Hello everyone,

I am sure many of you figured it out already, but tomorrow, there will be round 2 of the 8.11 test.

Hello everyone,

what, you missed the portal language bug? Well, guess who’s back with vengeance!

Much Czech.
Very post.
Wow.

Hello everyone,

sometimes, players ask the developer a question: “Are there any tanks that were almost done or seriously considered, but never made it?” Well, the answer is “yes” of course, in fact, there were (are) quite a few such tanks. Let’s have a look at some of the most common “vaporware” out there, but also at tanks, that were never implemented in the end.

The Frencch second heavy line is probably the ultimate World of Tanks vaporware (as WarriorOsprey pointed out yesterday). The problem with French heavies is that although they have a fanbase, French tanks as a whole are definitely one of the least popular branches, along with the Chinese. The models for this branch were ready a long time ago (and I am talking years), but somehow, the branch was postponed and postponed again. Check this out, this is likely the AMX M4 (1949), as it appeared in Wargaming materials (or on some promo video, I am not sure).

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As before, all the credits go to Vollketten – here, we have another hilarious project from the Australian archives. This time, it’s nothing less than a land battleship by Mr. F.B.Puckridge.

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Thanks to Luciferxix for submitting this video :)

Hello everyone,

today, we have something special for you. Stuff you haven’t seen (and couldn’t have seen) before. Vollketten from US forums has been in touch with a professional researcher, who lives in Melbourne and specialises in military history. This researcher has agreed to take photos of documents (tank-related stuff) from Australian National Archives.

With Vollketten’s permission (he paid for this operation, all the credit goes to him), I am reposting some of the “good stuff”.

Let’s start with something light – some of the stuff in these archives is pure comedy gold. This tank proposal was submitted by Mr.Wentworth. The curious thing about it is that at that time, Mr.Wentworth was in jail for 12 counts of larceny and fraud. After reading the documents, I am sure you’ll understand what was the sole purpose of this “proposal”…

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Hello everyone,

today, we are going to talk about Richard Tesařík – possibly the best (and certainly best known) Czech tank commander of all times. As one of few Czechoslovaks, for his heroic exploits during the liberation of Kiev, he was awarded the title of the Hero of the USSR and with the Soviet order of Lenin.

Richard Tesařík was born on 3.12.1915 in Prague. His father was a small businessman, his mother was an opera singer. From 1921, his family lived in Příbram in central Bohemia, where Richard Tesařík went to the elementary school and high school, later he studied arrangment in Prague. Later on he worked as an arranger (advertiser) in Příbram, Milovice, Velvary and Pardubice.

Richard Tesařík enlisted (or rather, was conscripted) in October 1937 in Beroun, from where he moved to the NCO school in Kladno. After successfully finishing it, he was sent back to Beroun with the rank of a corporal. During the 1938 mobilization, he was moved to Postoloprty u Žatce, where he led a guard squad. After the Munich treason, he was once again transferred to a batallion of rangers to Carpathian Ruthenia, where he fought the Hungarian fascists during the clash near the Domaninsk bridge. Shortly after he was transferred again (this time to Pardubice), but seening what was happening to Czechoslovakia, he decided to join the anti-nazi foreign resistance. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, he left Czechoslovakia and went to Poland, where he wanted to join the Czechoslovak Legion in Krakow. As a part of it, he fought the Germans during the Polish blitzkrieg as an anti-aircraft machinegunner.

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Source: Armchair General website (thanks to Listy for sending me a link)

Hello everyone,

now, this is an interesting (and a bit sad) piece of news. To quote from the article

William Gasser, a semi-retired businessman who often call himself “a former millionaire,” is seriously searching for an individual or organization that would be interested in receiving a tax free donation of his huge Tank Museum located currently in south central Virginia in the town of Danville. This museum is situated on an 89 acre site that includes a 330,000 square foot building which houses 118 armored and artillery vehicles, 160 mid-size weapons (Bazookas, Flame Throwers, Recoilless Rifles), 60 rifles (some rare, others current), an International Hall of 340 Generals in uniform, and a unique 1/16 scale 6000 square foot indoor battlefield for radio controlled tanks. The collection also includes International Tank & Cavalry artifacts from many time periods, plus support facilities that serve as a gift shop, classrooms, research library, cafeteria, and workshops to maintain the artifacts.

So yes, basically Mr.Gassner is looking for someone, who would carry on his legacy, since he opened the museum more than 30 years ago, in 1981. The vehicles are allegedly 30 mil USD worth in total according to Mr.Gassner’s wife, who is the museum’s director and the collection includes 40 vehicles loaned from the US Department of Defense. For more details, please read the original article.

So, what do you say, Mr.Kislyi – do you REALLY need that one more building on Cyprus? :)

Hello everyone,

two days ago, I recieved an e-mail by a player with the nickname of super_de_boer, who lives in Ghent (Belgium) and claimed that some of the buildings on the Windstorm map were inspired by his home city. I was a bit skeptical at first (since it was earlier uncovered there might be an inspiration by Trondheim and the map is supposed to be in the north), but… well, you be the judge.

This is a building in Windstorm….

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Source: http://www.3dnews.ru/798648 (via world_of_cactus’ post on LJ)

Hello everyone,

Wargaming recently released an information that the Xbox beta servers for World of Tanks will go offline on January 29th in order to prepare for final release, that is apparently scheduled within few days from this event. There is no definitive date yet, but it most likely will happen in the beginning of February.