Warning, this post is EXTREMELY big. To display the full size, rightclick on the picture and select “view picture” Panzer II Ausf.D Suspected to be New Year’s gift for 2014

Hello everyone, recently, there was a meeting between Wargaming and US server players in the Americans in Wartime Museum in Nokesville, Virginia. US player SpartanGuard was kind enough to provide us with some pretty nice photos of the vehicles present there. A special thing is – apparently, ALL the vehicles on the photos are in running condition. Well, except the dismantled ones under renovation I guess. Still, pretty impressive. PT-76

Hello everyone, you might have noticed that yesterday, we recieved yet another copy of the T-54, this time in the German tree (I wonder if we’ll ever get an American T-54 clone as well). On one hand, it’s a solid tier 9 reward tank and – let’s face it, the model is beautiful, all that I am missing are the external fuel tanks, but I can see why developers didn’t add them (they wouldn’t be a part of the hitzone and people would be confused: “why the hell does it not catch on fire, when I am firing at his fuel tanks”). Another neat part is that according to the source of the leaks, developers are even making the East German crest on the tank, just like the Leopard has a Bundeswehr one. I do not understand the designation too well – I mean, T-55 NVA DDR? In English, NVA almost always refers to the army of North Vietnam and I can already see how people will be confused (“we are having a Vietnamese T-55 in German tree?”). Why not Kampfpanzer T-55 or even Kpz T 55 (without the dash), that’s how the vehicle was designated in some German sources and books?

Hello everyone, according to a comment in VK Wotleaks community, the following premium/reward vehicles are currently scheduled for supertest: – Object 260 tier 10 Soviet heavy tank (scheduled as a clanwars reward, basically an IS-7 variant with different turret) – T28 Concept (based on the wooden mockup as a tier 7 US TD – East-German T-55A medium tank (because, you know, there are not enough T-54 clones in the game) tier 9 tank (likely an event/CW reward) – tier 6 premium M4A3E8 variant (“Fury”, apparently) Expect screenshots and statistics soon.

Author: Karika Hello everyone, I’m Karika from the EU server, a volunteer researcher of the Hungarian armored fighting vehicles. Some of you might already read my articles about the Hungarian tanks and tank destroyers of WWII, here on the FTR blog. Today, I’m going to start a new series of articles here, about how the Hungarian tanks could be implemented into World of Tanks. In this first part, let me explain some of the main aspects and problems of this hopefully upcoming branch, and from part two, I’ll list the possible candidates with their predictable characteristics from vehicle to vehicle. Also, I’ll try to give reasons why I put that vehicle in the tech tree where I put it. Silentstalker already wrote a short summary about this topic, you can read it here, but there are some new detailes and corrections I would like to add in my articles. I’m also not going to go into too much detailes about the concept of the European tech tree. SS already wrote a great summary about this too, you can read it here and here. First of all, I must make clear, that there are NO official decision or statement from Wargaming was made about how exactly and when exacty will the European tanks come. All we know, according to the latest informations and leaks, that the first parts/waves of the EU tree might probably come sometime in 2015, but no details yet and this is not sure either. Keep in mind that even if the fate of the EU tanks was already decided, WG is definitely not going to disclose that decision for now, because this is at least medium-far future stuff. It could be delayed or totally changed, or some parts of it could be scrapped during the development process and they certainly don’t want people to be upset or whine about it. So – after this long prelude – let’s take a look at how I imagine the Hungarian tech tree tree now. Right now, as it might change in the future, for example when/if the alternative hull options will be implemented, maybe the Toldi IIA and the Toldi III could merge, as one could be the other’s optional hull and turret. As you can see, Hungary can not build a complete WoT tech branch on its own. This creates a lot of problems and questions, so I’ll try to explain a few here.

Hello everyone, here are a couple of photos by Mrorome, who recently visited the Polish Museum od Military Technology (Polskie Muzeum Techniki Wojskowej) in Warsaw. Thank you very much! The FT-17 from the war with Russian bolsheviks

Hello everyone, today, we are going to have a look at what happened after the war in Czechoslovakia in tank industry. A long time ago, I wrote a post on the T-34/85 in Czechoslovak service, now it’s time to continue with the T-54. While there was certain original medium tank development in Czechoslovakia after the war, it is the undeniable truth that the majority of Czechoslovak tank forces from 1945 to 1989 – and, practically until today – consisted of license produced or imported Soviet vehicles, first the T-34/85, then the T-54, T-55 and finally the T-72. I am saying “majority”, because in certain period (cca early 60′s, but it varied), Czechoslovak army also used the captured German equipment (Panzer IV, StuG, Hetzer, Hummel..) and the western vehicles, obtained from the former wartime allies, such as the Cromwell and Stuart tanks. T-54A The T-54 medium tank was intended as a replacement of the aging T-34/85 tank in the Czechoslovak army in the mid 50′s. Generally, it was regarded as the only real solution, despite the fact there were some proposals to actually upgun the T-34/85 to 100mm (including a proposal for an autoloaded version). As it was usual with the heavy industry of that time, the production, proposed to start in mid 50′s at ČKD Prague, was delayed and in 1956, it was decided to start producing an improved version of the T-54, called T-54A. Between 1956 and 1957, the Soviet assembly documentation was reworked for Czech conditions and the first trial series of 10 vehicles was produced in 1957 at the J.V.Stalin Factory in Martin, Slovakia (the heavy production was moved to Slovakia not only to jumpstart Slovakian economy within former Czechoslovakia by introducing heavy industry, but also as an attempt to move the heavy armor production away from Pilsen or Prague more eastwards, so it is not as easily reachable by the American and British bombers).

Hello everyone, players Rabiesdog and IRSanchez contacted me with a link to their big post made about their trip to military museum in Warsaw (Poland), dedicated to weapons Poland and Polish troops used. The post was excellent (very informative) and with Rabiesdog’s permission, I am going to repost it here (with a bit different formatting). The original post can be found here. Enjoy! From here on pics from the Museum and some explanatory text from the info plaquettes. TS-8 *Bies* Training aircraft

Hello everyone, Slovak player Elnorka was kind enough to share some pictures from his trip to Piešťany military museum in Slovakia, which focuses on vehicles, used by the Czechoslovak army. I think some are pretty interesting. Also, thank you all for sending me many, many photos – from Munster, Overloon, Latrun, Saumur and others. I will post them all eventually. T-72 model – a military school item for teaching the soldiers about tank construction