German Tank Graveyard in Rockensußra

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Silentstalker

Source: http://derstandard.at/2000001584631/Die-Panzerknacker-von-Rockensussra

Thanks to Pootch for this one.

In the middle of the German Thüringen region – specifically, in Rockensußra, there is a tank graveyard, where old German tanks (or, in this case, IFV’s) go to rest, until they are dismantled. A couple of photos were made by Thomas Peter, a photographer for Reuters. The company operating this place is Battle Tank Dismantling GmbH Koch, the only NATO-certified tank dismantling plant in Europe. It was founded in 1991 and dismantles old armor ever since.

Here, German decommissioned Marder IFV’s await their fate.

The vehicle scrapping began after the German unification, when the army numbers were reduced by various treaties. The vehicles are dismantled here thoroughly.

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1955 Czechoslovak Recon Vehicle Proposal

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Silentstalker

Hello everyone,

sometimes, projects appear in the world of armor and warfare that just click. They make sense and they are instantly recognized for their hidden brilliance and their revolutionary nature – indeed, such projects change the world of armor forever. This is definitely not one of them.

In the early and mid-50′s, the armored recoinnessance was not considered to be exactly high priority in the Czechoslovak army. The army realized by the end of the 40′s that the day of the recon light tank is over and several prospective (and very promising) projects (T-17, TNH 57/900) were scrapped as a result. Possibly the rast remnant of the light tank development was project “Leták”, a codename for an amphibious tank development (its result was actually evaluated as better than the PT-76), but politics and finances once again stood in the way and the project was cancelled.

Under such conditions, it was believed that the recon role can be handled either by halftracks or by armored cars. In early 50′s, both categories saw several projects, but nothing really came of it. The army was firmly focused on starting the production of local T-34/85 (and later T-54) tanks and this task was draining the resources of the entire Ministry of National Defense (MNO). It was in this situation that 1stLt Stanislav Reitmejer came with his proposal.

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Wallpaper for June

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Silentstalker

Without calendar:

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Straight Outta Supertest: The Pit

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Silentstalker

Source: WoTLeaks VK community

Hello everyone,

apparently (although this info is NOT confirmed), Wargaming is working on a new (yet unnamed) map, code name “the pit” (or “the hole”).

This new map is very small (400 x 400 meters) and is allegedly being made especially for low tiers (1,2,3). The reason behind it allegedly is that Wargaming wants the new players to “feel the action” straight from the start, because the fighting starts very soon after the battle commences and the fighting distance is very short. The spawn points are allegedly at the south and north of the map, the bases are in upper right and lower left corner.

Swedish Tanks – Part XII: EMIL 1951

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Silentstalker

Author: sp15 (US server)

In 1951, the Swedish army decided to start a new tank project with the goal of replacing the obsolete Strv m/42 medium tank. Previous ideas for new tanks after WW2 had often been outdated and too light for the modern battlefield. The new project was to be based around the ideas that emerged in 1950 during the development of the Lansen light tank, mainly that a modern tank would need to be heavier, better armed and protected than previously thought. Another thing, that influenced the project, was that the technologies such as autoloaders and gyro-stabilization became more viable. These factors resulted in the EMIL 1951 proposal, which was to mark the start of Swedish heavy tank development.

The requirements for the proposal made it clear that the vehicle was to be able to function as both an infantry support weapon and a tank destroyer. To make this possible, the tank was to mount a 12cm autoloaded gun. This would allow the tank to firerapidly, it would give it good high-explosive round performance and better performance with HEAT rounds. There were also considerations for subcaliber rounds, but the main ammo types considered were the HEAT and the HE rounds. The idea of a tank sharing the TD and medium roles had been considered before, but only now was such a vehicle possible within the weight limit, set by the Swedish army. The use of an autoloader made it possible to reduce the crew of the tank to 3. The requirements also made it clear that the new tank would need a lot more armor than previous Swedish projects. The main worry was the appearance of the Soviet IS-3 and its 122mm gun. To keep the weight down, the heavier armor of the tank was put on the turret front, here it reached a maximum thickness of 200mm at the gun-mantlet (with 150mm and 125mm sloped armor at the rest of the turret front).

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WG EU As Usual: IS-7

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Silentstalker

Hello everyone,

so, you have probably heard that the IS-7 will be the next top of the tree. That is certainly… unexpected, since IS-7 was a top of the tree tank once already, while other tanks (Chinese I think?) were not. WG EU as usual, right? But wait, there’s more.

Looking at the announcement page. Damn, I had no idea IS-7 is a medium tank now!

Oh, that all? Not quite.

That’s funny, I always thought IS-7 uses Class III ventilation. Not a terrible mistake, granted, but considering how WG EU whined in the past about not being able to post this and that on portal because “accountability”, sure sounds weird. And to top it off, they knew about the mistake and it was supposed to be fixed in yesterday.

That’s probably the longest “a few minutes” ever, since this was posted like 12 hours ago :) These mistakes aren’t really serious, we all know that – but they are very symptomatic. I wrote recently that the WG EU content department sucks, this is just another proof they do and how much.

WoT Platoon with a Girl? That will be 12 Euro, please

Posted on May 31, 2014 by Silentstalker

Thanks to Dejv for this one.

When it comes to World of Tanks, there is not a whole lot that would surprise me. Or make me smile in amusement, because I have this stupid feeling that I’ve just seen it all. Yet, from time to time, there are things that prove me wrong. This is one of them.

Ever heard of powerlevelling services? I assume that you did, if you ever played other MMO’s, such as World of Warcraft. But, just to make sure, here’s what it actually is: “powerlevelling” is usually a service, where you pay another person to play your game account for you in order to reach some goal (for example level up, or, in WoT, unlocking a branch, getting certain amount of credits and so on). In order to do that, that person needs access to your account, so you can imagine how giving anyone your username (e-mail) and password is NOT a good idea – don’t EVER try it, 99,9 percent of such offers are scams. As a part of such service, the site usually also sells “high level accounts” – you can imagine how are they getting them.

But, back to our surprising case. There is this site, called http://wot-leveling.com/. It’s oriented on Russian server, so I won’t be doing them any favours by disclosing their existence to predominantly EU and US server readers.

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Kharkov Map – In Real Life

Posted on May 31, 2014 by Silentstalker

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/1/fan_video_05-31/

Hello everyone,

this is one of the more interesting posts, featured on the World of Tanks RU portal – a fan video by the Russian player “Compmaniac”, who currently actually lives in Kharkov. Since the map “Kharkov” is coming to World of Tanks in patch 9.1, he made a video, comparing the ingame map locations to the real city of Kharkov, its landmarks and streets.

The video is obviously in Russian, but the pictures are interesting as well, it includes the massive building of Gosprom (also known as the Palace of Industry), the big round “Liberty Square”, the Kharkov University complex and the Chichibabin street.

The map is apparently based on the German air recon photo from 16.12.1941. The video actually contains a lot of interesting info about Kharkov, too bad it’s not officially translated in English. Oh yea, I forgot, WG EU… too much work I guess.

Edit

The_Grue was kind enough to provide the translation on what was said in the video. Thank you!

We are in Kharkov, this video is about the map that comes out in 9.1 and this is the first map modeled after an existing city. Let us take a walk around the places that have any significance in the gameplay – where battles will commence – and also the places that are notable in real-life Kharkov.

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