Apparently if you hide by the bumper cars you don't get swarmed so badly. Like an idiot I stayed right next to my buddy. I was crouching just behind the hill so that I could go prone and be completely covered from enemy fire. It only took me a couple tries to get through the first half, but it was the second part after
that really got me. It took a few tries to get the timing down so that I knew which enemies to take down in which order. I managed to make it through the beginning of the level only dying once.
I've only died to exploding vehicles twice so far. The first time was because I hadn't realized they would explode. The second was because I turned around to shoot someone who popped up behind me and while I waited for my health to come back after I killed him, the car exploded.
My deaths have been surprisingly evenly split between grenades and bullets. Most of my bullet related deaths have been from not watching my back. The computer AI is surprisingly inept when it comes to watching your back. After all the guys that I've saved, you'd think that they would return the favour ever now and then...