Made me smile :)

Fifth part of the Wargaming series with Russian veteran memories about the Second World War. This time with former navigator of the Pe-2 plane, Galina Pavlovna Brok-Belcova, who recalls how because of the issues with one of the engines on its way to its target, her bomber stayed behind the formation, was left without fighter cover and was attacked by German Focke-Wulf fighters.

English subtitles are available.

Galina Pavlovna Brok-Belcova took part in WW2 as a Pe-2 bomber navigator, serving in 125th Guard Bomber Air Regiment (holder of the order of Suvorov and the order of Kutuzov). She flew 36 sorties, took part in the Operation Bagration to liberate Belarus from German fascist invaders. She was awarded with the Order of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd Class and is a honorary member of the Soviet woman air pilots club.

Hello everyone,

first, a quick explanation what this post will be about. About a week ago, we had a bit of an Skype conversation with David “Listy” Lister – just some friendly jabs from my side about the Churchill not being exactly a stellar design. Listy, the British fan he is – of course started to defend the Churchill and from this discussion came an idea – let’s make it a trial and let YOU, the people, decide.

So, here’s how it’s going to work – the rules:

I am going to write a text (an “accusation”) about my opinion on the Churchill and why it wasn’t a good tank design. Listy is going to write his “defense” and send it to me for publication in this very same post. I do not know what he is going to write and I won’t know until I open his e-mail. He doesn’t know what I am going to write either (of course, based on the argument, we both have a rough idea about the matter though). I post both arguments at the same time and then there will be a poll about who is right and YOU, the people, will decide:

Was Churchill a good tank design, or was it in fact a piece of (s)crap?

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

there seem to be a lot of weird myths going around the FV4004 “Conway” and the FV4005 Stage 2 (calling them “tier 10 KV-2″ for example), so let’s have a look at the data we know about them. These data are based on original archive reports. One was dug up by David “Listy” Lister, the other by Ogopogo (US server). All the credits go to them. Unfortunately, I cannot publish the original reports, that’s up to the guys.

FV4004

Weight: 50 tons
Length: 7,56m
Length with gun: 10,73m
Width: 3,38m
Height: 3,2m

Continue reading →

Author: CounterMAN (ASIA)

Hello everyone,

CounterMAN from the Vietnamese community on ASIA forums contacted me with his rather interesting article about the deployment of the M24 Chaffee during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Here it is. I took the liberty of fixing some of the worst typos and mistranslations (the article was originally in Vietnamese).

About the French’s tank on A1 hill – Dien Bien Phu – M24 chaffee

On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory 05/07/1954 – 05/07/2014, VietNam Community Team proudly present the article about “the witness of history”, still lying around Muong Thanh field, Dien Bien Phu – M24 Chaffee, American light tank, supplied to the French Army.

The Light Tank M24 was an American light tank used during World War II and in postwar conflicts, including the Korean War and was used by the French in the war in Algeria and the First Indochina War. In British service, it was given the service name Chaffee, after the United States Army General Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., who helped to develop the use of tanks in the United States armed forces.

M24′s wreck on A1 hill, Dien Bien Phu

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Thanks to Branwen_lj (from world-of-ru) for posting this video and to others for linking me the story earlier.

Is the Oculus Rift (VR goggles) the future of tank simulation? The Norewegian army certainly thinks so. They built a vehicle, that can be driven “buttoned up” using only relatively cheap cameras, PC and Oculus Rift, giving the driver a 180 or so degree field of view, composed from the images of the cameras. The price for this solution is the driver getting tired quicker due to the artificial nature of the images, which I assume will be a problem in gaming as well. Personally, I can’t imagine using Oculus Rift on regular basis (even if I had it and the rig to support it), because I actually do get headaches even from watching 3D movies in cinema. I assume the strain on the eyes won’t be much different.

As for Wargaming and World of Tanks, as far as I recall, the official stance, confirmed by Big Boss Viktor Kislyi during the WGL finals in Poland is that this technology is viable for World of Tanks only when it gets mass-produced and spread (hundreds of thousands to millions of pieces). I guess we’ll just have to wait.

Hello everyone,

today marks the second time the Patreon subscription got successfully used, thank you all!

Out of the 566 USD pledged at that point:

- 527,99 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 527,99 USD:

47,77 USD went to credit card fees
26,44 USD went to Patreon (service fee)

leaving 453,78 USD for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here.

And once again it’s the time to thank also the contributors, who donated via Paypal:

Daniel W. (Canada)
Matej B. (Croatia)
Jingles (United Kingdom)- yes, THE Mighty Jingles – as unexpected as welcome – thank you very much for a very large donation!

The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service

http://www.patreon.com/silentstalker

This is the Patreon account of For the Record. In case you read this for the first time and feel like contributing, here is an explanation what it is, how it works and how to contribute. You can find a list of all those, who pledged and help to keep FTR running here.

Thank you all!

Hello everyone,

for those interested in this kind of thing, a new part of Girls und Panzer WoT Tutorial came out. You can review the entire series here. The new chapter:

Continue reading →

Fourth part of the Wargaming series with Russian veteran memories about the Second World War. This time with former radio and telegraph operator Vasilij Yakovlevich Goncharov, who will talk about his job as a radio operator of the combat unit and his trial by fire during the Lake Balaton operation.

English subtitles are available.

Vasilij Yakovlevich Goncharov served the entire war in the 1st Mechanized Corps of the 9th Zaporozhie Guards Tank Brigade (holders of Order of Kutuzov and Order of Suvorov) in a communications platoon and company. While working as a telephone operator during the fights around the city of Székesfehérvár from 28th of January to 4th of February 1945, he kept the line open between the battalion and brigade HQ working constantly under heavy enemy artillery and mortar fire. During one day of fighting, he personally repaired the phone line 20 times, allowing the troops to be commanded smoothly. For making a difference in the Balaton fighting, he recieved an Order of the Red Star.

Please pay attention: This is the third time I am leaving the comments open. This man is a veteran, who fought in the actual war and whatever you think about Russia, he deserves respect. Last time, I asked you and I am asking you again not to bash Russians, Ukraine, Crimea, Stalin and whatever here, keep that stuff for the time when Wargaming decides yet again to promote Stalin somewhere. If you can’t keep yourself from this at least this time, I will not only start handing out RO bans (or permabans in worst cases), but next time, the comments will be closed.