Not really. It showed them as forced and unwilling, and thus as either suckers or victims. It was both ridiculous and spiteful.
I played the CoH1 campaign something like 5 times, but CoH2's was just too vile to get through even once.
Blame Relic's marketing department, vCOH campaign is clearly based on Band of Brother and Saving Private Ryan which is awesome war movie, while COH2 campaign is clearly based on Enemy at the Gate which is a 2-bit action flick. Regarding campaign, if they can't make a good story with the campaign, they should just scrap it and focus on ToW like Nival did with Blitzkrieg: no story there but every mission is a welcoming challenge. (Anybody here remember the mission from Rolling Thunder when you have to rush your troop to capture the Karl Gustav before the Kraut scuttle them?)