I would like to share with you a funny story, that happened yesterday. Last night, I was working on an upgrade proposal for the LT Vz.35 (Panzer 35t), regarding the second (elite) turret of the vehicle. I won’t bother you with details, it’s a pretty confusing business anyway – suffice to say at one point I decided the best option to have for the elite turret would be the T-11 turret (from the modified LT Vz.35′s, exported to Bulgaria under the name Lek tank Shkoda). Well, it would be the best option, were it not for the tiny little fact that the turrets look identical! The T-11 was just modified to incorporate a more modern 37mm gun (the A8).
Now, if you ever read my articles on Czechoslovak armor, you probably know that I quote possibly the most important Czechoslovak armor publicist a lot – his name is Ivo Pejčoch and he wrote series of books on armor. Now, when it comes to other nations, the books do have some flaws, but the Czechoslovak research is (as expected) pretty solid. In such a case, you’d expect solid drawings from him as well, no?
Well… check this out.
This is the LT Vz.35 on Pejčoch’s drawing: Great, I posted the wrong picture. This is the R-2 (the rear of the turret is different). Nevermind, just check the frontal part of the turret.
The T47 37mm Experimental Gun was provided by Division 1 through the Franklin Institute. The gun is essentially a modified 40mm Bofors gun (Navy Speciation) which fired a series of different projectiles using different primers and powders. Overall length was 88.58 inches.
The barrel is chromium-plated and was made by boring a 40mm(Bofors) tube for 37mm and chambering it for a standard 40mm(Bofors) cartridge case necked down to accommodate a 37mm projectile. The first gun barrel was mounted on a standard 57mm carriage and then sent off to Aberdeen Proving Grounds for testing. A second gun barrel was shipped off to Division 1 , NDRC ballistic firing range at Carderock, Maryland for ballistic tests. The second barrel failed (on round number 51) after the chromium plating failed and it was determined that the plating was too thin and it notes in the report that it was recommended that another (third) barrel be produced with the correct chromium plating thickness. The report does not say if a third barrel was produced.
currently, Wargaming (not just World of Tanks) is experiencing severe trouble with servers. It is unclear what caused it, but some WG employee posts suggest it was some sort of failure on Wargaming’s side (hardware and such), but as of now (21:35), they do not know what happened. The servers affected are: EU1, RU3, WoWp EU (such loss!) and WoT Blitz RU.
Edit (21:49): the core of the problem was found. EU1 should be functional soon.
Edit (22:02): the networking problems have been resolved apparently and currently, WG is working on restoring the gameplay
Edit (22:06): currently no ETA on restoration, they are working on it
Edit (00:06): EU1 should be running by now
a bunch of invite codes – from Vegan_Sausage_Of_Doom, Old_Judge and Neoros with “Greetings from Poland” and special remark: “Only for intelligent people” :) and Watman
the supertesters is currently busy with testing the new “referral” (player invite) program. Basically, if you invite a player:
If you and the player will play together (platoon), every “successful” battle, you will get XP bonuses of the following style (the multipliers are placeholders for supertest):
- for the first hour from first successful battle together – x3 XP (once, doesn’t reset)
- the following days, after the x3 period is over, it’s x2 XP
- after the recruiter gains 10000 referral (bonus) XP from the x2 event, it is reduced to x1,5
These bonuses add up to all the other XP bonuses (premium account, missions, first victory). Furthermore, the recruiter will be awarded for reaching X amount of referral XP as such (the numbers are placeholders, will differ on real server):
- certain number of XP: 1 million credits
- certain number of XP (step 1 x 3): T95E2 special loader crewmember with enough crew XP on him for 2 perks
- certain number of XP (step 1 x 5): T95E2 special driver crewmember with enough crew XP on him for 2 perks
- certain number of XP (step 1 x 7): T95E2 special gunner crewmember with enough crew XP on him for 2 perks
- certain number of XP (step 1 x 10): T95E2 special commander crewmember with enough crew XP on him for 2 perks and a free T95E2 tank + garage slot
Furthermore, if the “recruit” buys a tier 10 tank, the “recruiter” immediately gets a T95E2 tank with a free garage slot. If the recruiter continues to gather the referral XP and reaches the last stage (commander + free tank for step1x10) while already having the T95E2, he will get just the commander.
Brazil recently undertook a large military excercise. That by itself wouldn’t be that interesting (all the armies do that), but in it, we can see some… vintage equipment. The Bofors is amazing :)
ASIA player (and moderator) Mcmole recently visited the newly opened Carins Australian Armour and Artillery museum – there are some pretty interesting vehicles there and he was kind enough to share the pictures. Check this out!
For full version of the picture, right-click it and select “view image”
Chieftain MBT (this one comes from Western Australia)
yet another brand new tank was found in the Swedish archives – and yes, it’s a proposed upgrade of the m/41 (TNH-Sv) light tank, originally manufactured in Czechoslovakia.
Renhanxue:
In mid-1943, the strv m/41 (TNH-S) and strv m/42 deliveries were in progress but judging by disturbing intelligence reports from Finland and Germany, they really weren’t up to the latest modern standards. Some army people had been allowed to study captured Soviet T-34′s in Finland and were particularly impressed by its powerful diesel engine and heavily sloped armor. A successor to the Swedish tanks then in production was needed, and soon. Some people at the Royal Artillery and Ordnance Administration were convinced that it was necessary to lift the 22 tonne weight limit (imposed for the sake of strategic mobility, since most Swedish bridges could not tolerate any greater mass), but it was also recognised that lighter tanks had a role to play.
Because of the need for a speedy development process and to avoid re-tooling existing production lines, Scania-Vabis (which was ordinarily a manufacturer of trucks and buses, but also contracted to license build the strv m/41) was asked to investigate in which ways the strv m/41 could be improved without losing too much time. The result was described in a letter dated July 21st, 1943, which contains the two photos above.
Scania-Vabis (seemingly inspired by the T-34 and similar modern designs) proposed two hull alternatives (1 and 2) and two turret alternatives (a and b); the turrets were compatible with both proposed hulls. Hull 1 (the first photo) attempted to keep parts commonality with the existing strv m/41 as far as possible; the main changes were slightly wider tracks and road wheels, sloping the armor, switching to welded seams in many of places and improving the driver’s position in a few ways (better periscope and a bit more room). The resulting tank was calculated to weigh 13 tonnes, two more than the strv m/41.
Hull 2 was essentially a new tank; the chassis had been redesigned to be able to fit a new 8-cylinder engine capable of producing 220 HP. The hull armor was improved and the tank was calculated to weigh 15 tonnes. The road wheel arrangement had also been modified, and the bottom plate of the tank was curved to help protect against mines. Scania-Vabis admitted that in order to get production of this proposal going, quite some engineering effort and retooling would be required.
The turrets were similar to each other, the main difference being that turret b had a rounded mantlet and the machine gun fixed in a coaxial position, while on turret a aiming the machine gun independently was possible. In the end neither proposal was accepted, although I haven’t been able to find the exact reasoning for why in the archives just yet.
currently, supertesters are getting their hands on the tier 8 FV4202, the new premium one. Furthermore, there are rumors that around the end of the year, some “really cool” mission will take place on RU server and that the mission might be related to the FV4202 switch, so maybe it would pay off to buy it as soon as possible. As far as I can tell, the supertesters are using the SD model as a placeholder for tier 8 for now.
The tier 8 FV4202 has following characteristics (these are VERY preliminary and might change):
Tier 8 MT
Price: 11750G (placeholder)
Hitpoints: 1400
Weight: 41,594 tons
Max speed: 35/20
Hull armor: 51/51/32
Turret armor: 170/90/90
Traverse: 42 deg/s
Turret traverse: 32 deg/s
View range: 390 m
Radio range: 750 m
Engine: RR Meteorite 202B
Power: 510 hp
Power-to-weight: 12,26 hp/t
Terrain resistance: 0.6/0.7/1.2
Fire starting chance: 20%
