Part I: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/06/29/chaffees-at-dien-bien-phu-part-i/

Continuing from the last part.

The French tried to clear the road, connecting the main base with the Isabelle position. The strongest attempt was undertaken on 24.3.1954, during which Posen was hit by an RPG, but the damage done was not major and noone of the crew was wounded. The French also organized other operations – their goal was to destroy the AA positions around Dien Bien Phu in order to relieve the French aircraft. The AA around the base was very active and was causing massive losses to both combat and transport French planes. Largest such operation happened on 28.3.1954 and two batallions of French paratroopers participated in it. Their target was the AA position in one abandoned village by the name of Bang Ong Pet, 2,5 kilometers west from Claudine. The attack was supported by heavy French artillery fire and was successful, the French destroyed 7 high caliber MG’s and two 37mm guns. However, while they were dismantling the guns, the paratroopers were attacked by the Vietnamese soldiers from 888th Batallion of 176th Regiment and were gradually pushed from the village, their losses counted 20 dead and 72 wounded. Their situation was critical, but at that point, the Chaffees from Lt.Préaud’s platoon crossed six kilometers of open terrain and attacked the Vietnamese troops, blunting the spear of the Vietnamese assault and rescuing the beleagured paratroopers.

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A message from Woras: don’t forget to send your normal 9.1 replays at darthworas@gmail.com

Source: wotleaks VK community

Hello everyone,

remember the Pit (a temporary name for an upcoming small map)? There were some preliminary pics as well. Apparently, developers continue in their work on this map. They reworked it to look like this:

It’s a very small map (400×400) specifically for low tiers. They modified it to work as an encounter mode, the base is in the city. Respawns are in upper and lower right corner.

Hello everyone,

Tanitha, a producer from ASIA server confirmed that we are going to get a new tier 8 premium medium German tank. It’s going to be…

Panther Ausf.F with 88mm L/71

It’s supposed to come around the end of 2014 or early 2015. It’s a historical project, I wrote about it here some time ago (in case you are interested in details). I was kinda hoping for something exotic such as the autoloader Panther or the one with the gas turbine, but this will have to do.

On more personal note, I very much appreciate the way Tanitha runs things on ASIA server – good, straight answers, no “maybe” bullshit, pretty solid. Good job :)

Hello everyone,

I normally don’t post stuff about World of Warplanes, but this is quite interesting. In recent WoWp developer diaries video, WoWp developers mentioned a new mode, where the player will be competing against PVE element – NPC’s, also known as “bots”. What is even more interesting, Wargaming is even considering adding bots instead of regular players in random battles to even the teams (cca 1:20 of the game).

There have been talks about NPC elements in the game even before the World of Warplanes was released. Some of you might remember the time when the physics was introduced into the game – at that point (and also, later on), there were rumours about introducing some “NPC elements” into World of Tanks (in the form of some sort of obstacle courses or perhaps in historical battles – this was before the HB release).

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Hello everyone,

as you know, yesterday, Walker Bulldog pictures were leaked. Here’s a bit more info from supertest about it. Keep in mind that this is totally preliminary, some of the 9.3 vehicles aren’t even modelled yet.

Elite gun: 76mm M32 (Late)
Penetration: 175
Gold penetration: 210
Damage: 150
Rate of fire: 17,9
Engine power: 550hp
Maximum speed: 72,4 km/h
Maximum reverse speed: 24 km/h
Power-to-weight: 23,41 hp/t

Terrain passability is allegedly “very good”- but again all these data are preliminary and can still change 100 times!

Hello everyone,

here are the pictures of the M41 Walker Bulldog, upcoming tier 7 American light tank. The pictures are in top configuration. Interesting part is that it is not made in HD.

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Well, the text is in Russian, but the guy is not saying anything that is not obvious from the picture. This is how El Halluf will be reworked in 0.9.2 apparently.

Source: http://world-of-tanks.livejournal.com/5363413.html

Thanks to Tutmary for this one. Please note that this post is NOT an invitation for Ukraine/Russia bashing, more like an interesting insight into the life in eastern Ukraine. It was written by a guy living in Slavyansk, I am sure you heard that name on the news in last months. It’s called “Thank you, WoT”, the link is above.

Here’s what it says:

“I live in Slavyansk, we got our water pipes bombed, that’s why you have to go to a water pump to get water (there, they pour water to anyone who wishes). I wanted to go out to get water, but decided to run a few battles (I am grinding E75) and while I was playing, shelling started. After the shelling stopped, I went out to get water and saw the water pump stand. The windows were broken, the stand was blown up. If I had been there at that moment, a shell might have fallen on me. But two losses on E75 saved my health. Thanks to you, WoT, and that’s no joke. Play tanks, friends!”

The comments are interesting as well, basically a city where internet works just fine but the water distribution got destroyed – the author himself notes that it’s just a weird situation. His grandmother apparently broke a leg, that’s why they did not escape from the besieged city. The life in the entire Ukraine is currently weird, it influences Edrard (FTR webmaster) personally as well. Let’s hope the entire situation calms down soon.

Hello everyone,

about two months ago, I published a shorter post about the M24 Chaffee at Dien Bien Phu by CounterMAN. The article didn’t focus that much on the battle as it did on the vehicle itself, but today, we are going to have a look at the Dien Bien Phu a bit closer.

Dien Bien Phu is probably the best known battle in the series of post-WW2 wars, that marked the dissolution of the former colonial empires of France and Britain. For France, it was the decisive turning point of the entire conflict in Indochina, from which, despite the fighting going on, the French far east army was never able to recover. Amongst those who battled and fell at Dien Bien Phu were the crews of several M24 Chaffee tanks, often fighting against tremendous odds.

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