edwards, a chauffeur, joins the war as a new recruit. He was assigned as a tank driver by Townsend, commander of the Mark V Landship "Black Bess". The crew consists of Finch, an optimistic technician and gunner, Pritchard, another gunner, and McManus, an cynical Irish gunner who does not trust Edwards.
The mission is to break through German lines, and advance to Cambrai. Edwards starts to get the hang of it, and during the course, the crew captures several German outposts, while destroying field guns and an A7V Sturmpanzer tank. After destroying the Panzer, artillery fire hits the tank, immobilizing it. Finch is sent out to repair the tank, with Edwards guiding him. However, Finch was blasted and killed in the process, forcing Edwards to repair the tank by himself.
After repairing the tank, the crew proceeds to destroy artillery, until they come across a swamp with mud, losing traction and bringing the tank to an overrun. While stuck, German forces attempt to kill the crew, killing Pritchard. Edwards grabs a pigeon Pritchard held before dying, with Townsend ordering Edwards to release it, while McManus relents. Edwards releases the pigeon, on the way back to headquarters.
The pigeon successfully gets back to HQ, bringing the British Army to a new fire mission, launching an artillery strike near the tank to kill the Germans, grid 317241. Artillery fire was led to grid 3642, distance far away from the tank, killing the Germans.
Fog of War
The Germans failed to capture Black Bess, but left Pritchard dead, leaving Edwards, McManus, and Townsend alive. The crew proceeds to a forest in Bourlon, which is covered in fog.
Edwards is ordered to scout the forest, and clear German soldiers and anti tank obstacles. After leaving the forest, German forces attack the tank in a bridge, but were killed by Edwards and the crew. Edwards scouts a trench area and clears waves of Germans and FT-17 Light Tanks. After clearing the waves, Edwards gets back behind the wheel and proceeds to Cambrai.
Breakdown
It is dawn of the next day, and Black Bess suddenly breaks down. The engine shut down instantly, and Edwards says that new spark plugs are needed. Townsend, in anguish, tells Edwards to check a village ahead, which is occupied by the German forces, and has captured Mark V tanks with salvaged engines. Townsend sends McManus and Edwards to find what Black Bess needs.
McManus and Edwards get out, but McManus expresses his denial on the order, angering Edwards, resulting in Edwards going on his own to find replacement spark plugs. After finding four plugs, Edwards gets back in the tank, but finds a German soldier who is about to stab him with a bayonet charge. While holding the bayonet, McManus shouts and stabs the soldier from behind, saving Edwards.
Edwards proceeds to repair the tank, but upon starting the engine, it never responded. Edwards complains about everything done right, cranking the engine three times, but to no avail. On the fourth crank, Edwards shouts, and the engine started. McManus comments that Black Bess likes swearing.
Steel on Steel
Sunrise arrives on the same village, and the crew proceeds to destroy German soldiers, light tanks, and the captured Mark V tanks. Upon arriving at the fourth spark plug location, Edwards and the crew head to a railyard, which is a staging area to retake Cambrai. The crew proceeds to destroy waves of soldiers, and waves of tanks. After destroying the final wave, which consists of the Germans' own A7V tanks, they proceed to Cambrai, but were disabled for the second time by artillery fire from Cambrai. Edwards gets out to assess the outside, when an Anti-tank grenade detonates in front of him.
German soldiers let out a battle cry and proceeds to capture the tank. McManus proceeds to shoot Germans, while being shot by a German himself, and was killed by Townsend. Townsend kills Germans inside the tank, and after being shot, Townsend detonates the tank by a fuel leak, sacrificing himself and killing the German soldiers near the tank.
Edwards survived the explosion, and McManus survived as well, although bleeding from the shot. The two survivors proceed to Cambrai on foot.
It was revealed that 324 tanks took part in the second battle (retake) of Cambrai, and the war ended in November, a month later.
Trivia
- The objective area "Beren's Crossing" is a reference to a character, named Beren, from The Silmarillion, a book written by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien himself fought in World War I in the British Army before he became a writer.
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