Wings of fury

Many of you will have heard of the Hawker Sea Fury, the monoplane fighter that served in several air forces just after World War Two. However there was a biplane called the Hawker Fury that served around the world just before the war. It remained in service with some air forces even during the Second World War.

The Fury was the RAF's first fighter that could exceed 200mph.  In 1931 the Fury entered service with the RAF, and remained in service until January 1939.

One of the main selling points of the Fury was that it could be fitted with a huge variety of engines, which meant eight countries brought it, and most fitted their own preferred engines.

In 1941 Yugoslavia had two squadrons of 15 Furies, these were Grupa 35 and 36.  Grupa 36 was based at the airfield at Rezanovacka Kosa.  The Yugoslavian Air Force was formed from pilots with little experience or training. They had suffered a blow when the high ranking officer Vladimir Kren had stolen an aircraft and defected to Austria. Despite this setback the morale of the pilots was exceptionally high.

To add to their confidence the Yugoslavs had received an intelligence warning of the impending German attack, and had therefore began quietly mobilizing their forces.  This included dispersing the air force to fifty smaller airfields.  The intelligence was so good the Yugoslavs even managed to predict on which day the German attack would fall.

Grupa 36 had been warned to expect German bombers on April the 6th, 1941.  Before 0600, as the sun poked over the wooded hills on the horizon two Furies were dispatched on patrol to look out for German bombers.  The remainder of the Grupa's pilots were stood to, in position in their aircraft with the engines switched on and running at idle.

At 0611 over the voices of the ground crew and pilots, and the soft chugging of the Furies engines came the harsh roar of German engines at full power.  Around thirty ME-109's and BF-110's stormed towards the airfield.  The Yugoslavian pilots reacted immediately, ramming their throttles to full power as they bumped along the runway.  The sudden movement of their victims caused most the Luftwaffe attacks to miss and only one Fury was destroyed on the ground. Unfortunately however, three trainers and an ambulance aircraft were destroyed.

The Luftwaffe planes looped around and dived onto the gaggle of biplanes who were clawing for altitude. Despite the good (for a biplane) rate of climb the Germans in their vastly superior machines had every advantage.  Soon the Furies were crumpling under the strikes of the Germans cannon shells but the Germans didn't have it all their own way in the 19 minute dogfight that followed, as two of the BF109's were shot down by Furies.

Kapetan Konstantin A. Jermakov had been born in Russia, but had ended up in the Yugoslavian Air Force as the leader of one of the flights of Grupa 36.  In the dogfight so far he had emptied his guns into the German planes to no effect.  In a fit of rage or desperation, we shall never know which, he flew his plane at a BF110, crashing into the wing.  Both planes fell to the ground in a mangled smashed heap of wreckage killing both pilots and the crew of the BF110.

Kapetan Jermakov

This act of defiance seems to have touched off something within the Yugoslavian pilots.  The other Grupa 36 flight leader, a Bosnian, Kapetan Vojislav J. Popovic, repeated the feat, ramming and destroying another BF110 and killing himself.

Kapetan Popovic

Finally a Serbian pilot, Porucnik Milorad D. Tanasic, went after harder prey.  He managed to catch, and ram into of the BF109's, again with fatal results for all involved.

Porucnik Tanasic

The tally of Germans downed came at a high cost, seven pilots dead, and one wounded. All but one of the Furies in the squadron had been destroyed.
The remaining Fury joined Grupa 35, which fought for the remainder of the war.  The only other air to air engagement was against the Italians, which saw both sides having aircraft shot down.

Furies were to see action once more in the Second World War, their last engagement is strange in that it technically wasn't under any air force.

In August 1941 the Soviets and British forces invaded Iran. The Iranians resisted, but in a patchy way.  In some places they put up fierce fights, in others little resistance. The Iranians were facing an overwhelming force and the matter was decided before it began.
Less than three days later the war was all but over, political agreements meant that the Shah issued orders for a cease fire, including orders to the main Tehran airbase not to engage Soviet paratroopers should they land.

Iranian Pilots by their Furies

The men of the airbase mutinied at these orders, arresting the Chief of the Air force as he tried to enforce the orders.  The Army moved to crush the defenders, sending an armoured column against the air base, and surrounding it with AA guns.  Two pilots took their Furies up in the face of the AA guns and made a strafing run on the armoured column then flew off and simply disappeared.

On September the 17th a flight of five Polikarpov I-16's heading to reinforce the Soviet forces in Iran were over the Caspian sea approaching land, when the two Furies reappeared.  The Iranians immediately launched an attack on the Soviets.  Their planes were outclassed and one of the Furies was shot down.

The distance the Furies had flown to attack was suddenly demonstrated, as in the intervening weeks the Iranian pilots hadn't been able to secure any more fuel. The second Fury ran out of fuel and crashed into a forest.

What I did on my Holidays

Overlord has asked me to do some more articles for this site. Now I have my Day job to do, and these articles actually take a bit of time, so I said I would try to stick up the odd piece on a Wednesday. These will likely be shorter and a different format to the Sunday article. They will not be a regular feature either. So without any further ado, lets get on with it.

On the 14th I had special (written and signed in triplicate) permission from my other half to disappear down to Dorset. To visit the Bovington Tank Museum. This would be my first visit, and thanks to a nice chap named Ed, and a very nice lady called Roz (who was too shy to get on camera), they agreed to open up the Vehicle Conservation Centre so I could have a walk round some of their rarer pieces.
As I had my camera with me I figured you lot might like to see some of the results.

First up we have this Vickers light Amphibious tank:

You can see the usual Carden Loyd running gear. More interestingly its got a Vickers HMG in the turret. Much like early Cruiser tanks and the Matilda. So it could theoretically mount a .50 cal Vickers HMG, meaning you might in the far future see it in game.

Next we have the D3E1 Wheel-cum-track:

An idea that was all the rage in the inter-war years. The idea is you can use the wheels on road, but when you need it as a tank you raise the wheels up and off you set. So in theory the best of both worlds.
However you also get twice the complexity and it is likely to break. That said the Germans did use a wheel-cum-track design in the Second World War.

Next we have the Excelsior:

A tank that you all will know from World of Tanks.

Next a very fetching Stridsvagn L-60:

Hopefully we'll see it somewhere in either the Combined EU or a separate Swedish tech tree.

Now we come to a Saladin:

As I've long been joking: World of Armoured Cars, you all know it makes sense. What better advert for it than something this cute?

There was also this little oddity:

Now it was defiantly Canadian, so either a Ram or a Grizzly (I forget which) but it has a gun with a muzzle brake. So I guess a US 76mm.

As I pressed deeper I found a real prize:

As you can see this is the QinetiQ ACAVP. QinetiQ is what's left of the UK Governments defence research department. The tank its self was a technology test vehicle, and is made out of plastic. Yes that's right, its really made out of plastic armour.

Now those of you who are in the UK know that the week I went down to Bovington parts of the UK were doing a passable impression of a submarine. As I was clicking away I didn't know it but my camera had gotten a bit wet and the pictures weren't being recorded. This was the last picture that I could recover from my camera before it gave up the ghost completely:

So can you ID the tank?

After Bovington I got back to my hotel only to find the water from the river already washing over the road, and the hotels garden was submerged. So I quickly grabbed my gear and checked out despite me being due to stay another night. I timed it just right as I had to drive through three floods on the way home, one of which was on a motorway!

The Good news is I have a much better camera now, and I'll have to make plans to go back.

Cold Gold

Convoy QP11 steamed out of Murmansk on the 28th of April 1942 and passed the Kola Inlet into the frozen Arctic seas, lashed by wind and water.  The temperature could easily fall to -10 degrees, and the ships decks would often become sheets of ice.

QP11 consisted of 13 freighters and their escorts.  One of the warships that accompanied the convoy was HMS Edinburgh, a Town class light cruiser (Similar to HMS Belfast in London).  She was the convoy’s command ship, and located within one of her magazines was 4570 Kg of solid gold.  This was a part payment from Russia to the UK and USA as part of the Lend Lease program.  In 1942 this was worth 1.5 million pounds.

HMS Edinburgh

Two days later HMS Edinburgh had detached herself as forward picket, and gone ahead on patrol.  As she reached the limit of the 20 mile circuit, she prepared to return to the convoy.  Thinking they were out of the immediate danger her crew were stood down from general quarters status which they had been maintaining for the previous 48 hours while in the area of most risk.

A few hundred yards away lay the German submarine U456 which had been lying in wait for the convoy. The submarine had only two torpedoes left after its patrol, and it watched the zigzagging HMS Edinburgh. As chance would have it Edinburgh turned onto a new course just as she got within firing range of the U-boat.  If she had turned the other way, this entire story wouldn't have happened.
At 1555 on the 30th of April the Edinburgh's ASDIC operator reported a contact, very near by and they were closing on it. It was judged to be a false contact.
Realising that the cruiser would maintain the course she currently had, the U-boat fired both torpedoes.

None of Edinburgh's crew saw the torpedoes as they streaked towards her.  Both were perfectly aimed and slammed into her starboard side.  The first torpedo struck her amidships and tore through to the boiler room and shattered Edinburgh's fuel tanks.  The blast had also cracked open the deck, dropping about 50 sailors into a storage tank which then began to flood with oil.
The second torpedo hit the stern and caused the most critical damage.  The explosion blew the deck plates up, wrapping the armour around the rear turrets and rendering them utterly inoperable.  The blast caused a similar effect on the stern pushing the hull downwards to form a sort of keel from the damage. 

Two of the four propellor shafts were also destroyed, as was the clothes stores and ships power was lost.  Of the guns, only B turret could still be operated, but it could not be rotated nor did it have director control.

Spewing heavy fuel oil, and listing badly the Edinburgh drifted to a halt, utterly at the mercy of the U-boat.  Luckily the U-boat lacked any further means of attack.
Signalling for assistance the Edinburgh drifted helplessly. The crew were shivering and freezing as they were exposed to the worst of the weather without the clothing to protect them. However the rest of the convoy was currently under attack, and so no help could be dispatched.

Bridge of HMS Belfast, showing the weather that could be encountered

Eventually a small force of two Soviet destroyers and two British destroyers were freed from the defence of the convoy and reached the stricken Edinburgh at about 1730.

By now the damage control parties had managed to get Edinburgh's propulsion working and she could make a maximum speed of 8 knots on one shaft.  Unfortunately though due to the damage caused by the second torpedo she could only steam in a giant circle.
One of the destroyers (HMS Forester) managed to attach a tow line to Edinburgh's bow. The tow line broke under the strain with such force it sounded like a gunshot, and the cable wrapped itself around a stanchion. Four further attempts all ended the same way.

As the officers devised a new plan, suddenly a lookout yelled a warning about a submarine three miles astern.  HMS Forester immediately went to full power and healed over towards the contact to engage.  As she approached the spot where the U-boat had crash dived her captain ordered her to slow ahead so the ADISC could get a reading.
HMS Forester’s throttles had jammed wide open, so the ship overshot.  By the time she could be brought back under control the submarine was long gone. A couple of depth charges were fired in the vain hope of hitting.  Again chance appeared, and unknown to the crew of the HMS Forester one of the depth charges did damage the U-boats periscope.

The new plan to tow the Edinburgh was successful. The line was attached to the stern of the ship, and one of the destroyers could counter the turn. It did mean that the top speed was two knots, and with about 200 miles to go it would take at least four days to reach Murmansk.

So again the crew stood too, with out clothing, food or sleep in the bitter Arctic night.  Some relief was provided by hot cocoa, but only after a vessel big enough to boil it in was found. As it turned out this was one of the officers bath tubs.

At 0600 the next day the two Russian destroyers signalled they were almost out of fuel and had to return to Murmansk.  On a more positive note a Russian tug and four Minesweepers were already on the way to support Edinburgh.
Overnight a force of German destroyers had attacked the Convoy but had been seen off, knowing the Germans were in the area in force the Admiral considered his position and issued the following signal to her escorts:

"In the event of attack by German destroyers, Foresight and Forester are to act independently taking every opportunity to defeat the enemy without taking undue risks to themselves in defending Edinburgh.  Edinburgh is to proceed wherever the wind permits, probably straight into it. If the minesweepers are present they are also to be told to act independently, retiring under smoke screens as necessary."

At 1800 the Rubin, the Russian tug appeared, and about midnight the four minesweepers hove into sight. It was then found that the tug had insufficient power, so one of the minesweepers had to assist in the towing. The other minesweepers split up to take positions round the damaged Edinburgh.  The rear most minesweeper (HMS Hussar) suddenly spotted three German destroyers following the massive oil slick that Edinburgh was bleeding from her broken hull.

HMS Hussar

The tiny minesweeper launched an attack on the vastly superior destroyers.  Armed with two 4 inch guns HMS Hussar faced off against the German ships, who were each armed with four 5.9 inch guns. Hussar was forced to retreat in short order.

The German force consisted of two of these Type 1936A's

...and the Hermann Schoemann

HMS Hussar's brief action had served its role of rear guard. The firing of the guns had warned the rest of the flotilla. Both the destroyers increased to top speed and turned to take on the Germans.  Edinburgh cast off her tow ropes, raised her battle flag and increased to her top speed of 8 Knots, turning in a huge circle. Several German salvo's fell astern of the battered cruiser.

The two Royal Navy destroyers HMS Forester and HMS Foresight turned towards the Germans and fired spreads of torpedoes.  On the HMS Edinburgh one of the gunnery officers threw open a hatch on the top of B turret, which was still unable to traverse.  Using nothing more than his judgement he waited until the ships bows bore on one of the German ships.  Yelling the command to fire the three guns he managed to bracket the German destroyer Hermann Schoemann.

The Germans broke off laying smoke, and a swirling melee occurred.  Ships of both sides were using the cover of mist and squalls or laying smoke screens as they raced around at speed taking snap shots at targets as they appeared.  Suddenly the HMS Edinburgh found herself pointing at the Hermann Schoemann again, and again the 6" guns roared.  The first two shells bracketed the wildly manoeuvring destroyer and the third smashed into its hull destroying its boilers.  The Hermann Schoemann drifted for the remainder of the battle and was later scuttled.

Elsewhere HMS Forester turned to fire a broadside upon a German ship, only to be engaged by both enemy destroyers.  The punishment HMS Forester took caused her to lose power to her engines and like the Hermann Schoemann she started to drift, as the Germans closed in.  HMS Foresight came to her aid, spewing a smoke screen and she deliberately drove between the Germans and their prey.  HMS Foresight took the salvo meant for HMS Forester which caused her heavy damage as well leaving her with one operational gun and damaged boilers.

To cover their withdrawal the Germans launched a spread of torpedoes at the temporarily immobilized HMS Forester.  Unable to do anything but watch the ships company held their breath for the explosion. It never came as both torpedoes streaked under the hull. 

Chance had one final part to play in the battle. One of the wildly fired torpedoes drew a line straight into the circling Edinburgh.  It hit amidships on the port side, almost directly opposite the hole from the previous hit.

B turret was firing at the retreating Germans when the torpedo hit, the Gunnery officer was blown out of the hatch and just managed to catch himself on the edge of the turret before falling onto the deck or overboard.

With the battle over, and only a few deck plates holding the HMS Edinburgh together the order to abandon ship was given.  The minesweepers pulled alongside and took off the remaining ships company.
After everyone was off the ships pulled away from HMS Edinburgh and waited for her to sink.  After fighting to stay afloat for so long the habit seemed ingrained in the battered ship, and she stubbornly refused to heel over.

One of the minesweepers then fired twenty rounds at the floating carcass. these had no effect other than starting several small fires.  Two salvo's of depth charges were then dropped close to the hull in an attempt to break HMS Edinburgh's back, but still to no effect.
Finally HMS Foresight used her one remaining torpedo on HMS Edinburgh.  The defiant cruiser rolled onto her side then broke in two with the stern sinking immediately. The bow reared up before slipping backwards under the water.

But what of the gold? Before you all start reaching for your wetsuits you should know that most of the 465 bars were recovered in 1980 and 1986.

But five bars are still unaccounted for! Each bar is worth in the region of $400,000.

Chief of Battle: Part two

 Part one can be found here

Late at night on August the first 1990, Kuwaiti Intelligence learned of the impending Iraqi invasion.  They immediately flashed the warning up through the chain of command.  The Kuwaiti 35th Brigade hurriedly started to mobilise its Chieftain tanks.  They were hampered by having some squadrons detached to guard duties elsewhere, and numerous soldiers away on leave.

As the unit began phoning around trying to find soldiers, one of the Brigade officers began combing through personnel files of soldiers on base.  If they'd had any armour training, no matter how long ago, they were assigned to composite crews.
Meanwhile other troops started to load ammunition into the tanks. Unfortunately this wasn't complete by the time the unit moved out at 0600.  In the previous 8 hours the 35th Brigade had managed to find 36 full crews, and partially load their tanks with ammunition. There hadn't been time to boresight (zero) the guns, and the tanks were carrying insufficient supplies of water.  The number of tanks was further reduced when one tank broke down on the very short march north.
The 35th Brigade deployed two battalions that day.  The 7th Battalion had 25 tanks, in three understrength companies while the 8th Battalion, was just a single company of ten tanks.

The 7th Battalion who were in the lead deployed in hull down positions, in a line, near a graveyard between the town of Al Jahra and Mutlaa ridge.  A six lane highway ran diagonally down from the ridge to Al Jahra, and then linked  to a ring road.  There was a police station next to the road on the ridge, and the 7th Brigade sent a reconnaissance vehicle there.  It reported a column of Iraqi's advancing down the road, this turned out to be the Republican Guards Hammurabi Division. 

As the Iraqi's reached the ring road at 0645, the 7th Battalion opened fire.  For the Chieftains with their fearsome firepower the range the Kuwaitis were firing at was practically point blank (around 1500 metres).  Here at last was the tank battle the Chieftain had been designed for, defending a line against a larger force of Soviet armour.

The pounding the Iraqi's were taking suddenly let up. Lieutenant-Colonel Al Wazan, the commander of 7th Brigade had received orders to cease fire and return to base!  For a few moments the Iraqi's could collect their battered wits, then LTC Al Wazan used his initiative and ordered his battalion to open fire again.
By now the 8th Battalion had arrived on the battlefield.  There was an Infantry unit inside Al Jahra that would be surrounded so the 8th Battalion was ordered to advance and link up with the Infantry.

Captain Ali, the commander of the the Battalion moved up to the first obstacle, the six lane ring road around Al Jahra.  He quickly realised that any attempt to cross the road, especially the central barrier would result in a massacre of his unit. With that in mind he fell back and emplaced his company to the east of the 7th Battalion on the other side of a road that led to the west from the Ring road.
Almost immediately after taking up positions a car came screeching up behind Cpt Ali's tank.  He was happy to see the gunner from his normal crew leap out of the drivers seat.  The gunner was the battalions best shot, and had been at home on leave when the news of the Iraqi attack had come in.
No sooner than the gunner had taken his seat, he spotted and killed an Iraqi command/observation vehicle that was mostly obscured by a bridge.  Then an Iraqi platoon of three T-72's wormed its way through Al Jahra and tried to launch a flank attack on the 8th Battalion.  The Kuwaiti tanks easily spotted them and destroyed all three.

As the morning wore on the tanks had been engaged for a long time, and now the lack of water began to tell, on both sides.  At some of the lulls in the battle soldiers from both sides queued up next to each other to buy water from a local roadside water vendor.

About 1100 hours a new threat began to develop.  Along the road leading to the west came a second Iraqi division.  This was the Republican Guards Medina Division.  A small battery of SPG's had set up there to support the tanks.
The battery commander upon seeing the tanks approach at first thought they were Saudi re-enforcements so he closed with them.  As he got closer he saw the tanks were T-72's. If he ran now after being spotted, the Iraqis would realise they were Kuwaitis and obliterate them.
So he decided to bluff, he walked up to the lead T-72 and spoke to the commander and gathered some intelligence on the Iraqis.  When the tanks drove past they were none the wiser.

With enough warning from the artillery position the 8th Battalion shifted so that it refused its left flank, and could keep the Hammurabi Division to its front and also cover the back of the 7th Battalion.  The Medina T-72's stormed down the road towards Al Jahra unaware of exactly what was happening.

The Medina Division drove between both Kuwaiti battalions and as it entered the frontal arcs of the 7th Battalion all the defenders opened fire wreaking havoc.  As the Medina Division fell back after a very short exchange of fire the artillery battery took them under bombardment.

By early afternoon however, the 35th Brigade was running out of ammunition, the tanks had three rounds left at most and many had less.  Equally the lack of water was becoming a concern.  The biggest issue was that the Medina Division was forming up for another attack from the rear.  With no other choice LTC Al Wazan ordered his brigade to retreat.  The brigade crossed the border into Saudi Arabia at 1630.

The Chieftain had proved it was able to do exactly what it was designed to do, hold larger forces of Soviet armour at bay.  The 35 Chieftains had held up the lead elements of two divisions for nearly ten hours.  As well as the one breakdown the brigade had only lost two tanks in the battle.

[WoT] Feedback on Live 0.8.11

How do you like the recent update for World of Tanks? Precisely:

1. FOV changes
2. Any issues with aiming/reticle especially while leading targets?
3. National battles aka "Confronation"? Balanced? Fun to play?

Everything else also counts. Share your thoughts.

UPD.
FOV issue is going to be fixed. Most likely will reverse to the previous one and make FOV adjustments in the settings. 

Chief of Battle: Part one

In the late 40's the British started looking for a new design of tank to replace their Centurions.  However, nothing came of that programme and the Centurions remained in service. A decade later the same idea came up again.

Design started in the early 1950's on the Medium Gun tank No 2, renamed in 1962 to the FV4201. The two main requirements were for survivability and firepower.  These requirements were due entirely to the expected threat of the Warsaw Pact forces.
In line with with NATO it was decided to fit multi-fuel engines to all new tanks.  Everyone else quickly realised this was impractical, however, despite reservations the Chieftain was fielded with such an engine.  It is safe to say that the engine was the thing that broke the tank.
The L60 multi-fuel engine was based on parts from a World War Two era Junkers Jumo engine, the same type as those fitted to the various German bombers!  It was also built by a company that had a less than stellar reputation in the motoring industry.  The engine performance was so poor that when in 1960 automotive trials were carried out, the tank actually failed to finish.

Conqueror, Centurion and Chieftain

In other aspects, the tank was excellent.  The 120mm L11 gun provided unmatched range, precision and killing power.  At the time nearly all tanks were armed with guns of around 100mm calibre.  The split case ammunition was found not to lower the tanks rate of fire and it enabled many advantages such as the ability to store all explosives below the level of the turret ring, while the solid armour piercing rounds could be stored in the turret.

The armour protection to the front of the tank was provided by cast armour inspired by an IS2 the British had found under a collapsed block of flats in Berlin in 1945. The casting of the turret was so thick that each one had to cool for one year.

In 1962 two tanks were given to the British army for testing in the German winter.  At first the crews loved the ability for the tracks to grip the ground, and the handling was deemed to be excellent.  Then the crews realised the tank lacked a heater.

The lack of a heater wasn't as much of an issue in Iran.  By the time of the 1979 revolution the Iranian army had brought about 700 Chieftains.  At the end of 1980 when the Iran-Iraq war broke out, those Chieftains were still crewed by experienced well trained soldiers.  The High Command of the Iranian forces wasn't of such high quality.  In the Chieftains first combat deployment it began to show its flaws, these were exacerbated by the poor Iranian command.

In January 1981, after the Iraqi offensive had run out of thrust the Iranians launched a counterattack at a place called Susangerd.  The Iranians brought about 400 Chieftains to bear on a slightly smaller Iraqi force.  The Iranians lacked reconnaissance and artillery support.

Before the battle could be joined Iranian engineers began to construct bridges over the Karkheh River.  Without screening reconnaissance forces the Iraqi's could calmly watch and report.  Realising that a major offensive was planned the Iraqi force fell back two kilometres and took up defensive positions, also digging in on the flanks to create a perfect kill zone.

The area itself was the flood plain for the river, and was extremely boggy and wet.  Only two paved roads ran across the area. The lead Iranian Brigade attacked along these roads in column, with no scouts to screen them.
When the Iraqi's opened fire from their hull down positions they had perfect flank shots negating the huge advantage of the Chieftains frontal armour.  Equally when the Chieftains tried to manoeuvre they bogged down and became immobilised with frightening ease due to the poor power output and unreliability of the engine. The entire lead brigade was wiped out.

Frontal penetrating hits on Iranian Chieftains

The next day the Iranians launched their second brigade into the fight.  Through sheer brute force they managed to close with the Iraqi's.  The Iraqi's inexperience began to show, instead of out manoeuvring the Iranians they just held on and a brutal close range fight developed.  At such close range the massive fire-power of the Chieftains could smash through even the best armour of the Soviet tanks.

It was all for nought as the Iranian Chieftains took too much of a beating and they had to fall back.  After the battle one hundred Iranian tanks had been destroyed and a similar number were captured. The Iraqi's had lost about fifty tanks and fifty more smaller armoured vehicles.

This costly failure did combat test one part of the Chieftain that passed with flying colours, Crew survivability.  All the bag charges in the Chieftain were contained in a special storage container filled with a Glycol and water mixture. This often managed to retard the rate at which the bag charges burned when a tank was penetrated.  When a container was pierced there would be a white smoke and a loud hissing noise giving warning that a fire had started. Although eventually the fire would spread this would often take several minutes,  more than long enough to evacuate wounded crew members.  In comparison a Soviet tank on the Iraqi side would often be torn apart immediately by its ammunition exploding if it was penetrated.

Iraqi's bailing out of a BMP1

The frontal armour also worked.  Later in the war at a border check post called Zeid, an Iranian tank commander was hull down as the Iraqi's attacked.  Whilst he was using the periscope to direct his gunner towards one of the attacking Iraqi T-72's he suddenly couldn't see.  Sticking his head out of the hatch he saw a glowing spot on the turret front.  An Iraqi 125mm APDS (Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot) round had passed through the crest of the sand bank in front of his tank and impacted on his armour without penetrating.

Part two can be found here.

Edit 10/2/14:
Made a mistake with the dates, and I, rightly, got called up on it. The error is fixed now.

[WoTB] German Tech Tree

Initial German tech tree for World of Tanks Blitz revealed.

This makes it. All researchable tanks for Blitz have been announced by now. US and USSR. 

Let's Battle Magazine

Wargaming's Let's Battle magazine is now available for your mobile.

Check it out on iOS and Android.

Your feedback is appreciated.

[WoT360] Moar Tanks!!

World of Tanks 360 for Xbox 360 is now live! Not yet worldwide (this is to come).

Libya's Death Star

On the morning of the 19th of March 1987, the sun began to flood the desert around Bir Kora in northern Chad.  It revealed a parched desolate landscape with no vegetation at all, just reddened or ochre rocks.
It also revealed a Libyan tank battalion resting in Laager.  The Libyans had set out the day before from the fortified camp at Wadi Doum with the mission of retaking the town of Fada.  The Libyans hadn't deployed any scouts overnight, and little did they know the Chadian forces had found them and surrounded them.

Libyan Camp, photographed by French air force in 1986

Fada had fallen to the Chadian forces a couple of months previously.  The planned recapture of Fada was the latest in a series of battles fought between Libya and Chad over the previous 9 years.
Libyan forces had copied the Warsaw Pact doctrine, and purchased all the Soviets latest equipment with oil money.
Set against that you had the fierce, wiry desert tribesmen who were almost untrained. As an example the Chadian armies Special Forces received only six weeks of training.

The Libyan forces had set up a base at Wadi Doum.  The base was heavily fortified around a long runway, which ran between two hills.  On the top of those hills was a Soviet “Spoon Rest” radar system which controlled an entire SA-6 surface to air missile battery.  Over 5000 men were defending this complex loitering in the emptiness of the desert. One US intelligence official described it as equivalent of the Death Star from Star Wars.

French Air force photograph of an SA-6 at Wadi Doum

About 400m from the Libyan T55's lay a rocky hill with its sides covered by sand.  Hidden at the top of the hill was a Toyota pickup truck.  The Chadian soldier in the back was one of the few with a degree of training, as his Toyota mounted one of the latest French supplied weapons, a Milan guided anti-tank missile.
On a signal from their commander the Milan gunners launched a volley at the Libyan tanks.  Some missiles hit and some missed.  When they did hit the missiles easily punched through the tanks armour, often causing the turret to blow off.  The Libyans began to return fire although their rounds had little effect, as they were trying to hit a man sized target at 400m. Their shells peppered and blasted the rocks the Chadians were using as cover.
The Libyan commander ordered most of his forces to shift over to face the direction of the incoming fire.
As they did so the Chadians launched their real attack.  More Toyotas charged towards the weakened Libyan rear flank.  The few tanks left to defend it desperately tried to track their guns round onto the Toyota pickups which were moving at over 70mph across the fine sand.  Some of the T55's managed to get their guns on target, and even a near miss would smash the speeding pickup.  Unfortunately the Libyan numbers were too few to prevent the attack from breaking through the line.
The Libyans tried to shift some of their tanks back to face the threat, but they quickly bogged down in the fine talcum powder like sand.  Rampaging around inside the Laager the Chadians began to engage the Libyans with small arms, LAW’s (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) and RPG’s (Rocket Propelled Grenade).  Some were launched at such close range that the rockets would strike the tanks and the explosion would kill the firer.

The Libyan commander panicked and radioed to Wadi Doum for help, but before the relief force could set out the battle was over with a crushing victory to the Chadians. A few Libyans managed to flee back down the road towards Wadi Doum.

The tactics the Chadians had used were identical to ones the desert tribes had been using for centuries only replacing horses and camels with Toyotas.  Yosko Hassan, Assistant Commander for the force said to reporters later:
"We Chadians, we had nearly nothing. Our army is a young one, with very little means. We tried to act within our means."

 The fleeing Libyans met the relief column 12 miles back up the track, and the relief force took up a similar position overnight with a battery of six 122mm artillery guns.  Further up the track were a number of tanks. On the morning of the 20th the Chadians repeated their attack in almost exactly the same way.  This time the rout was even more pronounced. The Libyans fled with almost no fighting with the artillery not even firing a shot, and eleven T55's were abandoned where they sat, the keys still in the ignition.

The panicked fleeing troops reached Wadi Doum air base, and warned the defenders that the Chadian army was on the way.  The defenders ignored the dire warnings and continued with their daily routine. Some tended the small irrigated gardens which were the only green plants for hundreds of miles.  Others made plaques with passages from Qaddafi's green book or the Koran.  The words were made by gluing stones and pebbles to boards.
They defenders thought they were safe inside two rings of defensive lines and minefields. The approaching dust clouds were thought by some to be their missing troops returning. On the 22nd the Chadians attacked, quickly overwhelming the outer defensive line.

Wadi Doum under French Air attack in 1986

Knowing about the minefields some Chadian soldiers thought their Toyota's could skip right past the explosions unharmed, about 12 Toyotas tried this but were quickly destroyed.  The rest of the Toyotas formed up and charged down the road into the main gate.
The Libyans panicked, and despite having overwhelming numbers and fire-power they fled with no attempt at a coordinated fight.  The Chadians rampaged through the camp, occasionally pockets of resistance would be found and quickly destroyed by the Toyota borne Chadian army.  Within an hour the runway had been captured, and by the early evening the rest of the base was also captured.

Searching the base the Chadian army found massive quantities of weapons.  There were underground storage facilities holding weapons and ammunition, one had twelve brand new unused T2 tanks.  Outside in the vehicle park were the West German Faun tank transporters that had brought them to this base. Numerous aircraft were captured undamaged as well, although the assault had burned some out.  The prize was the full Soviet SA-6 battery, of a new type not known about by NATO.  After French requests the battery was transported to the south and well out of range of Libyan retaliation.

The Libyans began bombing the base in an attempt to destroy some of the $1 Billion worth of equipment captured by the Chadians.  One L39 Albatross flew to low and was shot down by a Stinger missile.  From then on the Libyans flew at high altitude, and although the Chadians fired more Stingers the Libyans were well out of range.  From that high altitude though, the bombing was largely ineffective.

The Libyans had about 1300 soldiers killed, and 500 captured. The Libyan regional commander, Colonel Khalifa Hastar was also captured, and his deputy Colonel Gassim abu Nawar was killed in the assault.  The Libyans also lost hundreds of tanks, APC's and trucks.
The Chadians lost 29 killed and 58 wounded.

But there is more to the story.  The few Libyans that managed to flee the battle, ran to the next Libyan fortification at the town of Faya-Largeau.  This was the home town of the Chadian President.
Some Libyans ran into their own minefields and were stranded and unable to move.  They were captured along with the city by the Chadian army on the 27th.
The forces of Chad didn't need to fire a single shot, as the Libyans ran before they arrived.

This part of the Chadian-Libyan conflict became known as the Toyota War, for obvious reasons.