"Push forward and force the enemy to retreat! Go Go Go!" - Allied Sergeant at the beginning of most levels.
In "Frontline Commando: D-Day" the player fight against the German Wehrmacht and SS forces occupying Normandy, here are the variations of troops that fight the player.
Wehrmacht Riflemen[]
The Riflemen are the basic infantry encountered commonly in the Utah and Sword missions, afterwards they're mostly replaced by Machine Gunners. They wear Field Green uniforms with rifle ammo pouches and carry the Karabiner 98k Bolt-Action Rifles and the M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifles (Presumably due to a bug). They don't wear helmets instead wearing Garrison field hats.
They have low health and fire their rifles with poor accuracy, in addition to this their lack of helmets makes them easy targets for headshots. They often surrender if the player gets a kill streak. The Riflemen appear to be fresh army recruits or Eastern Front conscripts, which would explain their low skill and unwillingness to fight in battle.
They first appear in the Utah, D-Day 0600Z stage and make their final appearance in the Juno, D-Day 0600Z stage.
Wehrmacht Machine Gunners[]
The Machine Gunners take the look of a more standard German soldier, wearing Field Green uniforms (with rolled up/short sleeves), and Stahlhelm helmets. In combat they will use either the Machinepistole 40, Sturmgewehr 44 or Maschinengewehr 42 (not to be confused with the mounted ones that appear in some stages).
They can survive a single headshot (which will cause their helmet to fly off, allowing another headshot to finish them off). Their accuracy is somewhat random, sometimes they hit their marks and sometimes they completely miss, however their powerful and fast-firing weaponry still make them a primary threat during battle.
Occasionally they will attack the player's squadmates first instead of the player, it is a good strategy to take them out while they are distracted.
They begin to appear as enemies towards the end of the Utah stages and regularly appear until Omaha D-Day 2240Z, after which they are replaced completely by Waffen-SS Machine Gunners.
Wehrmacht Officers[]
The Wehrmacht Officers wear Field Gray M1939 uniforms, officer field-caps, ammo pouches, and use the Karabiner 98k Bolt-Action Rifles and M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifles (Meant to be the Gewehr 43) like the Riflemen, the officers' main difference to the Riflemen is that the officers can call for reinforcements if little to no enemies remain (only the officer and 1 enemy or less are left), so it is best to take them out ASAP. The call for reinforcements will be shown with the Officer hand-signalling and shouting while out of cover.
The Officers are the least aggressive enemies, as they rarely attempt to throw grenades at the player or even attack the player head-on. Preferring instead to attack when the player is shooting at other enemies, they also have surprisingly low health compared to some of the other soldiers types fighting alongside them. However despite these attributes, the Officers are very accurate with their rifles and can easily kill an ally or even unsuspecting player with ease.
Waffen-SS and Allgemeine-SS Riflemen[]
The SS Riflemen fight against the player in a few earlier missions and in most of the later levels, replacing the Wehrmacht Riflemen. They use Karabiner 98k Bolt-Action Rifles like their Wehrmacht counterparts, for the most part they're essentially reskinned and more combat capable Riflemen thanks to their increased aggression and damage output. They can also use hand grenades as well. They first appeared in the final stage of Utah but later into the Omaha levels they are phased out by the SS Machine Gunners instead.
Waffen-SS and Allgemeine-SS Machine Gunners[]
The Waffen-SS Machine Gunners wear either the Erbsenmuster Pea Dot M1944 camouflage uniform, the Sumpfmuster M1944 uniform or the Allgemine-SS black uniform. They use all the same weaponry as their fellow Wehrmacht counterparts and are the most deadly infantry faced by the player. They are capable of taking a lot of gun fire before dying, fire their weapons with near-perfect accuracy and are extremely aggressive, often charging on the player's' position and tossing hand grenades. It is advised to use high powered weapons or grenades on these foes as they can quickly take you out if you're not careful.
Despite their high health and aggressive behaviour, they don't always wear helmets have the Aryan-style blonde hair.
The missions they first appear are the final stages of the Juno levels. Afterwards they appear more and more regularly, eventually replacing the Wehrmacht forces completely.
German Snipers[]
The German Snipers are first encountered part way into the Utah stages, becoming more and more common a sight as the game progresses. They wear the Sumpfmuster M1944 camouflage jacket,. a M1942 Stahlhelm helmet with grass camouflage, and use the Gewehr 43 Scoped "Scharfschutze" or the American M1917 Enfield (likely meant to resemble a scoped Karabiner 98k) as their weapon, they attack by coming out of cover, aiming at the player or an ally for a moment then firing. Their rifles do very high damage, instantly killing friendly soldiers and even the player if they're not careful enough.
Strangely, they are often on the frontline instead of being further back where a marksman would usually be expected, although this is likely due to the small stage level design in the game. Sometimes they can be seen taking cover in the upper floors of buildings or less notable locations on the ground like bushes.
Friendly note: A flash and intense health loss indicates the presence of enemy sniper. Stay low and watch out for flashes!
Trivia[]
- SS Riflemen and Machine Gunners wear black Allegemeine-SS, Field Gray M1939, Field Blue, Erbsenmuster Pea Dot M1944, and the Sumpfmuster M1944 uniforms.
- Strangely, none of the enemies use the unscoped Gewehr 43 or MP18 despite them being German weapons. The former would actually be very appropriate with the point below in mind.
- Even though the Karabiner 98k is a bolt-action rifle, enemies will always fire it semi-automatically instead of cycling the bolt, sometimes even firing fully automatically as if it were a machine gun.
- If the player gets a kill-streak (3 or more kills in rapid succession) it is possible for the remaining enemies to surrender. However only the Wehrmacht Rifleman and Machine Gunners will ever surrender. If an Officer or Sniper is still alive however none will surrender as these two classes seem to act as morale support.
- Due to a glitch presumably, the Riflemen and Officers will sometime be using the M1 Garand instead of the Karabiner 98k, the same also happens with the Allied US Squadmates.
- Because there is no SS version of the Officer type enemy, Wehrmacht Officers will often be seen fighting with SS squads, despite the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS armies being completely separate and both generally didn't fight alongside or take orders from each other on such a common basis.
- The Officer, Sniper and Wehrmacht Riflemen can all be killed with a single headshot (although Snipers will rarely survive being hit in the helmet with a low powered machine gun). This is ironic as despite none of the other SS type enemies wearing proper helmets, they are capable of surviving several headshots before dying.
- The Wehrmacht Soldiers all have brown or darker coloured hair while the SS troops have brown and blonde hair, this is likely meant to reference the common Aryan stereotype (Blonde hair, muscular build and blue eyes) associated with the Nazi Party.