Hello everyone, today we have another guest article, this time about Finnish armor. Enjoy!
- SS

Author: Juuso ‘Kantti’ Marttila

Finland is one of the more obscure nations, when it comes to armored warfare in WW2. Although Finland’s success in stopping the Red Army in Winter War has gained nearly mythological proportions and international fame, only little is usually said about Finnish armored forces in World War 2. With mixed equipment and nearly as mixed reputation, they still form an interesting part of Finnish Army’s endeavors in WW2.

Finnish armored forces got their first equipment from France in 1919-1921, when the newly independent state acquired 32 FT-17′s. Of these, 14 had 37mm Puteaux gun, rest were machine-gun versions. Some had original angular Renault turret, the rest had circular Berliet turret. As a curiosity, some of the Finnish tanks were lent to White Russians of North Western theatre of Russian Civil War. When the Winter War started in November 1939, these tanks still formed the core of Finnish armored forces (2 of 4 tank companies of Finnish Tank Battalion fielded FTs), but it was already clear that these tanks were completely obsolete and unable to engage any Russian armor (mainly BT-series, T-26, T-28 and some tankettes). Thus, these tanks were dug in as pillboxes, but most were left behind without a fight, when Soviet breakthroughs in other sectors forced the Finnish defenders to withdraw.

Finnish FT-17s parading in front of Helsinki Central Railway station

To replace their obsolete Renaults, Finnish army started to test four different British-made Vickers tanks in the 1930s. These were Vickers 6-ton (Vickers Mark E), Vickers Mk VI B, Vickers-Carden Loyd Light Tank m1933 and Vickers-Carden Loyd Light Amphibious tank m1931. In 1936, Finnish army placed an order for 32 Vickers 6-ton tanks, which were considered the most modern and most suitable for Finnish heavily forested environment. Unluckily for the Finnish Armored Forces, Finland couldn’t afford to buy the tanks with armament, but decided to arm the tanks themselves. Thus, most of the Vickers were still in process of being armed with 37mm guns and only one tank company was ready for action in late February, when the Winter War was already nearing its end. They were sporadically used as fire support for infantry and their only major armored clash against the Red Army was in Honkaniemi. There, Finnish troops were ordered to make a counter-attack against Soviet breakthrough near Lake Näykkijärvi.

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Rita reviews the AMX 12t – enjoy!

Another video by Chickentikka – this time, from inside the T-54.

A little note: coaxial machinegun is used to fight infantry. The “test where the shell goes” thing is so-called “ranging machinegun”, that was usually tied to the gun itself, while the coax is mounted next to the gun to rotate with the turret.

The quality of the camera work is quite poor, but some details can be nicely recognized.

Hello everyone,

recently, I wrote about an issue, where a large amount of players got suddenly banned for alleged attempted credit card fraud. Today, there is a post in the Czech section, explaining the situation.

Earlier, I wrote it might be some sort of Wargaming screwup, but as it turned out, I was mistaken: it is apparently not so. According to the Wargaming post, accounts were banned that – according to the card providers, not Wargaming – did misuse or tried to misuse credit cards. This did not require the transaction successfully completed, an attempt to misuse was enough to cause your account to be flagged for ban. What that means is typically this:

- someone used someone else’s credit card (friends’ for example) and the payment was flagged as that card’s misuse
- someone tried to use some credit card data that he for example found on the internet, it did not work, but the account was flagged as well

As a result of things such as listed above, flagged accounts (according to Wargaming, it’s “less than 1 percent of players” and “in hundreds”) got banned.

I’ve been following the discussion on EU forums, I also had several mail conversations with people who happened to have their accounts banned and at least in some cases, I am sorry to say that the bans actually appear justified. Of course, whether they really are is another matter, but here is what Wargaming suggests you do, if you feel like you have been banned unjustly:

- contact the support
- you will be told about the payment and the card number, that flagged your account for ban
- you will be asked to present a photo of the credit card with first 6 and last 4 digits visible, the rest of the card data can be blurred/covered. If it was for example a friend’s cart and he did let you use it willingly, it is just a mistake and your account will of course be unblocked.
- alternatively, a bank statement with that respective credit card payment can also be presented (it just has to show the first 6 last 4 digits).

If you don’t have access to either…. well, sorry.

You can contact support here (just click on “my tickets” and “new ticket”). You can write in whatever language you want (and WG supports). I wish you swift resolution of the matter.

Hello everyone,

Russian server is going to have a special mission for the Stronghold mode – if you win and survive (!), you recieve 2000 extra XP for the battle – unlimited times. This mission is valid for the rest of the month from tomorrow.

That’s kinda awesome. Unfortunately, no such mission is planned for EU server according to the leaked missions for this month. It’s not impossible however for such an unplanned mission to appear on EU or US as well, but that would mean one thing – that the mode needs support.

In fact, a question for clan players: what is your take on the Stronghold mode, now that it’s here for a few days?

I personally haven’t even tried it (considering the rules match the company ones), but from what German, Czech, English and Russian feedback I’ve been reading, I noticed that a lot of people actually complain about the mode – specifically, the way it is played. You see, there is no “skill MM”, so very stronk clans get matched against new or “fun” clans. While the base can be accessed and built by everyone, getting steamrolled by a R1SE/FAME/EFE/etc. kill team is probably not the most entertaining thing out there (in CW, this is mitigated by the landing mechanism and the overall complicated nature of the mode, that requires coordination and dedication). This complaint appeared in numerous threads.

So I have to wonder, will the Stronghold mode become very popular like the Team battles did, or will it die out after a while like historical battles? What do you think?

Hello everyone,

you might have heard of it before – the Tank Biathlon event, where crews of various countries compete in Alabino, Russia.

Official description:

Tank Biathlon World Championship will kick-off in Alabino, a town to the southwest of Moscow, on August 4. Teams from Angola, Armenia, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia and Venezuela will have to navigate a distance of 20 kilometres (12.5 miles), evading various obstacles, crossing rivers and bridges and shooting at a set of targets. All teams except for China will compete using Russia-made T-72B tanks.

The event will be streamed here:

Thanks to whoever sent me this (I forgot to note the nickname).

Hello everyone,

there is an interesting playlist on Youtube, showing videos with Japanese tanks. For example, here is the Type 89 I-Go:

If you have time, check it out, the entire list is available here.

Hello everyone,

IS-3 is one of the more popular heavies in this game. It’s got the looks firewpower and armor to match it and when it comes to brawling, few things surpass tons of Russian steel. However, it has one catch – the BL-9 gun.

Sure, the gun performs relatively well – it has massive firepower and while not exactly the most accurate gun out there, its penetration is very decent and especially with gold ammo it rocks. The problem with it is that the vehicle does not look historical with it. This is the setup with D-25T:

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Hello everyone,

a rather interesting video by EU server player Chickentikka (respect to your English!) about the WZ-111 heavy tank, standing in the Beijing museum. Plus there is a peek inside, nice!