[WoTB] First Video

Since the G-Star video of World of Tanks Blitz is already public leaked from Korea, I'm ready to cover your questions, if any. I did notice a few here.  

This is a pre closed beta version with draft UIs (both hangar and battle), somewhat limited in-game functionality, and not final graphics. All in all it has ~85 tanks, 5 maps. It was running on ipads, though Android version is also functioning. 

Other links to the video:

http://youtu.be/EIyuqABv4YU
http://ncsoftst.nowcdn.co.kr//Gstar%202013/131114_WT_ipadplay.mp4

[WoWP] Live!

After more than 2.5 years of development second title of the "World of" trilogy goes live - World of Warplanes has already hit RU, EU, and NA servers.

Having been a part of dev team for ~1 year I'm especially proud of that fact.

Join the live servers and provide your feedback. Release is only the beginning.

PS: haters go to hell! :)

Remembering Jonathan Wilson

Note: Special thanks to Dr T.E Rogers and Marlborough College for their assistance in writing this article, who provided information beyond the questions I asked when conducting the research below. They also supplied some of the photographs. Equally thanks to those who helped with the translations.

Today is Remembrance Sunday in the UK, and for obvious reasons I was debating putting an article up today. However as Remembrance Sunday is a UK only event, and as we have a global readership I decided to do something fitting with the period and still produce an article.
A couple of years ago when researching a British army tank unit I brought a second hand book on the subject. When the book arrived I was surprised to find a sheaf of papers inside it. These were letters from a Soldiers Mother to a friend of the family. The book also had a dedication glued into the front page. From what I can tell the book, and the letters were gifted to a friend of the family who knew the soldier when he was a boy.
This soldiers story has never been seen in one place before, although parts of the story are known. There is no daring-do in this story, no medals. Just a perfect example of the hundreds of thousands of people from around the world who stopped their lives to fight in histories most destructive conflict, and were never able to carry them on. Many of whom have been forgotten by history. At least in this case I can do something about that. So today I give you Jonathan Wilson's story.

Johnathan Wilson in 1942

Jonathan Wilson was born on the 22nd of February 1924. His parents were the singer Sir Steuart Wilson and Ann Wilson (née Bowles). He had 3 siblings. The marriage however was not to last and in 1931 Ann divorced Sir Wilson, something of note in Britain at the time. In 1933 Sir Adrian Boult became Jonathan Wilson's step father.
In September 1937 he enrolled at Marlborough College, where he became an accomplished poet. So much so Marlborough college published about 20 of his works in a book called False Starts. He was still at college when the Second World war started. In 1942 he Captained the Marlborough 1st Rugby XV. In his final year he was also Prefect and the editor of the school magazine "The Marlburian". However as an 18 year old in the middle of World War Two, there was only one option, and he enlisted.

Jonathan Wilson became an officer, and on the 24th of January 1944 he Joined the 3rd Scots Guards while based at Thoresby Park, as a Second Lieutenant. The 3rd Scots were a regiment in the 6th Guards tank brigade. At this time I've yet to be able to find out what role in the Regiment he served in. However on the 19th of September due to an internal promotion Lt Wilson was put in command of a troop in "S" Squadron, although it appears later on he was transferred to command 14 Troop of "Left Flank". His Churchill was named "SPEY", after the Scottish river.

(It should be noted that the Scots guards have an odd way of naming their squadrons. Squadron one is called "Right Flank", Squadron two "S Squadron" and Squadron three is "Left Flank")

Until the late of October the Scots Guards saw no combat, apart from a bombardment against German bunker position at a range of 4000 yards. However on 24th It was realized the Germans had started falling back from the front, and so an advance was ordered. As part of this deployment the Scots were hurriedly pushed forward to seize the village of Moergestel, and its bridge. When they arrived the Scots found the bridge over the canal demolished. The jubilant Dutch townsfolk upon realizing the problem were led by a local priest. Unbidden by the Guardsmen they began gathering boulders and rubble to construct a ford, so the Scots might continue to pursue the retreating Germans. The exuberance shown in this endeavour caused several of the watching officers to fear for their safety as the work was carried out with extreme haste and little care. After a short while the leading tank commander thought he could make it across. On the far bank the Churchill's legendary hill climbing ability failed, and the tank got stuck. However shortly afterwards a bridge-layer arrived and the regiment continued its advance.
A quick push and the Scots worked their way into the outskirts of Tilburg where they started meeting resistance. At this point it appears Lt Wilson's squadron was stuck trying to get through the celebrating Dutch at Moergestel. By the time that Lt Wilson's troop had cleared the traffic jam Tilburg had fallen.  Tilburg was the first large town the Scots had liberated and a massive celebration was under-way. Lt Wilson's troop was moving up to join in the celebration when, much to his troops annoyance they were diverted to the south. A German counter attack had hit and scattered parts of the US 7th armoured Division, and the Scots guards were required to assist. By the time the Scots Guards reached the front the battle was over, broken up by air and artillery power, and the dogged resistance of some US forces.

6th Guards near Tilburg

After being stopped by a peat bog the Scots held in place for a few days until the gains of the German attack had been recovered, and then with the entire brigade was withdrawn to the town of Helmond by November the 7th, where the brigade managed to find billets for everyone. They even managed to set up a club house for writing and recreation. It was named the Churchill Club. The brigade remained there until 20th Of November when a new attack was launched. At 0530 Lt Wilson was given orders to move at speed to a forming up point near Beringe. Lt Wilson's troop moved with such a pace it soon left the rest of the Squadron behind, and managed to reach its destination, shave and have a second breakfast before the rest of the regiment had caught up. The rest of the battalion upon arriving had some comments to say as they drove past the well fed men of Lt Wilson's troop, much to the amusement of Lt Wilson's commanding officer.

3rd Scots Advancing from Beringe

At Beringe the Scots met up with some Achilles tank destroyers and Churchill AVRE's for the next part of the attack towards Sevenum. At 1115 the Squadron in support of the infantry moved out down an isolated track towards Sevenum. After a mile they started to receive heavy mortar and MG fire, which pinned the Infantry. The Churchill's however, could push forward and smash the German positions. The attack ground forwards until the Churchill's were in the houses of Sevenum. Again MG fire pinned the infantry, and the Churchill's drove up and blasted the German positions with point blank fire. 46 Prisoner's were taken. By late afternoon the village was secured, As the tanks reached the other side of the village, about 1700, dusk started to fall. Suddenly from the woods on the right a self-propelled 75mm opened fire, Seconds later another fired from the left. Caught in the crossfire Lt Wilson's tank was knocked out with Jonathan suffering serious injuries. Despite the best efforts of the medical personnel Jonathan Wilson died at about 2300.

Lt Wilson's resting place at Venray

In a coincidence I've only just noticed, on Remembrance Sunday (10th November) 1946, a memorial service was held at Marlborough College Chapel to commemorate and remember those lost during the war. During this service Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man consecrated the South Aisle of the Chapel chancel in memory of Jonathan Wilson. At that Service was Alice Wilson. She carried the book which he'd dedicated to Jonathan's nanny who also attended the ceremony, and the one I brought 60 years later, still with the Order of Service inside the dust jacket.

The Order of Service from the book

Edit on 14/11/13
It appears I made a mistake. I've been contacted by a member of the Wilson family, who helped me clear up a couple of mistakes I made in the main text.

The main mistake was who wrote the letters. The Letters were written by Mrs Wilson, Jonathan's mother. The book was dedicated to Alice Petter, listing Jonathan's rank and position. Mrs Petter was the families nanny/mothers help during the early 30's and would have known Jonathan as child.

[ALL] Matchmaking

What do you think of the current matchmaking in both World of Tanks and World of Warplanes?
Is there anything about it that you don't really like?

How do you like the idea of economic incentives for "underdogs"?

• individual underdogs (eg tier 8 in tier 10 battle) getting bigger exp bonus for fighting higher tiers, the bigger the tier gap, the bigger the reward. The system is currently in place, however rewards can be bigger. 
• team underdogs (based on comparison of overall balance weights of all tanks in the two teams) getting some exp bonus for being slightly disadvantaged, eg team that has 1% lower overall weight gets 5% bonus exp regardless of the battle outcome

Come and Take!

Germanies Blitzkrieg had taken the unprepared allies off guard in 1940. In April 1941 Greece was to experience the same. Honouring her treaty obligations Great Britain deployed a force to Greece to help protect her independence. Today we shall take a look at an action of that campaign.

On the 2nd of March 1941 Commonwealth troops of began landing in Greece. This allied expeditionary force was code named "W Force". Just over a month later, on April the 6th, the Germans attacked. The German Panzer's blitzed through the countryside supported by massive numbers of air craft that overwhelmed the few RAF planes dispatched to the country. Despite stiff resistance the Commonwealth forces were pushed back, and by the 19th The leaders of W Force started contingency planning for evacuation.

The allied forces made one last ditch attempt to hold the Germans. At a place called Thermopylae. Where, 24 centuries earlier, 300 Spartans had stood before a massive army of invading Persians. On the morning of the 21st a New Zealand soldier by the name of Driver James Macdonald was to display bravery that would lead to a military medal. Dvr Macdonald had been dispatched to find fuel supplies. After searching around the chaos of the rear areas he ended up at Levadhia rail yards. Where three trains of ammunition and fuel were located. As his truck was being loaded with the desperately needed supplies the soldiers heard the unmissable scream of Jericho sirens. German Stuka's screeched down onto the yard. The first bombs hit at least one fuel truck setting it ablaze. The spreading pool of fire reached an ammunition pallet and began to cook off the ammunition. The danger of the shells and flames causing the loss of the entire depot in massive explosion was very real. Dvr Macdonald and an Australian Sargent called Killalea both raced towards a one of the trains, which was still loaded with ammunition and fuel. Neither had any clue how to operate the train though. After some quick puzzling over the controls they managed to get the train moving, and drove it through the flames and devastation to safety. Their actions saved 28 wagons of supplies.

The day before the 2/2 Field artillery was travelling over the Brallos Pass, to the west of Thermopylae. they where in a position to ensure the Germans didn't repeat King Xerxes' manoeuvre of outflanking the Spartans at the Hot Gates. As the column of towed guns climbed up the path a section of two 25 Pounders, under the command of Lieutenant Anderson, was ordered to split off and dig in on a tiny ledge located a third of the way down the side of the mountain. Their task was to cover the bridge over the Sperkhios River, and the ground between it and the town of Lamia. The Gun pits were dug a mere 15 feet apart as no other space was available. They were accompanied by Some Infantry and a 2cm Breda AA gun with a British crew.

Their first action, at about 1800 on the 21st, was to fire on some German transports moving towards the river. Opening fire at 10,900 yards they hit and destroyed the first truck, driving the Germans back. At the same time two German reconnaissance Motorcycles approached the Bridge. Unluckily for them the Bridge was being covered by a Carrier platoon, one of the Germans was captured, the other killed. Over night the 8th Potsdam Reconnaissance unit or the 5th Panzer Division filtered into the town of Lamia. At night the gun crews could see the headlights of hundreds of vehicles all filling into the town.

The next morning the Germans attacked. Each time the Germans tried to advance the two 25 Pounders fired. After each salvo of rounds from the Australians, the Germans fired their artillery from beyond a rage that the 25 Pounders could reach. Then the Germans would try to advance again and the situation would repeat itself. After a while the German guns were registered in on the Australian positions. In one of the exchanges of fire a German shell hit an ammo truck causing the rounds inside to cook off. Luckily these were all smoke shells, and a thick cloud blanked the ridge. For 30 minutes the Australians were blinded. As it cleared the Germans began firing again. First a limber was hit and exploded, then a dump of bag charges. These explosions set fire to the undergrowth and soon a the tiny escarpment was ablaze.

The Germans brought up some field pieces and began to fire at the Australian guns, who quickly responded. The guns were in constant action for the entirety of the morning, until about 1300 when one gun sprung a leak in its recoil cylinder due to the number of rounds fired. By this point the German trucks had reached the base of the ridge and were unloading infantry. The crew of the last remaining gun pushed their piece out of its pit to the edge of the escarpment, but the gun wouldn't depress enough. So the Crew lifted the gun by the tail, and while bracing it in their hands began to fire shells at the Germans. Even using the smallest propellant charge the gun was in danger of tearing out of their arms and flipping over. After about 50 shells the Germans began to retreat.

The German response was to use their artillery again. A savage bombardment hit the Australian position,causing the crew to duck. By 4 PM the bombardment lifted and the Gunners found that their 25 Pounder had been knocked out of action. The guns had been in constant action for eight hours, and over 160 German shells had hit the tiny ledge where they had their position. Yet not one casualty had been sustained. Stripping the damaged gun of sights and breech block Lt Anderson sent half his men to safety with the critical parts of the gun. He remained to try and get the first piece working again.

 The Germans landed a furious barrage of shells on the hillside, killing one and wounding one from the first party to retreat. The Gun position was also hit by this whirlwind, killing six and wounding three. As dusk had fallen, the first artillery piece was out of action and couldn't be repaired, Lt Anderson ordered the evacuation of the wounded. Once he had seen them to safety he and Gunner returned, on their own, to the gun position. They put the 25 Pounder beyond use, and collected the discs of the wounded before finally retreating.

[WoT] Team Up!

The massive 0.8.9 update for World of Tanks has gone live for EU, NA, and Asia regions.

• 7 vs 7 team battles (7/42 mode)
• open top German TDs (how is Waffen E-100?)
• first Japanese tank so far (Type 3 Chu-Nu Kai)
• gift tank - T7 Combat Car (thanks for Golden Joystick)
• NA-based Northwest map
• multiple fixes and improvements

First impression from the live version?

PS: meanwhile WoWP 1.0 public test has begun

[WoT] Krupp's Archives

Taken from Yuri Pasholok's (WG historical consultant and tank researcher) blog.

"There has always been some complaining of "compromises" related to historical accuracy of German vehicles. Surprisingly, real German WWII research and engineering exceeds the boldest expectations.

For instance, Krupp's archives have the following inventory:

2959 15 cm K, Entwurfe, Berechnungen enthalt:
15 cm K L/40 fur [PzkpfW "Maus"]
15 cm KWK in Tiger II
7,5 cm KWK und 15 cm KWK L/38 fur Pzkpfw "Maus"
15 cm K L/38Patronen fur Pzkpfw "Maus" 

And that's not all, however we are excited already." 

[WG] WG Minsk Celebrates Halloween

WG's Minsk office (including World of Tanks and World of Tanks Blitz dev teams) celebrates Halloween which is not a typical Eastern European holiday.

More pictures here. 

[WoTB] Infantry!?

Would you stand a chance with AK-47 against T-26?

Testing "run 'em all over" mode for World of Tanks Blitz. Adults only rating for this version.

Help me write this Story.

Today I need your help. 

Those of you who know me, know that I love weird vehicles, especially captured or really out of place oddities. Well 8 months ago I found out about a battle with four tanks, and have been trying to track the details down. I'm certain there's a story there. But after 8 months I can't find anything from English sources. So its over to you, can you find out anything about this Battle past what I detail below?

During the post World War One period, much of Eastern Europe became a mass of conflicting ideals and political groups and fighting. In most cases each country had its war of independence during the time. However the wider period is sometimes, inaccurately, called the Russian Civil War. Where White and Red Russians fought each other. The Whites and the nationalists were often supported by the west. Equally the differing groups were armed and equipped by the west.

The British had a tank training school in what would become Estonia. The school had six World war one era MKV Hermaphrodite tanks. "Hermaphrodites" were MKV tanks with one female and one male sponson. Four of these tanks were transferred to the new Estonian Army when they won independence. Named Uku, Vahtula, Valdaja and Päälik, the tanks were never retired. In 1939 despite these four vehicles being Estonia's only armour they don't seem to have been deployed against the Soviet invasion. Possibly because the supply of rounds for the 6 Pounder gun was poor. After the Russian victory the tanks, along with other pieces of hardware, were warehoused.

During the next two years the Russian Baltic Fleet moved into Tallinn and set up a major fleet base there. Then came Operation Barbarossa. The Germans stormed across the Soviet captured territory and the Red Army threw everything into the fight. At Tallinn the Red Navy converted two of the captured Estonian Styer 640 trucks into armoured cars and issued them to the Russian Naval infantry.

Equally the Estonian MKV tanks were re-armed with a 45mm gun and either DT or Maxim Machine guns (pictures show both). The four tanks were then brought into action in the defence of Tallinn. The MKV's were called "Rikardo's", this is a Russian translation of the "Ricardo". Sir Harry Ricardo was the British engineer who designed and built the Engines powering the MKV. That the tanks where used is confirmed as we have lots of pictures of them taken by a German Army photographer who followed the attacking German Infantry.

Tank #4

And that's where the hard detailed information ends. I know nothing more that I consider good evidence. I have some single unsourced claims, and I can make some guesses though. I suspect it was the Naval infantry whom used them, although it could easily have been the Red Army. Some sources claim all were mobile. Others only two, and the other two were used as bunkers. One source claims they took part in the fighting at a cross roads. Another says they were part of the "Rae" defensive line, but I can't find any other mention of that position.

Tank #1

I can make a good guess what happened after the Germans knocked them out as well. MKV tanks appear in Berlin at the end of the war. These were immobile and used as air-raid shelters. Up until then they had been sitting in the Lustgarten. In World War One Germany never captured a MKV tank, and as the tanks seen in Berlin at the end of World War Two are MKV's there's only a tiny number of places they could have come from, Estonia is one.

So can anyone help? I feel there is a story here, but I can only know half of it. I'd love to fill in the blanks and tell the entire story. But there doesn't seem to be enough information held in English sources.

(Apologies for both the short article and being late today. I'm currently moving house so the Internet connection, and my book collection are limited and patchy.)