Operation Tonga - Call of Duty: Vanguard Guide - IGN (2024)

This Call of Duty: Vanguard walkthrough has step-by-step instructions on how to complete the second mission; Operation Tonga, guides for obtaining achievements & trophies, boss strategies, & more. For other mission guides, visit our full Walkthrough.

NOTE: Unlike many previous Call of Duty games, Vanguard has no collectibles or intel in the Campaign. Simply enjoy the game and ‘kill some Nazis.’

Operation Tonga

After the adjoining cinematics conclude, you’ll assume the role of Kingsley during Operation Tonga.

You’ll wash up on the sore, near the woods. There is a burning windmill in the distance, with one goal.

Regroup With Allies At The Windmill

Run forward quickly, approaching the fallen trees. Crouch or go prone (press B / Circle by default for Crouch, Hold B / Circle by default for Prone) when you get near and make your way to the right, hiding behind the tree trunk.

Wait for the soldier with the flashlight to turn his back, then follow the path of leaves into the forest. You can stand up at this point and begin to run, towards the white, flashing explosions.

Make a slight left at the fire, burning along the path and you’ll see one of your fellow soldiers, whose parachute is caught in a tree.

Approach him and a Nazi soldier will attack him. Run up and initiate a Takedown (R3 by default) and a short animation will trigger. Kingsley will pick up a rifle as another Nazi soldier approaches, so shoot him and you’ll once again have control.

Turn back to the right and follow the path up the hill. Stop at the gate and wait and a procession will pass by. Once they are gone, crouch and make your way towards the wagon and truck near the house across the field.

Creep up behind the soldiers on the far right side and silently initiate Takedowns on them. Stealth kill the soldier near the entrance to the cellar next, then circle back around to the truck and fill up on ammo.

Once you’ve stocked up, return to the cellar door by the lantern and head down the stairs. As you reach the basem*nt, a soldier will notice you through the floorboards and begin shooting.

Aim upwards, just above the empty wine rack, and fire to kill him, then head to the stairs on the far side of the room and climb them to reach ground level again.

Open the door and a soldier will blow it off it’s hinges. Approach the door jam on the left side and aim to look around the corner.

Use the door frame as cover as you take out the soldier, then inch forward and turn left to find another soldier, who is taking cover behind a flipped table.

An explosion outside will blow a hole in the wall, but an enemy soldier will take shots at you if you approach, so aim at the window and kill him first.

There is an MP-40 with 9mm 64 round drums by the window, so pick that up to have a good, close-range weapon for this next section, but keep your rifle as a secondary.

Head outside and take out the remaining soldier and you’ll see a white flash, with a whistle signalling the approach of more enemies.

Take cover behind one of the garden walls and get ready. Make sure your close-range, automatic weapon is fully reloaded, then switch to your rifle and pick off the approaching soldiers.

After taking out a few soldiers, you’ll hear barking, so switch to your MP-40 and look for the approaching dog (our first furry foe approached from the right side, with another following close behind from the left).

Once the dogs are dead, switch back to your rifle and clear out the remaining soldiers. After they are finished, head to the far end of the yard and follow the path up the hill and you’ll reach the house nearest the burning windmill.

Run towards the house and you’ll pass a wagon filled with barrels. A soldier will run into the burning house, so approach the open doorway on the right side with your close-range weapon drawn.

ALERT A soldier with a bayonet will charge you from inside the building, which is an instant-kill, so shoot them immediately. You will know they are charging by their battle cry, which grows louder as they approach.

Several more soldiers are taking cover in the stable stalls to the left and beyond the table at the end of the room, so pick up grenades from the ammo crate on the left, then pick up any weapons you want (this room has a few new ones) and head outside.

Webb is here, reuniting you with your crew, so approach him and interact to regroup and plan the way forward.

New Objective: Reach The Gun Battery

Now that you are reunited with your team, Arthur’s special ability will be unlocked. Use it on the barrier (Up on the Dpad by default) to get your teammates to clear out the debris, then approach it and duck under to continue.

After you enter the next area, turn right to find a box with Model 24 hand grenades, and an ammo crate. Refill and head up the road.

Mantle up the ledge and continue to reach an overlook.

New Objective: Take The Bridgehead

Your new objective, which will pave the way for reaching the gun battery, will be to take the bridgehead, so follow the path down the hill to the right, then crouch to maintain stealth.

At this point, you’ll have two options as to where to direct your troops. Neither choice makes a difference in the story, it just focuses their fire on certain targets.

You’ll use this ability frequently in this part of the mission, so have the team target the troops in the truck or the soldiers guarding the gate, then take on the others yourself to clear the area.

Approach the gate and use it as cover, then order the troops to begin a suppressive fire on the half-trak to give you an opportunity to move to the left or right side of the area.

Moving through the left side, you’ll take on troops in the open-air ammunition depot and lumbar yard, giving you the opportunity to flank some powerful enemy emplacements. The area on the right will require you to surge through a house, giving you significant cover during the next section.

If either of those areas is giving you trouble, you will freely be able to switch to the other side, so don’t worry too much about choosing. On our playthrough, we decided to go left, so the directions that follow will lead in that direction.

Approaching the crates on the left, just inside the gate, you’ll find a box with smoke grenades inside. Throw one in the street, in front of the half-trak to make it safe to cross the road, towards the house, or elsewhere.

ALERT Advancing along the right-most section of the left area is easy and straightforward, and resulted in the fewest number of ambushes or overwhelming numbers.

There are three covered areas on the left, each one containing a handful of soldiers behind cover, so use your lethal grenades to clear them out once you have them pinned down, and use smoke grenades to advance.

ALERT A soldier with a bayonet will charge you from inside the covered area on the far left, so approach carefully if you decide to go that way.

Once you approach the end of the row, the half-trak will withdraw and you can target it again with your troop command ability, so do that and jump down. Run to the left and seek cover and you’ll be able to flank it and take out the gunner.

Once the gunner is down and the rest of the soldiers are, too, proceed to the bridge.

Here, you’ll find a machine gun emplacement laying down heavy fire, so order your troops to target the gunner. While they are laying down a suppressing fire, sprint forward and get as far as you can, then duck into cover before the gunner resumes their attack, then repeat the cycle.

Make your way forward, towards the cover on the right side, nearest the machine gunner. Here, you’ll find a crate with grenades. From cover, throw the grenade in the machine gunner’s nest and it will explode, clearing your way forward.

Follow the rest of your team forward and hop into the back of the truck to proceed to the next part of the mission.

Prepare To Assault The Gun Battery

Once the cutscene is over, walk to the top of the hill. Refill on ammo, then continue on and approach Webb just past the crest of the hill. Interact with him to pick up his binoculars.

Look towards the right, aiming the center of the screen at the marker near the edge of the cliff, and Kingsley will comment on the casemate where the guns are housed.

Once Webb comments on the rough road the team will have reaching the casemates, two markers will appear to the left.

Pan to the left and hover over each marker, and Kingsley will formulate a plan.

Webb will be responsible for leading the team to take out the lower gun, while Kingsley will take out the upper gun on the cliff’s edge with his own team.

The bunker will serve as an entry-point for the tunnel network, allowing the team to gain passage to the guns without fighting against gun emplacement fire.

The final binocular point-of-interest is the small “no-man’s land” minefield between the team’s current location and the bunker.

Once the plan is formulated, turn right and move to the truck. Hop inside and it will start moving.

Clear A Way Through The Minefield

Steer left and right to avoid obstacles like the pile of logs and the tractor, but ignore the fences, as you will blast right through them.

Once the guns start firing, exit the truck (X / Square by default) to bail out and let the trucks clear the mines for you.

Break The Outer Defenses

Your troops will join you as the trucks explode, so use your tactical sprint (double-tap L3 / the left analog stick by default) to reach the trench just ahead of you.

Dodge the gunfire as best you can, but don’t bother hiding in the mine craters, just advance to the trench as fast as you can.

Once you reach the trench, turn left and use your Rally command to encourage the three different men to your left and right.

After rallying the troops, head up the hill and take cover next to the marked soldier.

Initiate The Charge

Use your Rally command to begin the charge, then run up to the next trench along with the soldiers.

Hug the left side of the field, then jump down into the trench once you reach it.

Run up the walkway on the left side, then turn right and take out the group of soldiers just outside the bunker door with grenades and automatic weapon fire.

Use your Rally command to focus your soldier’s fire on the entrance, then head inside once they are all dead.

Reinforcements will join you from the other side, so join them inside the bunker, then turn left and run up the stairs.

This room has an ammo refill crate and smoke grenade crate on the right, so refill and then move to the door.

Once Webb is in position, use your Command ability to have the soldiers open the door.

Reach The Upper Casemates

When the door is clear, run out and you’ll see an advancing halftrack ahead of you, spraying gunfire across the field. Turn left and kill the rushing soldiers in the trench, then run up the trench path they came from.

Use your Command ability to suppress the halftrack, then take out the other nearby enemy soldiers.

A new caravan of halftracks will approach from the left, and you’ll need to deal with them before you can continue.

Take Out The Halftrack Gunners

Once you have a suppressing fire going, use your RAK, or another long-range, accurate weapon to take out the gunner and enable the troops to continue.

Move up with Webb, clearing the enemy soldiers out as you move towards the casemates.

NOTE When you reach the next section of the trench that leads forward, you can duck into the bunker on your right to get a different angle on the enemy forces.

Follow the trench to the left and take out another group of enemy soldiers, using the cover of the crates, then move forward back into the field.

Just ahead of you is an ammo crate, next to some cover, so refill on ammo and take cover, as a wave of enemy troops will begin coming your way.

Use grenades and automatic weapons to thin out the advancing enemy troops, and use your Command ability on the troops on the right or left to help out where you need, then your soldiers will assume control of the half-tracks, pulling up along your right side.

Walk up behind the half-tracks and they’ll begin to crawl forward towards the enemy trenches. Stay crouched behind the left half-track and slowly work your way around to the left side in order to shield yourself from enemy gunfire.

Stayed stowed until the half-track reaches the trench, then use your scout-style rifle to take out enemies in the bunker on the left side.

Once you’ve cleared out any visible enemies, jump down into the trench and follow the path along the left side.

Throw a grenade to the back line of the trench, then clear out any survivors, then move to the end and turn right to flank the machine gun turret.

Kill the gunner, then head towards the turret and turn left. Fill up at the ammo crate, then follow the path as it bends to the left.

Command your troops to throw a grenade into the bunker, then stay in cover until it explodes.

Wait for the door to open, then take down the remaining enemies inside when the door opens.

Destroy The Gun Battery Cannons (1/2)

Head inside and turn right. As the path turns to the left, crouch down and pick up the flashlight on one of the fallen soldiers.

Follow Phillips down the dark hallway, then turn right. Approach the giant gun and interact to throw thermite into it, destroying it.

Destroy The Gun Battery Cannons (2/2)

Turn right and open the door to help Phillips, then walk down the stairs and turn right again.

ALERT Make sure your weapons are reloaded and have your close-range weapon out, because a bayonet-wielding soldier will come out of the dark.

Head to the end of the hall and turn left, then open the door to proceed.

ACHIEVEMENT: Quickly kill the soldier who ambushes Phillips, then grab and throw back the grenade that comes down the stairs to obtain the ”Actions Speak Louder Than Words” Achievement

Turn left and follow Phillips, then kill the soldier who ambushes him to progress.

Continue on and approach the door’s threshold, letting Phillips go ahead of you. As soon as he crosses the entrance to the stairway, back up slightly to avoid a grenade that is thrown down the stairs. If you act quickly, you can also throw it back.

Once it explodes, run up the stairs and approach the door bathed in red light. Open it and open fire on the troops around the gun.

ALERT: Failing to move quickly after placing the explosive will result in death, so run to the ladder and climb out immediately after placing it.

Approach the large gun once all the soldiers are dead and interact to throw a bangalore inside. This explosive is timed and much more dangerous than thermite, so quickly turn right and run to the ladder and begin climbing it immediately.

Fire The Flare To Stop The Navy Bombardment

Once you reach the top of the ladder, Kingsley will raise his flare gun, so pull the trigger to fire it.

After that, you’ll need to find Webb. Turn right and a short cutscene will trigger, making your next objective clear.

Find Richard And Use His Flare

Run down the hill, staying close to the cliffs on the left, then kill the three soldiers you find on near the first trench.

ALERT: If you don’t kill the soldier to the right of the trench, he’ll end up rushing you from behind with a bayonet.

Keep running forward and drop down into the next trench and kill the soldiers, then keep running forward and you’ll reach the stairs.

An explosion will rock the area, leaving the remaining enemies dead, so go down the stairs and head into the door on the left.

Run towards the left side of the gun emplacement to reach Webb and interact with him to trigger a short cutscene. Pull the trigger at the end to fire the flare and bring an end to the second mission.