[WoTB] Minor 1.0.1 Update

We have finished work on minor 1.0.1 update for World of Tanks Blitz which is now available for iOS devices in Nordics (Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland).

The update contains a few bug fixes and stability improvements aimed to get rid of some nasty crashes, including the one with platoon. Version 1.0.1 will still be available in the near future only for Nordics, not worldwide. Work on 1.1 update is on.

This weekend we are also doing first special with X2 gold for the same old price and X3 experience which can be earned 3 times per day - starting with CEST 2am, 10am, 6pm. Jump in!

PS
WoT Blitz > Ice Hockey World Championship 2014

The Unexpected Tanks

From the end of the Korean war until the the 1991 Gulf War the US only had two armour on armour engagements.  The first in 1965 was a bit one sided.  During the Dominican Republic civil war a US M48 Patton found itself in a battle with a rebel Stridsvagn L-60.  The L-60 was a solid tank when it was designed in 1934.  The one sided battle ended as we might expect.  The other battle happened four years later on a very different battlefield.

In the Vietnam War the North Vietnamese Army moved its troops and supplies down the famous Ho Chi Minh trail. When this turned to re-enter Vietnam the US built numerous firebases along its routes to halt supplies flowing to the fighting in the south. One of these was a special forces camp at Ben Het.

Manned by US forces and Montagnards, the firebase had two M42 Dusters and several batteries of artillery. B company 1/69th Armour was also deployed under the command of Captain John Stovall.  A single platoon was placed at Ben Het, the other tanks were spread out along the only road link to provide security and quick reaction forces.  From the bases’ west hill the US could call down artillery or air strikes on any suspected movement of NVA supplies coming off the Ho Chi Minh trail.  The NVA decided to smash the position.  Starting on February 23rd the NVA began to heavily shell the firebase at Ben Het.  Sometimes shells would be arriving at the rate of one every 45 seconds.

The artillery pounding came in part from Base Area 609, a heavily fortified NVA area.  The position was hit by air strikes on the 24th and 25th. But due to an ingenious trick they failed to cause any significant effect: the NVA had mounted its guns on rails, and given each gun a cave into which the artillery piece could be pulled backwards into when danger threatened.  The entrance to the cave had blast doors that could also be sealed.

Despite that the artillery emplacements revealed their positions by the muzzle flash when fired, giving the firebase a warning of an incoming barrage.  The US tankers also tried to fire long range at Base 609 with concrete piercing shells guided in by spotter aircraft.  All this had no effect on the bombardment.

The NVA fire wounded the platoon leader of the M48's stationed at Ben Het, as he was evacuated Cpt Stovall moved his command post to the base to take over command.

At the beginning of March the bombardment stopped.  However at 2200 on the night of the 2nd vehicle movement and engine noises could be heard from outside the wire.  Despite using their night vision devices nothing could be seen, and after 20 minutes the sounds ceased.  The US intelligence simply dismissed them as bulldozers.  A Montagnard patrol later reported a confirmed visual sighting of a tank.

The 3rd of March was very quiet,  and life continued as normal.  In the evening an observer was directing a Spooky gunship against targets in the vicinity, apart from that there was no firing.
Shortly before 2100, as the night began to draw in it began to get foggy.  With limited visibility the Spooky departed for home leaving the valley below Ben Het in quiet.

A few moments later the NVA began firing from a pair of recoilless rifles, pecking at the perimeter of the firebase.  At about 2130 a whirlwind of fire swept the firebase as the NVA forces opened up in earnest.  Nearly 700 shells were fired in half an hour.  At 2200 through the concussions of the shell impact the defenders could hear the "Bulldozers" again.  Peering through the night sights on their tanks or starlight scopes, even with the infrared searchlights on the tankers couldn't see anything but the trees and fog.  To make matters worse some of the tanks had no IR searchlights.

Suddenly about a kilometre out there was a flash and a a detonation.  One of the NVA tanks had hit a anti-personnel land mine and had been immobilised.  The NVA tanks opened fire lobbing HE shells at the hilltop, the immobilised tank opened fire first and its shell landed short of the firebase.  The M48's returned fire, one tank fired at the muzzle flashes, the second round it fired hit an enemy tank which turned into a fireball.

Meanwhile Mike Linnane, one of the US special forces A-Team members had grabbed his radio and called out to the Spooky that had just left the area.
"You've gotta come back, we have tanks down here!"
"Tanks?"
"Tanks! TANGO-ALPHA-NOVEMBER-KILO-SIERRA! TANKS!"
After a stunned pause the gunship replied that he was on the way back.  When the gunship arrived over the battlefield he began dropping huge amounts of flares to illuminate the area, as well as making attack runs.

By now the M-48's were also using their machine guns to strike back at the enemy infantry, whom were pressing closer and some had reached the wire.  As the conditions on the battlefield grew brighter from all the flares both from the Spooky and the defender's mortars, one of the NVA tanks spotted an M48.  As chance would have it Cpt Stovall was just climbing up the back of the M48 when the NVA gunner fired.

Accounts differ, one account says the round hit the glacis plate, another said the loaders hatch. Wherever it hit, both the driver and loader were killed, the tank commander was blown out of his hatch and landed ten feet behind the tank and Cpt Stovall was seriously injured by shrapnel.

Spare tank crewmen from Cpt Stovall's command post had been helping feed the artillery and mortars by heaving shells.  When they saw what had happened they raced to the M48's position, and formed a scratch crew to continue to fight the wounded tank.

At this time another tank was brought into action, normally facing a different direction it had been unable to engage the main enemy attack.  Again sighting at the muzzle flashes its gunner managed to destroy another NVA tank.  As the battle wore on the tanks began to run out of ammunition and were reduced to firing concrete piercing rounds.  One APC was spotted and pummelled into oblivion by several of these shells.

At about midnight the NVA began to break off the attack.  The Base at Ben Het had held for the loss of three killed.  The next day inspection of the battlefield discovered what the NVA tanks had been.  A pair of PT-76's lay smoking below the base along with the hulk of a BTR-50.

[WoTB] Gathering First Feedback and Questions

Hopefully, there are some Blitz players around.

What are your first impressions on the game so far? If you have any questions, ask away.

By the way, just hit 1.000 PCCU. :)

[WoTB] Get Your iDevice Ready. Updated

Updated May 5. The game is now live for the following countries of EU region: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland. This is so-called softlaunch or regional release, so no more wipes/resets or anything.

The game will be available worldwide soon (tm).

Beta testers of EU region are getting the following for helping us in beta:

• Beta tester medal class IV/III/II/I for 1/10/100/500 battles during beta
• Pz.Kpfw. IV hydrostat tank (tier 5) for 1+ battles during beta

Are you ready? It's coming.

Link

Ronson

The nickname "Ronson", after the cigarette lighter, is often applied to Sherman’s "because they light the first time".  The trouble is the Ronson company didn't use that slogan until several years after the Second World war. The closest anyone has found is this advert from the 1950's.

There was a Sherman Ronson though, it was a flamethrower armed tank, but like a lot of Sherman based flamethrowers it lacked performance. It is a popular myth that Sherman flamethrowers never took part in the fighting in Europe, but that's not strictly true.  But unlike the nickname Ronson, they performed rather poorly.

In mid 1943 the three main western allies held a conference about flamethrowers.  The result showed that the US were trailing behind the other two nations, this spurred the US army to accelerate its attempts at flamethrowing vehicles.  Earlier in the year the US had seen a demonstration of the Churchill Crocodile. Suitably impressed the US delegation was informed that the Crocodile kits should be able to be fitted to M4 Shermans.  This would mean the US forces wouldn't have had to take on a foreign vehicle.  Towards the end of 1943 the US army started sounding out the British on the idea of Sherman Crocodiles, requesting that about 100 Shermans should be converted.  The British then provided a wooden mock up for the US officers to view, whom in turn agreed that the design should be prototyped.  At the start of 1944, after seeing a demonstration the US placed an order for 115 conversions, although in reality only four would be completed.

I believe this is the mock up. Note the early mud guards and odd looking flame gun compared to later photographs.

For the modellers out there, it should be noted that the British were to provide common parts of the Crocodile design, so its likely the components would be painted in S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab, which as you know weathers differently to the US colour.  Of course the US may have repainted the British parts with standard US colours, so pick whichever you think looks best.

Early US Flame thrower tank

Alongside this the US domestic programs had continued.  The design that was selected as an auxiliary flamethrower, designed to replace the .30 calibre bow machine gun.  Two packs consisting of a 25 gallon tank and pressure cylinder were fitted inside the tank at the hull gunners position. The entire fit-out weighed only 997 pounds.  There were no outward visual changes, so even a modified Sherman with the E4-5 kits would be visually indistinguishable from a normal Sherman.

E5R1 flame gun

One conversion kit was requested in April 1944, and was shipped in June.  In a demonstration in the UK on the 23rd of June, and a repeat performance in Normandy in August it performed rather badly and failed to light.  After re-working of the design several kits were airlifted into Europe arriving in September, when it was issued to front line units.

The crews who received the kits were less than thrilled at the idea of adding more fuel to a tank that was already regarded as a fire trap.  Equally all the extra tanks and fuel canisters made evacuation from the tank harder, with the bow gunners hatch being partially blocked by one of the pressure cylinders.  The emergency alternative escape hatch was blocked by a fuel tank. 

Wherever possible the kits were installed in Sherman Jumbo's.  Things carried on going badly for the E4-5. The 741st Tank battalion had two E4-5 equipped tanks attached to it, however one broke down immediately leaving one to go into action on the 18th of September.

Its target was a German held bunker.  The stated range of 70 yards quickly turned out to be false.  The Sherman had to advance to within 25 yards before the flame could hit the bunker.  Even then it was utterly ineffective and the Germans remaining inside their bunker were not harmed.  The after action report suggested that for some unknown reason the flamethrower wasn't firing at the correct pressure.  This problem was to plague the E4-5 system, along with a tendency to fail to ignite.   This happened to the 743rd tank battalion near the Roer river, when a E4-5 flamed a group of Germans occupying a roadside ditch.  The Germans were soaked by a wet burst of flame fuel.  In the same operation a E4-5 did show what it could do, when it was used to flush out German defenders occupying a house on a hill.  The slope of the hill meant that the Sherman’s could only shoot at the upper floors of the house.  But the flamethrower could place effective fire on the lower floors by lobbing the fuel over the crest of the hill.  It forced the Germans to evacuate the position.

To further compound the problems suffered by the E4-5, the system had been introduced without properly trained personnel.  This was almost certainly the cause of a massive explosion that happened when a pressurized cylinder of oxygen, rather than nitrogen was used in the system.  The other issue of course was the terrible range the system gave, it meant the Sherman had to enter effective range of the German Panzerfausts before it could stand a hope of hitting its target, assuming the system worked.

But what of the Sherman Crocodiles?  In November 1944 they were issued to a mine exploder platoon of 739th Tank Battalion.  During the remaining few months they only used their flamethrowers once, at the town of Jülich during Operation Grenade on the 24th of February. 

The city was seized, however the Citadel remained in German hands. It was heavily fortified and ancient fortifications still work after a fashion, even today.  Any infantry assault would have caused massive casualties.  For example the first obstacle was an 85 foot wide moat. The mine exploder platoon was brought up to reduce the fortification.  However two of the tanks broke down or became immobilised in the rubble of the city.  The attack was strangely similar to the Churchill Crocodiles assaulting Brest.  The two Shermans halted on the edge of the moat and incinerated the positions facing them. The Germans were forced to retreat from the area.  The Two Shermans then pummelled the main gate with their 75mm's, blasting it open.  Then the tanks clanked slowly across the bridge, with their trails of fuel bouncing along behind them.  Once inside they set about burning everything, the bright tongues of flame spearing through the billowing smoke.

When the US infantry entered and seized the remains of the position they spotted four Germans fleeing over a hill outside the city, those Germans had used secret escape tunnels to get away from the savage Crocodiles. The Castle carried on burning for two days.

Trench Crocodile

One of, if not the best book I have ever read is H.G. Wells War of the Worlds.  The following passage is near the start of the book:

"Then slowly the hissing passed into a humming, into a long, loud, droning noise.  Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit, and the ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it.  Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men.  It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame.  It was as if each man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire."

In the first world war, if you had been in the German trenches near Mametz, and had braved the British artillery barrages to peer across no-mans land on the morning of July 1st, 1916, you would have seen something horrifying and similar to Well's words happening in front of you.

Like War of the Worlds the main driving force is the protagonists partner.  William Howard Livens was the son of the Chief Engineer at Ruston Engineering Company.  He followed in his fathers footsteps training to become a civil engineer.  However on the day he finished his studies Britain declared war on Germany.  Like many millions of others he immediately volunteered.  With his training he was given a commission in the Royal Engineers.

Livens with his much more successful "Livens Projector"

In May 1915 Livens fiancée was in New York and she set sail for England, the ship she was to take was the ill fated RMS Lusitania.

Upon hearing of the fate of the liner Livens swore an oath of vengeance*.  He began working on ways and means to get back at Germany.  Luckily for Livens his fiancée hadn't been on board and he got the good news three days later, however this didn't temper his anger.  Putting to work his inventive nature and previous home experiments on gas and flame weapons Livens soon got noticed.  He proposed a new weapon of war, it became known as the Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector.

There is a clue in the name of how it was intended to be used.  Gallery referred to tunnelling warfare, which was an extremely hazardous occupation. Nothing could survive above ground in no-mans land, so the obvious answer was to dig underground.  In most cases the tunnels were used to place mines.

The most famous example is the Lochnagar mine, the largest man made explosion at the time, with its report heard in London.  The tunnellers had to be completely quiet lest the Germans hear them.  If they were heard then all manner of nasty counters could be employed, with the fate of being buried alive a very real possibility.

Livens proposed something new.  A tunnel would be dug as near as possible to the German lines, and the Large Gallery Projector then installed in it.  The Projector was 56 feet long and weighed two and a half tons.  It used a diesel engine to power a pneumatic system.  The pressure would force the head of the machine out of the ground, then squirt a stream of burning kerosene and diesel fuel over 60m.  Then this cloud of flame could be worked across the Germans front lines.  Due to the amount of fuel needed the Projector could only fire three shots of ten seconds each.

This monstrous machine had to be carried into the tunnels in pieces, once there it was assembled in place. All of this had to be done in utter nerve wracking silence.  After it was complete the cans of fuel had to be manhandled into place.

On the 28th of June one of the four Projectors to be used in the upcoming Somme offensive was being carried down to the trench, when a German artillery barrage fell upon the men.  Throwing the pieces about the soldiers dived for cover.  After the barrage lifted the components were recovered and stored in the entrance to the tunnel, only for a later barrage to land a shell squarely on the tunnel entrance.

However despite this setback at least two, possibly three, Projectors were in in place for the 1st of July.  On that morning the great British offensive of the Somme was launched.  On the first day 60,000 soldiers were killed.  To put that into perspective that's almost the same number as the current British Army strength.  Even with these massive casualties the British barely made a dent in the German lines, apart from at Mametz.

The seven men operating each machine switched on their engines, opened the taps and activated the Projectors.  On the surface the roar of the engine would have been muffled to a quiet droning, barely audible over the artillery barrages, and the detonation of several mines under strong points.

Slowly a square shape forced its way through the ground, and rose into the air. Forthwith a spark, then a boiling cloud of smoke and flame sprang from the Projector.  This terrible jet washed upon the German trenches and doused them in flame.

The British assault reached the German trenches, and was successful.  Its been argued that elsewhere in the battle of the Somme the same tactics were used to less effect, and that the only differences in the attack plan was the use of the Livens Large Gallery Projector.  The limited employability and huge size meant that the Projector was only used once more in combat.

Livens went on to design the far more successful Livens Projector, which was used through out the rest of the war as the principle means of delivering gas or incendiary shells.


*Some sources say it was the casualties at the Second battle of Ypres that caused Livens to make this oath.

[WoWP] Update 1.3 for WoWP

Update 1.3 for World of Warplanes is now live bringing multiple fixes, including performance optimization, new FX, update tutorial, and F5U "the pancake". 

Share your thoughts on the new update. 

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Stopping the Vengence

At 18:43, on 8th of September 1944 a gas main in Staveley Road, Chiswick exploded.  The explosion destroyed 11 houses, killed three people and injured a further 27 people. Or at least that was what the news reported.  In truth it was the first V-2 rocket to strike London.  It had been fired by the 485th Rocket Battery from near the Hague in Holland.  The Allies had since 1943 been conducting Operation Crossbow, an attempt to counter the V weapons programs.

Chiswick crater

Staveley Road

By February 1945 these counter measures included fighter sweeps.  As well as specific targets these sweeps would often just attack an area hitting anything that looked like a good target of opportunity.  One of the squadrons that took part was 602 Squadron with Spitfire MK XVI's. No 602 Squadron's other claim to fame was one of its pilots had been the individual who strafed Rommel's staff car earlier in 1944.

One plan was to have AA fire box Barrages along the flight path of V2's detected by Radar. It was never implemented.

On February 14th a flight of six Spitfires set off from Coltishall Airfield.  The Spitfires were armed with a mixture of 500 lb and 250 lb bombs, as well as their cannons.  This flight was lead by Raymond Baxter, who later became a famous BBC presenter.  When they arrived over the Dutch coast they knew exactly where they were going, as they'd flown to this areas many times before.  As they approached the area they were to sweep, at 8000 feet, German heavy flak opened up at them. The flak stood little chance as the flight carried on switching its heading, feeling faintly pleased when the flak bursts continued along the path they'd just turned off.

Over Wassenaar at 6000 feet the Spitfires spotted some vehicles moving below.  Baxter knew they would be German as every drop of fuel was used for the war effort.  The six Spitfires rolled in and dived on the Germans.  On their way to the target they passed over a large wooded area.  One of the risks of dive bombing in Spitfires is that the bombs would hang up, and as the pilot pulled 5G's to get out of the dive the increased weight could cause the wings to rip off.  In this attack all six Spitfires released their ordnance safely and pulled up at 1500 feet.  German light flak units were everywhere in the area to deter just such attacks.  In most cases the Spitfires would use all their built up speed to zoom away, but occasionally they would turn and attack.

Baxter was feeling very aggressive, and he ordered his flight to strafe the troublesome flak batteries.  They turned hard so as to change the direction they attacked from.  One of the pilots, Thomas "Cupid" Love dipped his Spitfires nose and aimed at a flak gun.  Suddenly over the radio Baxter yelled "Christ! would you look at that!".  Looking up, Love saw a huge cigar shaped object slowly rise on a pillar of flame and smoke, directly in front of him!

As the Spitfires flew over the woods, the 485 Rocket Battery had been well into a countdown on one of the 19 V-2's they would launch that day.  They had opted to go ahead with the launch, not realising the Spitfires would turn around.

Love was the only pilot with an angle on the V-2, he quickly wrenched his gun-sight onto it, and at a range of 600 yards began firing.  He sent a long scything burst towards the huge rocket as it accelerated away but luckily he missed.  The V-2 if hit would likely have exploded very possibly killing the entire flight.

V-2 vapour trail, photographed from a USAAF bomber.

Although the Spitfires of 602 Squadron came close there was, however, one claimed shoot down of a V-2. Strangely for such an impressive claim, I've not yet been able to find many details.  On an unknown date the 34th Bombardment Group in B-24's were flying at 10,000 feet over Holland.  A V-2 was launched through the formation and one of the waist gunners on a B-24 opened fire and hit the missile at the end of its vapour trail.

There's little other detail apart from that, no date, no names, not even a mention of the target. Never the less the 34th painted a V-2 kill marking on its aircraft.

[WoT] First-hand Feedback on WoT 0.9.0

The latest major update 0.9.0 (New Frontiers - yay! major updates now have names) for World of Tanks is now live for EU and NA servers. What are your first impressions?

1. FPS and general performance
2. Graphics improvements
3. Turrets!
4. New HD models for some tanks
5. Historical Battles mode
6. Reworked maps (Severogorsk, Pearl River, Malinovka, and Serene Coast)