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May 31, 2013

0.8.6 Jpz E-100 camouflage effect

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/2021014.html
Author: newsash

This is an interesting post by Russian player, testing the Jagdpanzer E-100 8.6 camo - with and without bush. The spotting vehicle is a FV4202 with 100 percent crew, without binoculars or coated optics, but with radioman's viewrange perk. The bush mentioned in the table is on Malinovka, like this:


And the result? Here is the distance in meters, on which the Jpz E-100 gets spotted.... (notice my elite photoshop skill, which I used to insert the text so nicely...)


Surprisingly, the crew camo skill has very little effect, this has been tested by the player specifically. Contrary to which, the new camo net has more significant reduction impact, along with visual camo.

Storm on 0.8.6 test

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/201983.html

On the developer blog, Storm asked the Russian players, how they like the 0.8.6 test. Here's an excerpt from Storm's comments under the article.

- apparently, the new dynamic camera works like it should, players were complaining about it getting "stuck" behind object, players complain about it a lot (SS: funny, I didn't have any such problems - do any of you?)
- dynamic camera  moving after each shot is being discussed within WG, apparently it's an atmospheric decision
- combat tasks within the game will come, but later (whatever that is)
- LeFH French premium arty will possibly be removed from the shop
- when HEAT ricochets and hits something else after the ricochet, it will penetrate as usual
- Storm states that KV-5 will be especially tough in 0.8.6
- apparently, the idea of tank spotting being tied to how many spotting points are visible won't happen - it would complicate already hard-to-understand mechanics even further
- the graphic bug where something caused violet rectangles to appear will be fixed in next test round:




Well, that's it. There are like 700 player comments at this moment and most of them consist of some serious whining - Storm doesn't answer on those.

Just a thought: I don't blame Storm and SerB trolling and being rude anymore. Look what some Russian players are writing to them (and this is by far not the only rude comment):


Translation: Why the fuck didn't you nerf the laser HEAT shells on tier 10 TD's? Fucking 450mm! HEATs continue to punch thru the fucking Maus! (literally: sow thru the fucking Maus like thru a piece of rag)


Translation: Misha, go fuck yourself

A33 Excelsior

Source: wot-news.com

Well, I am pretty sure you can figure out what means what.... :)






31.5.2013

- there was a tank SerB wanted to implement, but couldn't (it wouldn't fit) - Object 167M with D-83 122mm gun
- Soviet gun rebalance was scrapped (SS: there was a plan to increase Soviet penetration to Chinese levels)
- Chrysler TV-8 in the game? "We don't smoke need that."
- there will be something like dynamic objects on the maps with the implementation of client physics
- in connection with common premium account for WoWp and WoT, SerB states that it will be impossible to run those two games at the same time ("you don't have 4 hands anyway, or?")
- it's not planned to inform the person, who sent the ingame complaint about its result
- StuG III with derp HEAT nerfed too much? "Don't play StuG III with derp HEAT"
- SU-26 nerfed too much? "Don't play SU-26"
- gold ammo nerfed too much? "Don't use gold ammo"
(SS: judging from the trollanswers, I guess we can be fairly easy they don't consider these things overnerfed)
- 25 percent RNG on pen and damage won't be reduced
- Durchbruchswagen didn't appear in the new Leopard branch because devs decided not to make it
- according to Storm, publishing (implementing into the game) 3D model armor schematics was not done yet because it's complicated to implement
- according to Storm, all the maps and modes have same chance of "dropping" (SS: player was complaining that Siegfried Line encounter drops way too often)
- the fact that when the dynamic camera is on, tank barrel "swinging" gets turned on too automatically is intentional
- current Scripts mod series (SS: whatever that is) can't run on 0.8.6, according to Storm that's normal for every patch that messes with game mechanics
- the removal of French premium arty from the 0.8.6 test is intentional, as it is not yet decided whether it will be removed from sales
- according to Storm, dynamic camera on Object 268 is working fine
- 0.9.0 will be even bigger than 0.8.6
- there will be a new article on 0.8.6 camo mechanics by Storm
- besides the XL spall liner, there are no further plans to improve Maus/E-100 survivability against arty
- the 10vs10 arty battles on supertest won't apparently happen on public server, as under some circumstances the cap is removed (like when the queue is full of arty)
- it's possible some (specific) HEAT shells have different ricochet value than the default 80 degrees

Romanian armor - part III

First part can be found here
Second part can be found here

Crimea and Romania

After the destruction of Romanian armored forces at Stalingrad, Romanians found they couldn't replace the heavy losses easily. By January 1943, frontline armored units were practically annihilated, with the only vehicles salvaged from the front being those that were in repair shops at the time of the battle. Broken Romanian units were thus recalled to Romania for refit and rest.

The obvious (and pretty much only realistic) source of new armor for Romania would be the Germans, therefore Romania asked once again for permission to buy (!) German equipment. Germans - who
 
a) themselves didn't have that much to spare and
b) still proceeded with screwing their allies

responded with promising Romania 50 (obsolete and used, but company-refitted) Pzkpfw.38(t) Ausf.A, B and C tanks. Those were designated T-38 by Romanians (which led to confusion with the Soviet T-38 amphibious tanks, also used by Romania, I haven't found any proper reason, why they would name two tanks in their armory the same way, apart from the fact someone simply screwed up).



Germans however supplied the tanks under the condition that it would be used on front lines. Therefore, a special tank batallion was formed with these vehicles (Batalionul care da lupta T-38) and sent to Crimea for training in June 1943. After arriving however, the crews discovered that Germans screwed them over - the vehicles were in bad shape and only 17 out of 50 were operational.

Romanian T-38



The rest were eventually field-repaired by angry Romanian crews. These vehicles were eventually sent to assist Germans at Kuban bridgehead, but Soviet anti-tank guns and infantry made short work of them, knocking out 7 T-38's. After that, the unit had to be recalled back to Crimea, where they took part in several (generally unsuccessful) operations, before being forced to defend Crimea base itself from the Soviets. Until December, the units suffered further losses in what was basically an attrition war, that lasted until 14.5.1944, when Crimea was finally evacuated by the Germans and Romanians.



As I mentioned earlier, the failure of Romanian armored units between 1942-1943 had several reasons. One was insufficient training on very different kind of tanks - Romania had pre-war light tanks, but also relatively modern (at that time) vehicles, such as the StuG III Ausf.G (designated TA by Romanians) and Panzer IV's. The equipment and training were hardly standardized, Romania simply took what they could and the result was varying quality of units, from relatively skilled elite (the core of the old 1st Division, that survived Stalingrad), to absolutely useless (field-trained crews on Crimea for example). Germany had the same problems late in the war however, so this was hardly Romania's fault.

Supply chain never improved throughout the war and apart from some isolated cases where units were motorized relied heavily on horses (again, Romania can be hardly blamed for this, Germany used a lot of hippomobile units too, Germany alone used more than 2,7 million horses throughout the war)

Another problem was that (as demonstrated by the Panzer 38t tanks episode) Romania was completely dependent with supplies on Germany. During the second half of the war, Germany had enough problems of its own, therefore selling only really crappy vehicles to its allies - often belonging battleworn units, who recieved new equipment. The Romanian industry was in no shape to dish out scores of medium tanks (like Hungarians did with their Turán and Toldi vehicles) and the repair facilities were very rudimentary. However, that does not mean there weren't any interesing conversions and attempts. We'll have a look at them now.

Vanatorul de Care R-35/45 (transformat)




This is basically the old Renault R-35 light tank, armed with a Soviet 45mm gun and converted into a tank destroyer. In game terms, we are looking at a tier 2-3 vehicle.

 As mentioned in the previous parts, Romania had at its disposal (from various sources) up to 75 of these light tanks. The original R-35 was basically an infantry support vehicle. While classified as light, its armor was quite heavy (up to 40-44mm in frontal parts) and the vehicle was slow, its top speed was cca 23 km/h. It was not very popular (lack of communication equipment, one-man turret, it broke down quite often) and combat-wise (since it had only a short 37mm gun) it was by 1942 completely useless as a light tank. By 1942, having read the German reports on fighting the French R-35 tanks, the Romanians decided they need a serious upgrade.

2nd Armored Regiment command made a proposal to re-arm the R-35 with license built 47mm Schneider cannon, but the ministry of defense preferred the Soviet 45mm 20K L/46 gun (1938 pattern), stocks of which were available on captured T-26 and BT tanks. The project was officially initiated on 12.12.1942 and was given to col.Ghiulai and captain Hogea for supervision. The gun mount was designed in the beginning of 1943, but the idea to add also secondary machinegun armament had to be abandoned, the gun was simply too big. First prototype was ready in February 1943 - the gun was mounted into the modified turret and could be elevated up to 25 degrees, while keeping an 8 degree depression. The ammo was however much bigger than the original 37mm ammo and therefore only 35 rounds could be carried.

After (quick but lackluster, as the vehicle was still powered by the original 80hp Renault V4 engine) trials, the vehicle was accepted into production, respectively the army transferred 30 R-35's to be converted so by the Leonida company workshops. The guns were repaired near Tirgoviste and the final assembly was performed near Ploesti. In June 1944, the 30 vehicles were ready and activated - more were scheduled as second batch, but an allied air-raid destroyed the Leonida factory.

As can be expected, these vehicles were obsolete by the time they came out. They however (as a part of 2nd tank regiment) have seen combat against Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia in early 1945. After the war, they were unfortunately all scrapped, but one turret was saved and currently is owned by a private collector in Slovakia:


Crew: 2
Weight: 11,7 tons
Armament: 45mm 20K gun
Armor
Front - 40mm (turret 44mm)
Sides - 40mm
Rear - 32mm
Engine: 80hp Renault
Speed: 20 km/h

TACAM R-1

Another later 1942 project was a conversion of R-1 tankettes into tank destroyers carrying the Soviet 45mm model 1942 gun. The name TACAM means "Tun AntiCar pe Afet Mobil" (anti-tank gun on self-propelled mount - SPG). The project to convert 14 remaining R-1 tankettes to a tank destroyer was officialy proposed on 22.11.1943. The project never left the proposal stage, because by the end of 1943, 45mm Soviet guns were simply not powerful enough and stronger gun could not be used because the vehicle was too light to withstand additional weight and recoil. It could theoretically appear in game however, around tier 2.

TACAM T-38

Like the previous project, TACAM T-38 was a proposed conversion from 1943, this time of the Panzer 38(t), into tank destroyers. Basically, it was a project very similiar to Marder III - the difference was that as a standard gun, the Soviet F-22 76,2mm gun was to be used (Romanians had stocks of this gun captured from the first years of the conflict). The armor used was supposed to be salvaged from destroyed Soviet vehicles - however, by the time Romanian engineers got to take this idea seriously, Romania switched sides and was forced by Soviets to return all its captured equipment, including all the F-22 guns, so nothing came of it. In game it could appear at tier 3 as a Marder II equivalent.

TACAM T-60




TACAM T-60 was another interesting war conversion. The idea behind it was the same idea as that one behind Marder and other German light tank destroyer series. By 1942, Germany and its allies started meeting larger amounts of the T-34 tanks and the heavy KV series vehicles, which the German guns (let alone the obsolete Romanian R-2 tanks) couldn't penetrate. Therefore, a combination of light chassis and a powerful gun had to be developed to meet this new threat. Germans had enough experience to build on - and many chassis types, unlike the Romanians, who had to do with what they got.

Early in the war, Romania captured dozens of 76,2mm F-22 division guns from the Soviets. They also captured many T-60 light tanks (as many as 170), and the idea was to mate them together. In 1942, colonel Ghiulai made a proposal for a light tank destroyer by removing the T-60 turrets and installing the F-22 gun on top. Armor was secondary, it was there only to protect the crew from infantry weapons. The T-60 itself had 20-35mm thick armor (depending on the version) and was powered by 70 or 80hp GAZ engine. Until 1943, cca 5800 were made in Soviet Union. There was only one problem with it: it was crap.

It was poorly armored and poorly armed (with a 20mm gun). What was worse for a recon tank: it had no radio. It was inferior to both the LT-35 and LT-38, it had poor terrain passability (especially thru mud) and unpopular with Soviet crews, who nicknamed it "bratskaya mogila na dvojich" (grave for two brothers). When the Germans and Romanians captured it, they weren't very keen on using tanks even the original owner hated and relegated it mostly to training duties or converted them to artillery tractors. Even Romanians, who normally took whatever they could get their hands on, did not intend to use the original vehicles as they were - and so the Romanian command accepted Ghiulai's idea.

In the end, the vehicle recieved 15mm thick superstructure, the aforementioned 76,2mm gun (which could be traversed 32 degrees on each side and had a depression of -5 degrees) and and a machinegun, so that the crew could defend itself from infantry assaults. The suspension was improved too - tougher torsion bars were installed and some engine and interior components were switched for German ones. The crew was increased to 3 men - driver, commander/gunner and loader.

One prototype was built in Leonida workshop from 11/1942 and was ready on 19.1.1943. In the end, very few trials took place before 34 operational T-60's were brought in to Leonida for conversion. It's not clear whether all of these vehicles were captured by Romanians, or whether some were given by Germans. Either way, in 1943 several dozen were made (sources are a bit unclear as to how many, some state 34 were made, some as many as 57) . In 1st half of 1943, 17 were made and they were transferred to the newly forming 1st Divison (initially they were used for training) and another 17 in the 2nd half.

Not much is known about the combat performance of TACAM T-60. It is known that between February and early August 1944, TACAM T-60 vehicles have seen combat (apparently with an unexceptional combat record). Last battles fought by these tanks against the Soviets were between 20-23.8.1944 in Bessarabia and Moldova.

Soon after however, Romania switched sides and that was the end of TACAM T-60. The reason for that was that under the conditions of surrender, Romania was forced to transfer all the previously captured Soviet tech back to Soviet Union. TACAM T-60 was a part of that deal (being based on a Soviet vehicle) and all the TACAM T-60 tanks were transferred to Soviet Union (in October 1944), after which they basically disappeared (most likely they were tested and then scrapped). Romanian sources mention that some of the TACAM's were equipped with the Soviet 57mm ZiS-2 guns. There are also reports of a 105mm howitzer version, but no proof has been found.

Crew: 3
Weight: 9 tons
Armament: 76,2mm F-22 gun
Armor
Front - 35m
Sides - 15mm
Rear - 25mm
Engine: 85hp GAZ-203 or 75hp GAZ-202
Speed: 40 km/h


TACAM R-2






TACAM R-2, much like the TACAM T-60, was an obsolete vehicle conversion, this time - as the name suggests - of the R-2.

By 1943, it was clear to everyone that the day of the light tank is over. With the R-2 tanks being next to useless in their original form, Romanian command was wondering, what to do with them (and of course, what to replace them with).

In Spring 1943, general Constantin Pantazi ordered the remaining R-2 tanks to be converted into self-propelled guns with heavier armament. The person to go to was again colonel Ghiulai, who already proposed and developed the TACAM T-60 conversion. The conversions were again to be undertaken by the Leonida company workshops in Bucharest. Between July and September 1943, a protype vehicle was built. It was - like the TACAM T-60 - armed with the captured Soviet 76,2mm F-22 gun, installed within a 3-sided superstructure, made from armor plates, cut out from captured T-26 and BT tanks and situated in frontal part of the vehicle. That allowed for better recoil compensation and during the firing trials, the vehicle actually did pretty well, despite the fact a Romanian-made "Continescu" ammunition was used. Original gun sights were also replaced with Romanian-made ones (IOR). The vehicle was actually very well developed - its driving performance was practically no different from the original R-2 tank (despite the long gun, that made the vehicle a bit clumsy during trench climbing).

By the end of 1943, comparative trials were held near Suditi - they were successful and Romanian command recommended for all R-2 tanks to be converted this way. However, there was a problem with that - general Mihail Racovita (1st Division) basically blocked the project, because he demanded to recieve replacement tanks for the R-2's first - it took until February 1944 to get the project going again. Another factor were German components (for the original tanks, but also for example crew periscopes), that were delayed constantly - despite that, serial production started by the end of February 1944.

In the meanwhile, the design was modified: the old 1936 F-22 gun was replaced by the 1942 ZiS-3 model with better ballistic properties (30 shells were carried for the gun by the vehicle - 21 HE and 9 AP shells).

Despite all the setbacks, Romanians managed to produce 20 vehicles until the end of June 1944 - 7 of which were transferred to Mihai Bravu training center. There however, Romanian troops were in for a shock - when testing the firepower against late-model T-34, they found out that despite the improved gun, the firepower is not enough. Basically, TACAM R-2 could destroy a T-34 only on 500 meters or less (which was a waste considering the fact that the gun itself had reasonable accuracy at up to 3000 meters). IS-2 tanks were practically invulnerable to it. Furthermore, it was found out that the Romanian optics have serious flaws. In light of these issues, the production was stopped. Alternative gun proposals were considered: the 75mm Resita  Md.1943 gun (roughly equal to PaK 40) or Krupp M.1937 88mm gun (there was aven a proposal to convert all the vehicles to flamethrower tanks), but nothing came of it.

After the Romanian defenses collapsed and Romania switched sides (under very hard conditions set by the Soviets, who considered Romania a defeated enemy country), Soviets practically dismantled the Romanian army, leaving only small organizational units (roughly on company level). Those units, that were suspected of being pro-western (not only pro-nazi, but also royalists and officers trained in France) were sent to the front to fight Germans, while pro-Soviet units were kept in Romania to destroy any potential uprisings.

Some of the "unreliable" units were equipped with a few TACAM's. They fought the Germans near Bucharest and near Ploesti in September 1944 (tank detachment of major Victor Popescu). On 4.10.1944, all the remaining Romanian armored units were transferred to the tank group of 4th Romanian Army (Grupul Blindat al Armatei 4 romane), along with 16 remaining TACAM R-2 vehicles. This unit fought Germans and Hungarians and fought its way into Hungary to river Tis, where it was disbanded in November 1944. 10 TACAM R-2 vehicles were lost.

The swan song of TACAM R-2 would be the Czechoslovakia and Austria campaign, where 2nd Tank Regiment under Stan Zatreanu fought the Germans. By 20.4.1945, only 2 TACAM R-2's remained operational with the unit. As far as it is known, only one TACAM R-2 survived until today, it is in the national museum in Bucharest.

Crew: 3
Weight: 12 tons
Armament: 76,2mm ZiS-3 gun
Armor
Front - 25mm  (17mm superstructure)
Sides - 12mm
Rear - 12mm
Engine: Škoda II, 120hp
Speed: 25-30 km/h


Maresal



When talking about Romanian vehicles, one cannot pass the Maresal, probably the most known Romanian vehicle. It was an interesting line of prototypes in any case.

Named "marshall" after Romania's wartime leader marshall Ion Antonescu, the Maresal was Romania's attempt to produce an indigenous light tank destroyer. In December 1942, along with various existing vehicle conversions, Antonescu decided Romania would attempt to construct a tank destroyer of its own, based on the experience gained in conflict with Soviet Union and on the fact that it was clear Romania cannot simply rely on Germany to provide its vehicles.

The new project was supposed to be quick and nimble platform carrying a powerful gun, yet simple enough for Romanian undeveloped industry to produce. The design was a producet of a committee (of which colonel Ghiulai was a part of, naturally - other members were not only soldiers, but for example also the director of Rogifer (former Malaxa) company). The result was the initial M-00 Maresal project.

The early Maresal incarnation (M-00) was basically a captured Soviet 122mm M1910/1930 howitzer and a coaxial ZB-53 7,92mm MG, mounted on a T-60 based chassis (it's the upper picture above). The turret and original chassis was replaced by a turtle-shaped construction and it was powered by a Ford V8 85hp engine (remember that fact that there was a Ford car company in Romania? No coincidence.) The prototype was finished remarkably quickly (1st half of 1943) and was tested for the first time on 30.7.1943. Engineers were concerned about the stability of the vehicle before the trials - these concerns proved to be false, the vehicle was stable enough, but many other serious flaws were discovered - mostly connected with fragile gun mount, too big a recoil and too weak an engine. However, as a general concept, it was sound.

By that time, the project was politically "hot", because it recieved direct support from Antonescu - he kept an eye on it personally thru a special committee, subjected only to him. Rogifer (earlier Malaxa) designer team produced 3 new prototypes (designated M-01, M-02 and M-03) from July to October 1943. In shape, they were roughly similiar to the M-00, but the M-01 and M-02 prototypes were bigger, their T-60 suspension was further reinforced and they were equipped with 120hp Buick engines. The gun remained the same however and so did the 20-30mm armor. M-03 however had a modified Rogifer suspension (based on T-60 but longer and wider), reinforced construction, better gun mount, but only 10mm of armor. All the prototypes were planned with a 2 man crew. It's worth noting that special HEAT HL (Hochladung) 122mm shells were developed, probably by the Germans.

These three prototypes were tested on 23.10.1943 in Suditi (with Antonescu present). The trials however proved again that the gun is simply way too heavy and powerful for the fragile T-60 chassis. The very same day, Antonescu was present during the new Resita 75mm Model 1943 tests - the gun proved to have very good anti-tank properties and one of the Maresal designers proposed to replace the 122mm howitzer with the 75mm gun.

Engine was another problem (Ford and Buick engines weren't exactly growing on trees) - the designers had to look elsewhere. In the end, Hotchkiss 120hp engine was selected and Romania ordered 1000 of those engines in France. At the same time, Rogifer company representatives made a trip to Germany, where they visited several tank plants and basically found out that when it comes to development based on war experience, both they and the Germans were thinking in the same direction and - much to their surprise - found also out their own project is in some respects better than the German ones.

Either way, the result of these events was the M-04 prototype - with the 75mm Resita gun and 120hp engine. By December 1943, preparations were being made to produce it en masse.

By that time, Maresal drew the attention of Heereswaffenamt and Adolf Hitler himself, because on 13.12.1943, he approved the BMM proposal for Jagdpanzer 38t "Hetzer" development. During their personal meeting, Antonescu bragged to Hitler about this new weapon. Hitler - who loved to keep in touch with weapons development, which was usually a big problem for the developers - asked for the Maresal plans, which he got in early January 1944. He passed it to BMM, Czechoslovak engineers had a look at it and either incorporated some of its features to their own design (notably the heavy frontal armor slope), or were at least inspired by it.

The difference between Maresal and 38t was that thanks to the experience of Czechoslovak engineers and workers and the availability of 38t suspensions, the Hetzer production could be started practically immediately (and it was), while the Romanian engineers had to overcome all sorts of problems. Thus, by the time first Hetzers were reaching frontal units in July 1944, Maresal production was not even started yet.

The biggest problem for Romanian engineers were raw materials. While the 3rd Reich could simply tap its captured territories, Romania had to order things all over the world in order not to interfere with German production. This caused further delays in development and planned production.

The M-04 prototype itself was tested in February 1944 with generally positive results (as confirmed by German representatives, present at the site). However, in March 1944, a decision was made to switch the platform, because the 38t suspension was simply better than the T-60 one (M-05 and M-06 prototypes were built on 38t, see the lower picture above). A cooperation of Romanian and German engineers from Vomag and Alkett decided the vehicle would have the French engine, Czechoslovak BMM suspension and Romanian gun and superstructure, with German optics and radio. A prototype was built very quickly (political support did wonders even then) and was tested in May 1944. In July it was presented to Antonescu and tested. During the trials it was compared to StuG III Ausf.G - Maresal came up ahead.

Already back in May 1944, it was decided to serially produce the vehicle - but in such numbers it was completely unrealistic for the industry to fulfill the demand. Preparations for production were made nonetheless (of the improved M-06 model, that was identical to M-05 apart from some technological changes in gun mount) and on 8.6.1944, a contract was signed between Romania and Germany, promising Romanians 10 brand new 38t suspensions and the license to build the 160hp Praga AC engine (the Hotchkiss plant was devastated by an air raid). Both the Hetzer and the Maresal were to be produced simultaneously and there was even a plan to equip Maresal with the 220hp Tatra T-103 engine.

All that came to naught however. Germans were slow in providing any material, the vehicle production was delayed further and further (mostly by air raids) and in the end, the production was not started before Romania surrendered to Soviet Union. By August 1944, when the project was cancelled, practically all the trials were completed on the M-05 prototype and the assembly of first 10 vehicles was about to begin. In September 1944, the Soviets ordered Romania to get rid of the project completely - they confiscated all the plans and the M-05 prototype and that was the end of the Maresal. What happened to the prototype is unknown.


Crew: 2
Weight: 6,7 (M-00 to M-04) tons to 10 tons (M-05)
Armament: 122mm M1910/1930, 75mm Resita
Armor
Front - 10-30m
Sides - 20mm
Rear - 20mm
Engine: Renault 120hp, Ford 120hp, Buick 120hp with upgrades (160, 220hp)
Speed: 40-45 km/h

Epilogue

Romanian Army (even more so than the Germans) never recovered from Stalingrad. The vehicle losses were simply too high and there were no tanks available as replacements. Many - if not most - experienced crews were captured or they died in combat. From 1943 on, Romania was on defensive, losing more and more vehicles and men until its surrender to the Soviets.

After the surrender, Romanian armor was drastically reduced in size. Some units were sent to fight Germans and Hungarians and they made it as far as Slovakia. Either way, one can safely say that Romanian soliders and tankers, despite the hardships, fought just as well as the soldiers of any other army. They were plagued by the problems mentioned in this article, yes - but considering that, they did very well and the designer teams did whatever they could under the circumstances. And so, while the Romanian tanks might not be the best on the battlefield, they do deserve their chapter in WW2 tank history books.

0.8.6 test impressions

Hey everyone,

it's kinda pointless to post here the test server vehicle stats (the data are out on various places anyway), so instead a few impressions for those, who don't play on test server and don't intend to. Please, feel free to comment, whether you agree with me or not. Keep in mind that these are subjective feelings of mine, not facts.

The comments are written from the POV of a non-arty player, who prefers mediums and heavies (tested vehicles: T110E5, Maus, Panzer IV)

- probably the most important part of the patch: the arties. While it's hard to say how many arties will be "left" on public server, I have a really bad feeling that this patch didn't fix the old arty issues (but created new ones). In other words, there are a LOT of arties around on top tiers. Now, arty has a chance to be top vehicle of the team (for some reason it happens very often, but maybe it was my bad luck).

- my impression is that in hightier (T9-T10) battles, arties weren't nerfed too much when it comes their ability to make heavy tank's day very very miserable. I assume that the accuracy nerf somehow helped the fast medium vehicles such as the Batchat or Leopard, but subjectively, T110 doesn't have its job any easier and despite increased durability from the new heavy spall liner (subjectively, it doesn't work at all, because it doesn't help with the real arty problem - module damage and chain detracks, maybe the damage recieved is better, but I didn't spot that really). I can imagine even harder accuracy nerfs for toptier arties in the future - as I said, very little changed. Either way, top artillery does influence the battle perhaps more than it should. If your team has arty retards and the other team doesn't, you WILL lose.

- speaking of the new XL spall liner, it's not very effective. Maus still gets pounded to dust.

- midtier arties (from the POV of medium/heavy player) feel a bit OP actually due to their limited MM spread. I had several oneshots done on my Panzer IV. On mid tiers, slow = dead. I can imagine this will frustrate new players heavily. But maybe it's the fact they are being tested, so there are so many.

- armor buff - it works. Spaced armor now eats HEAT like candy. This is especially visible on E-100 and Maus - earlier, you could load up gold and shoot it wherever, now sides will eat it and front will ding. If we count out arty, Maus is now a pretty awesome tank to drive. IS-6 is a total monster now, it dings like hell at eats HEAT shells too, IS-7 feels buffed too this way, T110 - no buff, feels even more fragile than usual. As for tanks with heavily sloped frontal armor (Chinese especially...) - remember the pre-nerf T-54 frontal armor? Yea...

- accuracy buff - works. Guns are more accurate now. This is bad news for tanks with glaring weakspots (again, T110 with its tumor turret, but also KV-5), they do get hit more often. Sniping on longer distances is a joy, shells fly where they are supposed to (funnily enough, it feels easier to derp-snipe with KV-2 too, which probably wasn't an intended consequence)

May 30, 2013

Chi-Ri - Imperial Japan's most advanced tank

SS: Today, we have a guest article from SoukouDragon (US server) on one of the (confirmed) Japanese hightier tanks. Enjoy!

Author: SoukouDragon


A Japanese Tiger? No

When Japan surrendered, American forces discovered Japanese late war military projects all over. One of such was the biggest Japanese tank U.S. forces have ever seen, the seemingly half completed Chi Ri, sitting there without a main cannon installed. The turret was huge. More than large enough for a 75mm cannon. There were some Japanese 88mm AA cannons so Aha! Just like the Germans, they must have been planning on putting these 88mm cannons in the Chi Ri! And behold, the idea of the Japanese Tiger was born.

Wrong.

Recently, in Japan, more research has been going on. In documents about the Chi Ri`s development, there has never been any mention of installing an 88mm cannon in the Chi Ri or on any other Japanese tank. But what these old documents have revealed the reason why the turret was so large. It was meant for a 75mm belt-fed auto loader.



The Chi Ri is big... very big.

Length/Width/Height in meters
Type 5 Chi Ri: 7.3/3.07/3.05
King Tiger: 6.4/3.76/3.09
M4 Sherman: 5.84/2.62/2.74

It could fool anyone into thinking that there was a lot of armor on the thing, like the Tiger. But no, it may be disappointing, but the front armor of the turret and hull was only 75mm. The side armor ranged from 25 to 50mm in thickness. Despite the size, it weighed only 37 tons. This is by no means armored like the 55 ton Tiger. The Chi Ri was not designed as a heavy tank; it was designed as a medium.

So a gigantic medium tank with modest armor…how is that advance? Sounds more like inefficient use of armor…

A Brief Historical Background

1942: Three new anti-tank capable Japanese medium tank projects
Kou: 47mm cannon….eventually grows into Type 4 Chi To
Otsu: 57mm cannon…eventually merges into the hei plan
Hei: 57mm or 75mm cannon…eventually grows into the Type 5 Chi Ri.

During 1943, by looking at the tank battles between Germany and Russia, there was fear that the Chi He and the Chi To could be underpowered by the time they would enter production. At this time, many technological inspections and planning have occurred for the Chi Ri. These included ventilation, transmission, suspension, 550 HP gasoline engine, and easy access to the engine for maintenance. Targeted top speed was 42kph. Improved ventilation was necessary because of the anticipated increased influx of poisonous gas when using the high rate of fire from an auto loading cannon. The main armament would become the Type 5 75mm cannon. It was planned to attach an auto loader to it. Here is a picture of it being tested with the single tray auto loader.



75 mm Gun Type 5


Shell Weight: 6.615 kg
Muzzle Velocity: 821 m/s
Kinetic Energy: 2229 kj
Historical Pen: 75 mm (1,000 meters) goal (met), 80 mm (1,000 meters) expected
Gun Depression in Chi Ri: -6.5 +20

However, steps were taking to ensure an even more advance design could be made available.

In September 1943, a plan 1 and a plan 2 were outlined for the Chi Ri. The goal of plan 1 was to use the current technology developed so far to produce a finished Chi Ri within 1 year. Plan 2 was an ambitious plan to push the edge of technology. The Chi Ri tank discovered by the American forces was the Plan 2 tank.

Chi Ri Plan 1






Chi Ri Plan 2


The biggest difference between plan 1 and plan 2 was the suspension and the turret.

Chi Ri Plan 2 Suspension Options


There was a total of 6 suspension plans examined. Three plans from the Technology Research Institution (TRI) and three from Mitsubishi Heavy industries (MHI).

One plan from TRI was a common Japanese style coil spring suspension which was already proven to work on other Japanese tanks. The other two plans were staggered arranged road wheels much like the notorious suspensions found in German tanks like the Tiger and Panther. One with coil springs like this picture and another with torsion bars.



The three plans from MHI were 6 large road wheels. One was with coil springs and one with torsion bars.
Ultimately, the Japanese went with what they were used too.


The Suspension used very wide treads. The width was 600mm. For a 35 ton class tank, this would have produced a very impressive ground pressure value. The goal was a ground pressure of about 0.6 to 0.7 kg/cm². Compared to other tanks, this was a very good value.

M46 has: 0,986 kg/cm²
KT has: 1.03 kg/cm²
Conqueror has: 0.84kg/cm²
Crusader Cruiser has: 1.04 kg/cm²
Centurion (1 I suppose) has: 1,04 kg/cm²
M48 has: 0.92 kg/cm²
T-54 has: 0.81 kg/cm²
T-34/76: 0.66 kg/cm²
M103 has: .908kg/cm²
M5 Stuart has: 0.856kg/cm²
M4A1 Sherman has: 0.962kg/cm²
M4A3 (76mm + HVSS) has: 0.772kg/cm²
M26 Pershing had: 0.878kg/cm²

Out of all these tanks, only the T-34/76 could match. This makes a very strong case for good hull traverse and low ground resistance. They must have been thinking about rice paddies.

Chi Ri Plan 2 Turret

In order to accommodate a load of 100 75mm rounds and to fit in a belt style auto loader, the turret was enlarged. The plan 1 turret would likely not be capable of handling this task, therefore the large turret was designed. To increase the speed of target acquisition, the turret would rotate by an electric motor, increasing the speed of turret rotation. Another advanced feature was the gyro-stabilizer for the 75mm cannon. It was demanded for the Chi Ri to be able to engage targets up to 2000 meters away so a long range observation device was installed. One other feature is that it was the first Japanese tank, and one of the few tanks in all of WWII, to have a turret basket built in.

Probably the most controversial feature was the secondary 37mm cannon. It was likely intended to be used for soft targets that would be overkill for the 75mm cannon and thus free up the 75mm for more critical targets.

In 1944, the belt fed auto-loading cannon was abandoned. Likely due to the anxiety of trying to create a belt system that would move 900mm long shells around within the turret. However the large turret was already designed. In its place, a single tray auto loader was to be attached to the Type 5 75mm cannon instead thus still maintaining a fast rate of fire. It is believed that very likely the Chi Ri underwent running and shooting trials in March 1945. However, the simpler Type 4 Chi To was selected over the Chi Ri for production. The likely reason why the Chi Ri was found armless is because the Chi To mounted the same 75mm cannon and thus the Chi Ri’s 75mm cannon was likely moved to a Chi To tank.

Adding the Chi Ri to World of Tanks

Here I will describe how the Chi Ri could be implemented into the game as a tier 7 medium tank.

The Engine was a 550 horse power de-tuned version of the Kawasaki H9II 800 horse power engine. At 37 tons, that would give it 14.8hp/ton.


Here is a list of HP/ton of other tier 7 medium tanks with their top engines
T20: 18.6hp/ton 560hp
T-43: 17.6hp/ton 600hp
VK-13: 18.3hp/ton 600hp
VK3002D: 18.4hp/ton 720hp
Panther: 16.6hp/ton 750hp
Comet 20.3hp/ton 650hp

For the needs of the game, a little more horse power would be needed. With the 800 HP H9 engine, there is a lot of potential for upgrades from the 550 HP point. Essentially, a suitable de-tuned value could be determined for balance purposes; as long as it does not exceed 800. A top engine with 675 HP would give the 37 ton Chi Ri an 18.2hp/ton rating.

Gun Choices

Estimated values for 4 cannon modules

Tier 6 Type 5 75mm model II (no auto loader)
AP Damage: 135
AP Penetration: 137
Rate of Fire: 14.5 r/m
Accuracy: .36

Tier 6 Type 5 75mm model I (single tray auto loader)
AP Damage: 135
AP Penetration: 137
Rate of Fire: 19 r/m
Accuracy: .36

Tier 7 Type 5 75mm belt fed auto loader (requires upgrade plan 2 turret)
AP Damage: 135
AP Penetration: 137
Rate of Fire: 30 r/m
Accuracy: .36

Tier 7 Type 5 88mm cannon (requires upgrade plan 2 turret)
AP Damage: 220
AP Penetration: 144
Rate of Fire: 10 r/m
Accuracy: .38

Picture of the 88mm


Hit Points with top turret: 1200

Main Armor type: Cast Steel

Front Hull: 75mm
Side Hull: 50-25mm
Top Hull: 20mm
Rear Hull: 50mm
Bottom Hull: 12mm

Front Turret: 75mm
Side Turret: 50-30mm
Top Turret: --
Rear Turret: 50

Mobility with supposed 675 HP top engine.
Top speed: 45kph
Traverse speed: 38 d/s
Upgraded Turret Traverse: 46 d/s

Strengths

High DPS with either the alpha hitting 88 or the rapid fire 75.
Good mobility.

Weaknesses

Very big tank means very bad camo, difficult to get behind cover.
Weak Armor makes it a punching bag if exposed.

The expected game style of this tank will be taking advantage of its high DPS potential. The 75mm belt cannon gives it insane DPS potential in a sustained brawl but loses out in long range shooting compared to other sniper capable cannons or peek-a-boo tactics with its low alpha and penetration. When wolf packing or against a distracted enemy, the 75mm belt fed cannon will decimate a target in short time. It will bully anything the cannon can penetrate. However heavy armor will nullify a Chi Ri tank armed with the 75mm belt fed cannon.

Something curious about the belt fed cannon is that it seems to be unknown as to how the crew could swap between HE and AP rounds with a linked belt system. In concept, the Chi Ri was designed as an anti-tank medium tank. It could be that all 100 rounds were AP rounds. That does present an explanation for why the 37mm cannon was put on, for it`s HE ammunition. But that is pure speculation on my part. Sadly as I researched into this tank, more questions arise. But anyway, if the belt-fed cannon was to be an AP only weapon, then it does make for a risky play style, but, I feel, a popular niche.

The 88 offers a higher alpha and marginally better penetration for more common brawl style playing. With the higher alpha it gives the Chi Ri the ability to peek-a-boo and premium rounds or the better HE rounds give it the ability to deal with heavier armor better than the 75mm cannons.

While the 88 was not planned for the Chi Ri, the very large turret would undoubtedly be able to handle an 88mm caliber weapon.

What this tank cannot do is run out in the open. It will be spotted. It can’t be sneaky, it is just too large. Its armor can also be penetrated by just about anything. The maximum 75mm armor is not even well sloped.

Sources:


Maru [丸] 2011 October magazine edition. 平成23年10月一日発行 
WoT Discussion forum: Japanese Tank Tree & Guns Discussion: Posts by Daigensui and Lostwingman.
World of Tanks Wiki 8.5

Next discounted tier 10...

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/240687-third-on-the-track-special-nominee-e-100/

....is apparently the E-100. From South-Korean server:

Duration : June 1 to June 15

30% discount of following tanks -

Tier VIII : PzKpfw Tiger II
Tier IX : E-75
Tier X : E-100

30% credit income bonus of following tanks -

Tier VIII : PzKpfw Tiger II
Tier IX : E-75
Tier X : E-100




30.5.2013

- there will be more Soviet tanks implemented in general (SS: possibly one medium and one more heavy branch at least)
- the first game SerB ever played was "Skeet shooting" from 1974 on BESM-6
- eventually, shells will be able to penetrate a whole tank and damage targets behind it
- Prokhorovka in game doesn't have to resemble the real Prokhorovka: "There are many Prokhorovkas in the world"
- SerB doesn't care about the "In development" portal section
- SerB spends one hour or two per day on forums
- SerB answering, whether he saw the War Thunder tanks: "We've seen it. I'll see, what will exactly be in the game. And when."
- historical battles won't come anytime soon
- SerB on War Thunder: "We - unlike competition - actually heavily prefer cybersport, that's already a done decision. And 'historical battle mode' like the competition has - with MiG 15 over Stalingrad - doesn't make us happy in particular. To do this right is very difficult."
- SerB on War Thunder realism: "The same damage system (as in WT) on tanks - so that a tank will be detracked and won't move for another half an hour? And if you get hit in the gun - that's it, you won't shoot until it is fixed on the base? No, we don't need such a mess. Very few people want it that way in fact - see how few players play the "realistic battles" in War Thunder."
- SerB does drink tea and does smoke
- it's possible British arty will have HESH shells
- various nations don't have to have similiar light tank branches
- US full light tank line will most likely happen, Soviets don't have enough vehicles for a full line yet
- there is no plan to allow light tanks to be taken as "free slots" in Clanwars (SS: as in each team would have a few extra slots exclusively for light tank scouts)
- SerB expects that in 0.8.6 the scouts will remain roughly the same, arty will have more hard time hitting them, so their number might rise
- Q: "Is this your reaction to the fact that Gamebox is countersuing World of Tanks?" (SS: the Chinese company that made the WoT copy)


A: "No comment :)"
- not all the maps that were developed made it to the game, some didn't pass the tests
- according to SerB, the map rotation works okay
- the minor arty name changes (Object 212 to Object 212A) are apparently for historical reasons
- in 0.8.6, arty shell trajectory will remain the same despite arty velocity nerfs
- it's possible, but not yet sure, that arty might be the top tank of the team
- there will be new soundtrack implemented into the game, but not many tracks
- British artillery is practically ready
- Sexton I was delayed because the devs need to implement and balance the tier 10 arties first
- T71 model fix (SS: currently, T71 is not historical, it's a mashup of two various projects) doesn't have a priority atm
- special effects such as rain and snow will eventually come
- press-accounts can choose which map they want to play, they can also disable maps from rotation
- various times of the day during battles will be implemented (SS: dusk, dawn, noon etc...), but they won't be tied to real time
- there most likely won't be more maps for new players (tier 1-2), it would be too complicated for newbies
- arty shell velocity was nerfed, because the devs feel it's too easy to shoot moving and maneuvering targets
- the idea to reduce terrain passability when the tracks are damaged was never considered

The Schürzen - against HEAT?

SS: This is a translation of Tuccy's post on Schürzen. For those who don't know him, Tuccy is a Czech community organizer and a tank buff - in fact, he's one of the most knowledgeable people on any WoT forums, when it comes to real life tanks and history - compared to him, I'm a schoolkid. So when he writes something, it's really worth reading. This time, he wrote about the Schürzen and the widespread myth that they were supposed to protect vehicles against HEAT projectiles. It's basically the same thing that H.Doyle said in Operation Think Tank.

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/252315-predstavny-pancir-schuerzen/

Spaced armor in the form of thin metal plates, so called Schürzen ("skirts") appeared en masse around 1943 and it was immediately misunderstood. Due to the fact it came by the time the Allies discarded their AT rifles and started using hand-held HEAT warhead weapons (PIAT, Bazooka), the western authors have the tendency (supported by copying each other's texts) to state that this was to protect the tanks from HEAT warheads.

Luckily for us, we have our well-informed original sources, that give us proper insight - in form of German documents (for example in Spielberger's books on Panzer III, Panzer IV and Panther). During the Schürzen development, following threats were considered:

- 14,5mm shots from Soviet PTRS and PTRD anti-tank rifles
- HE shells from field guns

Regarding the AT rifles:

June 1941 caught the Red Army off-guard and without proper anti-tank armament. One of the weapons designed to rectify this situations were simple, mass-produced 14,5mm rifles. Compared to their German counterparts, their caliber was bigger (SS: Germans used 7,92mm special long cartridges) and compared to their western allied counterparts, they were often lighter and balistically more powerful - essentially, it was the peak of AT rifle development, beause - unlike early rocked or recoilless guns with HEAT warheads, they were reliable and (what was even more important) they didn't require new industrial capacities.

Their penetration ability (at least 35-40mm at 100m) was fully sufficient to penetrate Panzer III, IV and Panther side armor and proved to be a serious threat also to lightly-armored tank destroyers and self-propelled anti-tank guns. Furthermore, they were used en-masse, a Soviet batallion anti-tank company consisted usually of one platoon with 45mm guns and two or three platoons with 8 AT rifles each.

Regarding the HE shells:

Lack of arms and ammunition in June 1941 led to massive use of HE shells against tanks (in Fall 1941, there were only 10 76,2mm AP shells per barrel on average in the Red Army, they were also BR-350 and BR-350A shells of dubious quality). HE shells fired from field guns (75-76mm) could eventually penetrate up to 30mm of armor and even if they didn't penetrate it, they at least caused spalling.

Since it would be too expensive and complicated to rebuild the tanks, that were destined to be replaced soon anyway (Panzer III, IV), the German engineers accepted the relatively simple Schürzen solution despite the fact that it brought increased weight with it. What was even more annoying that the relatively thin vertical side armor strip of the Panther was also vulnerable to AT rifle fire. First reaction was to initiate the Panther II development - its thicker side armor was designed to counter specifically this threat, but after the success of the Schürzen, the Panther was "saved" by having the skirts mounted on it.

Solving an historical mistery - help required

By Zarax

Since WG introduced the uranium hartkern ammo for the 30mm MK 103 I started researching on the topic.
Trolling from SerB aside, it turns out to be a quite complex subject.


With tungsten imports getting more and more difficult germans started looking into alternatives and in the book "Inside the third reich" Speer himself states the following:

"In the summer of 1943, wolframite imports from Portugal were cut off, which created a critical situation for the production of solid-core ammunition. I thereupon ordered the use of uranium cores for this type of ammunition. 27 My release of our uranium stocks of about twelve hundred metric tons showed that we no longer had any thought of producing atom bombs."

The use of uranium cores in german ammunition was suspected for a long tome, during A-10's GAU 30 development we find the following:

In AFATL-TR-84-03 Historical Development Summary of Automatic Cannon Caliber Ammunition:20-30 Millimeter (ADA140367) Dale M. Davis in pgs 44-47 makes the point that he believes the Germans used Uranium-cored projectiles in the 30x184/30x185B aircraft cannon against Soviet tanks

In 1956 Aberdeen Proving Ground published the Handbook of German Aircraft Ammunition; on page 58-59is their drawing of 3 cm H-Panzergranatepatrone L'spur O. Zerl, a 350 gm projectile at 960 mps,at 300 m it would penetrate 100mm@0,70mm@30. O. Zerl=without fuze. 

Mr Davis gives 7 points why this is an uranium core. I won't give all 7, but some of them are: H-Panzergrenatpatrone (special armor grenade cartridge) with no explosives inside. 

Another note says special projectile with added incendiary effect, with no incendiaries inside. 100mm of penetration is more than any steel core would do. 

It was described "Exclusively for attacking medium and heavy tanks. Practice firing prohibited".

Deep digging on the internet also gave a 37mm round with very similar properties to those described:


This started my search for the experimental usage of uranium cores in other rounds.

This is the report from GAU development:

http://michel.romieu1.perso.sfr.fr/Historical_Development_Summary_of_Automatic_Cannon_Caliber_Ammunition_20-30mm__Pages_44-47.pdf
The holy grail of german WWII historical research "Germany and the second world war" mentioned tests with uranium cores in 1944 but sadly goes no further:






The referral is to a note in "Inside the Third Reich" which itself refers to Speer's Office diary citing his office journal in March 1944.
 Going from this, another deep session of internet search gave out a forum post with the following content:

""A document was from the German Army Ordnance Command (Heeresamt/Heereswaffenamt) about a experimental-commando (Versuchskommando 515) with a staff and two experimental-companies.
 
1. Company with 2 Tigers, 2 Kingtigers and 5 Panthers are used the uranium-cored ammunition and tested it against Soviet tanks near the town of Posen in Poland.

2. Company with guided anti-tank missiles called "Rotkäppchen" on Halftracks also fighted against Soviet breakthrough´s near Posen.
There was some infantry to accompany. 

In the document the uran-ammunition and the missiles performed very well and the leader of the Experimental-commando says in his statement that the ammunition was many times better than the tungsten-cored round PzGr.40.
"
 

Sadly I couldn't find the document but it must be accessible to the public in german archives.
Unfortunately as I'm not german (and sadly don't speak it either) this is the limit of my research.

We do know that uranium ammo testing is definitely real and the forum post above (plus some others claiming an uranium 5cm round was found in Belgium) might very well be based on a real document but proving this will need someone to do the final part of the digging.

With this I'm asking to anyone in germany that could potentially spend some times in the old archives if they are interested to try to dig the document and get a pic or a scan of it.
If successfull, this could unlock knowledge of one of the last "secret weapons" of WWII and potentially a way to ask WG to buff certain german guns.

I cannot offer any reward to this aside from my personal gratitude but whoever will succeed can be proud of having solved one of the last historical mysteries of WWII weaponry. 

More pointers

- Does anyone have "Truth about the Wunderwaffe" by Igor Witkowski?
I found a mention that on page 117 an area near Mieleck is still contaminated by Uranium from WW2 trials with Uranium core amunition.

- Apparently there is a document from 04.03.1945 about the use of uranium-cored
armor piercing rounds  in the German Army history center in Koblenz

- There are also mentions of a pre-WWII Rheinmetall patent on the use of uranium cores.

Hidden tags in WoT screenies

Source: http://wotbase.ru/archives/2531/скрытые-метки-в-скриншотах-world-of-tanks.html

This is how Wargaming identified the supertest leakers (amongst other ways that is). Each screenshot, made by the WoT engine (by pressing Printscreen) will have these tags (they are revealed by fiddling with HUE):



These tags reveal, who made the screenie. This is a gif, linking to how the screen looks when filtered thru proper photoshop techniques:






This is also how one of the 0.8.5 supertest leakers has been identified (see above picture). But there is a way around it. Apart from the obvious taking pictures of your screen with a camera (a method used for early leaks if you remember), you can also use 3rd party program such as FRAPS - in such a case, no watermark tags appear on the screenshots.

May 29, 2013

Romanian armor - part II (Bucharest to Stalingrad)

First part can be found here.


The war begins

The first part of the article dealt with Romanian armor history up until cca 1939. By that time, the 1935 rearm plan was still being kept and weapons were (despite some problems) flowing to Romania. However, the French doctrine was still practically in effect and very little was going on on the field of tank tactics. That was to change soon.

The Romanians weren't blind. They saw the success of the German panzers during the blitzkrieg in Poland and decided finally they would put more emphasis on armor. The first step was proper education. A specialized tank training center was estabilished near Targovisti and the tanks were to be organized within one big brigade (1st motomechanized brigade - Brigada 1 motomecanizata). Within this brigade, 1st Tank Regiment was formed. It was armed with the 126 R-2 light tanks Romania obtained. 2nd Tank Regiment was also formed and armed with the 75 French and Polish R-35's. It was a step forward, but not a big step enough, as most of the units from these regiments remained stationed with infantry formations and the crews were still only trained to accompany the infantry.

In order to modernize the tactics further (to advance their own goals that is), a German delegation was sent to Romania in October 1940 to teach the Romanians the basics of the blitzkrieg and operations of larger armored units. This however had two catches. First: while initially successful, German ideas never reached the high command and the infantry units (to which the smaller tanks units were attached) themselves, effectively negating whatever the Germans taught the tankers. Second problem was that at that point, the Romanians thought that with these instructors, Romania would also recieve German tanks. That proved to be a false hope (Germans had no interest or spare capacities to arm the Romanian army at that point) and created additional friction between Germans and Romanians. This was also one of the main reasons of later Romanian failures between 1941 and 1943. The initial training with German instructors continued between February and May 1941.

In the meanwhile (on 17.4.1941), the main (and only) Romanian armored force, the 1st motomechanized brigade was renamed to 1st tank division (Divizia 1 blindata). While on paper it was a strong armored unit, it lacked a lot of both combat and support vehicles. In reality, it had only 109 operational R-2 tanks in early June 1941 - Germans considered the division a reinforced regiment and Soviets assessed its effectivity as a brigade. Furthermore, the division was plagued by poor repair skills (very few repairs could be performed in the field, resulting in more "total losses" than usual), poor supply chain, relying heavily on horses and very poor radio connection between units (the radiomen recieved no training whatsoever). Cooperation between various arm branches was also quite bad - infantry and tanks could cooperate actions on platoon levels only and the division as a whole never conducted any training whatsoever. Despite the fact the morale wasn't bad, it was a prelude to disaster.

R-1 tankettes and armored cars were located in the recon units of Romanian cavalry and were spread all over the place (not very effective either). Furthermore, a special FT tank batallion (Batalionul Carelor de Lupta FT) was also formed and equipped with the ancient Renault FT tanks. On paper it had 75 of these, but in reality, only 20 were operational. And such was the state of Romanian armor by the time the Germans pushed Romania into war with Soviet Union.

From Bucharest to Odessa

A lot has been written of the assault on the Soviet Union, so I will focus only on certain aspects of it. Dear readers, who want to read the complete history of Romanian army in Russia can do so in one of many publications, written on this topic. Either way, 1st Division took part in the initial operations.On 3rd of July 1941, Romanian army crossed the river Prut and started pushing towards Mogilev Podolski in Ukraine. First tank vs tank combat happened near Brynzjena - a platoon of R-2 tanks fought 12 Soviet tanks. One R-2 was knocked out, but the Soviets lost 2 T-28 tanks.
While the initial push was successful, the Romanian offensive lost its momentum within days and the assault ground to a halt in series of Soviet counterattacks on Dnestr river. The division was forced to change its direction and went for easier targets instead, capturing Kishinev on 16.7.1941. By that time however, only half of all the division vehicles were operational because of mechanical failures and human errors (for example when advancing, the division had literally no recon units, because the scout motorcyclists drowned their vehicles in mud), the issue was so bad that the division had to be taken out of the orders of battle for 10 days to rearm and repair - even the most routine maintenance proved to be difficult, because Romania lacked mobile repair vehicles and many tanks had to be transported back to Bucharest or to Ploesti for refit.

When the division returned back to operational status in early August, an order came for the Romanians to capture the strategic Russian port of Odessa. Basically, the assault was a disaster. Odessa (unlike Kishinev) was well protected by fortifications and Soviet engineers blew up a few dams and flooded several access directions from which Odessa was vulnerable. Furthermore, Romanian heavy weapons got stuck in mud and so the 15th infantry division and the tank division attacked without any support and without proper recon. What was even worse, radio connection was notoriously bad and the attack was practically uncoordinated. Despite the fact they had a number advantage, Romanian forces were stopped by mere 2 Soviet infantry regiments, one of which was composed of sailors without any infantry training. Within 3 days of fighting, 1st division lost 47 R-2 tanks, before being withdrawn. What was worse: Romanian command decided to attack Odessa from another direction, but a combination of blunders (bad recon, no radio silence, ridiculous splitting of armored forces to platoon levels) caused another disaster - Soviets spotted this "surprising attack" hours in advance, moved their artillery and infantry units to counter it and in the following brutal battle, 1st division assault was practically wiped out. When the smoke cleared, the whole division was left with 20 operational vehicles out of more than a hundred it started with. Several dozen were salvaged and sent for repairs to Romania.

After this debacle, the division forces were reinforced by the R-35 light tanks and attempted a second attack against Odessa, which also failed (due to Soviet reinforcements arriving just in time). By that time, what was left of the division was organized into a special detachement (with 10 tanks left). Attack on Odessa continued and on 17th of September, the remaining Romanian forces, along with German reinforcements assaulted the 2nd defense ring of Odessa near Dalnik. This too was foiled by the Soviets - Soviet marines and paratroopers secretly infiltrated into Romanian rear positions and attacked several repair camps. This caused a panic, which in turn caused the entire assault to stall. Needless to say, Germans were pissed. In the end, Odessa fell because Soviets (despite gaining some time) felt they can't hold on to it anymore and evacuated it. The decimated Romanian forces then simply entered the unprotected city and captured it on 16.10.1941.

All in all, in 1941, the 1st tank regiment (the armored part of the 1st division) lost 26 R-2 tanks completely, 60 were heavily damaged and the rest was damaged lightly. 2nd tank regiment lost 15 R-35's completely and 25 were heavily damaged. All in all however, while tactically the Romanian armored force performance was a complete disaster, one cannot say the individual crews performed badly. Despite the setbacks, the soldiers fought on bravely and with no less skill than their Soviet and German counterparts, their efforts were however marred by the issues mentioned above, specifically by the recon failure, wrong doctrine and terribly supply chain.

Rearm attempt

By the end of October 1941, the 1st tank division was barely functional and was pulled back to Romania for some rest and refit. Naturally, the need for new tanks was greater than ever, therefore the Romanians asked the Škoda company (with German blessing) to supply them with 26 PzKpfw.35(t) (formerly LT-35, largely similiar to R-2's) from Germany reserves (vehicles withdrawn from 1st line). Their repairs however took time and they were ready only in May 1942 (they arrived in Romania in June and July). By that time, Romania (specifically colonel Constantin Ghiulai) led negotiations with Czechoslovakia with the intent to purchase license for the T-23M (the ultimate development of T-21) and TNH tanks to replace the R-1 tankettes, attached to Romanian cavalry formations (those fared especially poorly, by October 1941 all the vehicles assigned to combat units were knocked out, but most were salvaged and repaired in order to see action during the summer 1942 operations). But again, nothing came of it. Eventually, the Romanian armored forces were put back in shape with what little tanks they had left and they moved east again towards the river Don and towards what would prove to be their undoing: Stalingrad.

Stalingrad

Stalingrad, the city on river Don, proved to be something the Germans were totally unprepared for. This goes double for the brave, yet poorly equipped and undersupplied Romanian units. The 1st tank division (now re-armed with fresh LT-35's) was transferred to the Stalingrad theater after some training with German troops, conducted near Doneck. On 9.10.1942, it joined the 6th German Army near Chernychevska in order to commence its assault on Stalingrad itself. During the transfer alone, 12 R-2 tanks were lost to defects, a sign of things to come.


Around that time, the Romanians conducted series of firing tests of R-2 tanks versus a captured T-34. The result stunned the axis soldiers: T-34 was practically invulnerable to the 37mm guns, while it could knock out the R-2's on practically any distance. As a result, Romanians asked the Germans for more modern technology. This time, even the Germans agreed that going up against late 1942 T-34's in light tanks from 1937 might not be the best idea ever and promised to provide some spare tanks. Those came in shortly - specifically, 11 Panzer III Ausf.N and 11 Panzer IV Ausf.G tanks. The Panzer III's in Romanian service were referred to as T-3, Panzer IV's (of any type) as T-4. One of each was also transferred to Romania for training. The crews however had little time to adapt to new vehicles, because in mid November the Soviet counteroffensive did hit them hard. The 1st division was by that time operating with German XLVI corps around Perelazovskij and Petrovka, crossing the river Chir. It had 84 operational R-2 tanks, 19 T-3 and T-4 tanks and two captured Soviet vehicles (apparently one T-60 and one BT-7).

The Soviet counteroffensive was meticulously planned and designed to hit the German lines where their defense was weakest - by attacking the Romanian units. The Romanian units on river Don were completely unprepared for the sheer ferocity of the unleashed steel fury. On the first day of the offensive (19.11.1942), the line was broken by the Soviet 5th Army near Serafimovich. The Germans counterattacked, but it was too late - the counterattack itself was ripped in two and the Romanian 1st Division was fighting on its own in chaos, because its command post was overrun by Soviets.

The fighting was brutal. Both sides suffered heavy losses (Romanians claimed 62 enemy tanks while losing 25 the first day alone), after 3 days of fighting, the 1st division had only 19 R-2 tanks and 11 T-3 and T-4 tanks left, most were damaged and many ran out of fuel and had to be towed by other vehicles (luckily, the Romanians reached a supply column and were able to refuel). Even so decimated, the division was tasked on 22.11.1942 to attempt to break the 22nd German tank division out of encirclement, but it was thrown back - the division lost 2 tanks, but also 59 cars. Retreat followed with constant skirmishes with the Soviets - eventually, the 1st division practically ceased to exist. Out of more than 100 tanks and 12000 men it started the battle with, 2 tanks and 944 men were left by 2.12.1942. Practically all the vehicle losses were unsalvageable (they were captured by Soviets).

On 4.12.1942, the remnants of the division were reformed into a special Detachment of colonel Nistor (Detasamentul colonel Nistor), which recieved 4 more tanks and 700 men on short notice, along with some German light armored cars and halftracks. This detachment continued to fight on river Chir, keeping the Soviets from crossing the river, but eventually lost all its tanks in fights with 22nd Guard Motorized Brigade. By that time (January 1943), the devastated Romanians units were once again ordered home. They reached Romania in March 1943. Out of all the tanks the division had, only 40 were salvaged for repairs - mostly those R-2's that were located behind the lines in repair shops or in Romania. Please notice that by that time, in 1943, when the battlefield was swarming with Panzer IV's and T-34's, the Romanians were still fighting on pre-war light tanks. That takes special kind of courage. Practically all R-1 tankettes were lost too, at one point the situation was so bad for the Romanian cavalry that the soldiers started to use captured Soviet lend-lease Stuarts, but only for a short time.


Part 3 will include the end of the war and the Romanian designs such as TACAM TD's, R-35 (transformat) and the Maresal.

29.5.2013

- the reason why the new XL spall liner will be changed from large to XL only after it gets removed from a tank and put to your depot is that the XL one will be heavier and under certain circumstances (stock tank for example), by leaving it on the vehicle it could actually overload the suspension (eg. the vehicle weight would be bigger than suspension allowance)
- spall liner will be removed from tanks even if the suspension has enough capacity to allow it
- all the tanks of all the nations have the same shell distribution within the aim circle (SS: well, apart from arties in 0.8.6 that is)
- France has a superheavy tank candidate, China doesn't
- French "monster" tanks á la TOG II will be implemented (SS: Char FCM etc.)
- SerB sees the possibility of tanks with twin-linked D-25T on tier 9 - as for the issue that the pen is too low for such a tier, he states it's possible for such a tank to fire HE, or to fight medium tanks
- additional equipment and consumables? "If there is such a thing planned, I will tell you"
- the MTLS tankette twin-linked 37mm doesn't work with a twin-linked gun mechanism in game, it simply acts as a single gun firing very fast, in the case of autocannons it doesn't matter according to SerB, but two big guns would have to work differently
- the twin-linked guns are just an option at this point, there is no guarantee such tanks will come, the main issue is to develop the recoil mechanism, how the guns will fire (one at a time?) etc.
- the 0.8.6 shell velocity nerf doesn't mean the range will be nerfed too, devs will simply change the gravity acceleration
- crew skills for gold won't come
- tests will show, whether the E-25 will be on tier 7 or 6
- 0.8.6 test will last at least a few weeks
- balance weight of vehicle doesn't depend on its configuration (stock/elite)
- apparently, there are some references to GAZ-74b in the game files. According to SerB, it's a Soviet self-propelled gun (tank destroyer), basically not yet implemented, a predecessor (first version) of SU-85B, its model was not yet implemented
- the tank damage model (client-side physics) will possibly include equipment such as boxes, machineguns or logs getting ripped off by enemy fire from the tank, devs are working on that
- Q: "Will we see realistic simulated environment like destructible bridges?" A: "Yea, how about a 25kg heavy Wii joystick to simulate reloading the IS-2 shells?"
- change of MM weight won't be displayed in official patchnotes
- Caernarvon won't recieve the Centurion 105mm, it would be too OP
- the system for more reward for potential damage will be implemented

Romanian armor - part I (pre-WW2)

SS: please note that I omitted some special characters in the Romanian names. The reason is that on certain systems, they don't display properly. Sorry for that.

Romania, as one of the Axis powers, is often underestimated by people interested in WW2 history. The general feeling is that the Romanian soldiers were not skilled, not motivated and incompetent, their weapons were obsolete and their armor a laughing stock. 
This is not true - at least not to the extent believed on various forums. Generally it can be said that Romanian soldiers were not any less brave or skilled than their counterparts from other nations. While the Romanian armor was quite obsolete indeed by the middle of the war (moreso than that of Hungary for example), one can only admire the courage it took to fight on such vehicles with enemies such as the Soviet T-34, that completely outclassed everthing the Romanians had, apart from several Panzer IV's. Romanian army however suffered a lot from outdated doctrines, terrible troop supply (partially caused by the lack of motor vehicles - a lot of the cargo had to be towed by horses) and low quality of Romanian steel industry

Historical background

After World War I, in which Romania fought on the Allies' side against the Central powers, it was clear to Romanian officers that the tanks are the weapon of the future, because their role in breaking thru the trench nightmare of WW1 battlefields is invaluable. Therefore, in Spring 1919, it was decided to arm the Romanian army with armor, especially with tanks.

Ever since WW1, Romania had 34 armored cars in its posession. They were mostly various types of Soviet origin, built on various suspensions (Austin, Garford, Peugeot, Fiat) and they were very worn from the war. Two companies were made of them in 1919, but there was no unification of equipment whatsoever and combined with their poor shape, their combat effectiveness was very low (and the Romanians knew that).

Therefore, to do things properly, the Romanians basically decided to start from scratch, by founding a new tank combat school. They asked their allies - the French - and the French happily obliged. The school, named "Scoli de Care de asalt" (Assault vehicle school), situated in Giorgiu started to teach new vehicle officers on 21.7.1919 and a week later (1.8.1919), a new Combat vehicle batallion (batalionul de care de lupta) was formed. Along with that, Romania bought 76 FT-17 light tanks from France (45 of which had the 37mm Puteaux gun, the rest was armed with machineguns), assigning them to the bataillion. The batallion itself was divided into 4 companies and fell under artillery command (later in 1922, it was reassigned to the infantry command). While the crews practiced on the vehicles dilligently, the tanks suffered from the intensive training and by 1925 they were quite worn out. By 1930, only 34 tanks and armored cars were still operational, but often in very bad condition.

In general it can be said that the Romanian army was large, but not modern. It was equipped with various foreign weapons of various calibers, making the logistics a nightmare. There were wide quality differences between various units. Plus, what was even worse, the army was very poorly motorized and mechanized and relied on horses for most of the heavy lifting, which was something the Romanian army never got rid of, at least not until WW2 was over.
Vehicle repair and manufacture possibilities were also extremely limited - Romania was an agricultural army, there was no large heavy industry, that could produce tanks on its own. The only vehicle plant in the country was Ford Romania, which was completing automobiles from imported parts. Repairs of acquired vehicles were often made "ad hoc" in small garages, belonging to the Leonida company and to Central army repair workshops. In 1934, after an inspection, Romanian command came to conclusion that Romania is in no state to produce any complicated armored vehicles on its own and in the light of that fact, Romanian armor will never become a dominant force in the army.

Furthermore, cooperation with France had one more nasty side-effect: the French officers and instructors, who taught the Romanian tankers, brought the French doctrine with them. The French tank doctrine of that time basically did put emphasis on infantry combat. According to it, it is the infantry that wins or loses the battles and therefore, the role of the tank is to support infantry, not to act on its own (as the Germans later practiced during the blitzkrieg). Therefore, Romanian tank units were from the start built as infantry support units and the vehicles they employed reflected that fact. And so the Romanian tank forces were broken down to smaller units - and served under infantry and artillery command. Under such circumstances, no tank tactics were developed.

Such was the state of the Romanian armor in 1934 anyway - but things were to change. In 1935, a new ambitious 10-year re-arm program for the army was approved. Financed by the Ploesti oil exports, its main goal was to re-arm the army with unified weapons, better motorisation and mechanisation of infantry and artillery units and also (not as a main goal though) improvement of Romanian armored units. Interestingly enough, the program (unlike those of many other countries) was realistic and its goals were met every year up until like 1940, when the war intervened. It is worth noting that practically all the weapons acquired in this program were either imported or licensed, mostly from Czechoslovakia (in infantry and artillery weapons, 70 percent of everything was of Czechoslovak origin, due to strong ties within the Petite Entente (an alliance between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, supported heavily by France)).

When it came to armor, Romanian officers visited several companies, including Vickers, Renault, Polish Ursus and ČKD plus Škoda. In the end (for both quality, but also political reasons), Czechoslovak ČKD and Škoda were asked to make an offer for rearming the Romanian tanks with Czechoslovak vehicles on 8.1.1936. On 30.5.1936, vehicles from both companies were approved and on 14.8.1936, preliminary contracts were signed in Prague (under very strict conditions for the Czechoslovak companies). In the end, ČKD recieved a contract for 35 Praga AH-IV tankettes (redesignated R-1 by the Romanians and AH-IV-R by the company) and Škoda recieved a contract for 126 modified light tanks LT-35 (redesignated R-2 by the Romanians and Š-IIa-R by the company).

R-1




R-1 was basically a modified AH-IV tankette. Its designation (tankette/light tank) varies, the vehicle itself is kinda borderline (it weighted 3,5 tons). It is armed with a heavy 7,92mm ZB-37 machinegun and a light ZB-30 machinegun of the same caliber. It's a very light vehicle, the armor is only 12mm thick in the front (original AH-IV had 15mm, this was a demand from the Romanians to make the vehicle as light as possible in order to improve its reliability even further). The vehicle was also equipped with a different engine (Praga RHR V6, 60hp, 45km/h on the road, 20km/h offroad) and improved transmission (Praga-Wilson). Some sources claim that the Romanians detuned the engine locally to cca 50hp in order to improve its durability even further. Furthermore, Romanian vehicles generally didn't have commander's copula.
The first vehicles reached Romania in the beginning of 1937 and the whole series was completed by the end of the year. The vehicles arrived in Romania in April 1938, but for various (mostly political) reasons, they were officially transferred to Romanian ownership in August 1938.
By 1939 however, since the French couldn't supply Romania with enough tanks, Romanians returned to Czechoslovakia to strike a deal for license production of the AH-IV. On 22.2.1939, a license agreement was closed for production of 380 AH-IV tanks by the company called Malaxa (see further) under the designation of R-1-a. These vehicles also used the Praga RHR engine (standardized for Romania, because Praga AV and RV trucks, exported to Romania, used it too). In the end however, the R-1-a's didn't get to be license produced, because the Romanians basically changed their minds after seeing the German tankettes perform poorly in Poland. One prototype was made by Czechoslovaks, but it was never sent to Romania, while the Romanians themselves built a prototype (from earlier R-1 spare parts).

These vehicles served in the Romanian army actively until Stalingrad, after which the surviving tanks were returned to Romania for training. The picture shows a typical Romanian olive colour scheme with Romanian tricolor.

R-2


R-2 was a development of the famous Czechoslovak LT-35 light tank (Czechoslovak factory designation was Š-IIa-R, but there are more versions of this transcription, as the Czechoslovak designation was basically a huge mess, it was simplified only after 1938, after which several LT-35 variants were renamed to T-11, including this one).
Compared to the original LT-35, R-2's had slightly modified armor and turret shapes, but the armor remained the same. It was armed with the 37mm A-3 gun and propelled with the same 118hp Škoda T-11/0 engine, allowing it to go as fast as 35 km/h. The armor was only cca 25mm thick, with 16mm on the sides.

The R-2 development was in the beginning plagued by problems, caused by two factors. First one was the fact that in the Czechoslovak army, Škoda tended to fix the initially not-so-reliable vehicles "on the move", with many improvements being made over the years (this is why they were considered to be fine by the time the Germans took them over from the disbanded Czechoslovak army). By 1937 however, they still had reliability problems and the prototype didn't perform too well reliability-wise during the trials. Second reason was that several Romanian officers, interested in the program for "prestige reasons", tended to make additional (and sometimes ridiculous) demands, which caused the development to be delayed several times.

In the end, the vehicles manufactured for Romania came in 2 different versions: the common R-2 with homogenous armor and the R-2c with cemented armor (a half of the vehicles belonged to one and the other half to the other version). Visually, they can be distinguished only by different shapes in rear turret and rear hull armor.

Because the Romanians wanted to train on these tanks as soon as possible, Czechoslovakia lent 15 (standard) LT-35 tanks to Romania in May 1937. They served as training and parade vehicles until July 1938, when they returned to Škoda factory for additional refit and R-2 modifications.  In the meanwhile, 3 other vehicles (this time in the R-2 version) were transported to Romania for testing near Suditi on the steppes of Baragan.

However, the in 1938/39, the tanks were supplied only irregularily because of the turbulent political situation. 27 were finished by mid-September 1938, but they were seized during the Czechoslovak mobilization as defense assets (same fate awaited all the tanks intended for export at that time), by mid-October the production of R-2's was renewed, but it was again paused because of the explosive situation on Czechoslovak-Hungarian borders (the transports to Romania went over Hungary). After that it was again renewed (this time over Poland) in December 1938 and the last transport of 32 tanks left Pilsen on 22.2.1939 (this time under completely different political conditions however). As for the vehicles performance in battle... we'll get to that.



Additional armor

Considering the fact that Romania had only very few resources to manufacture armor with, it is no surprise the Romanians went for simple and cheap vehicles (they were generally interested in Czechoslovak heavier designs too, but in the end, refused them because they were too complicated). One of the very few license-produced vehicles in Romania was the Renault UE.



In 1937, Romanians acquired the license for the Renault Chenillette d'Infanterie Type UE (Renault UE) armored artillery tractors (intended to tow the 47mm Schneider AT guns). Some were imported as early as 1931, but the license production itself was started in September 1939 by the company Malaxa in Bucharest. As a result, these vehicles were generally called "Malaxa" by the Romanians (the official designation was Senileta Malaxa Tipul UE - tracked vehicle Malaxa type UE). The production was never self sufficient - Renault itself provided the parts from (later occupied) France. In 1941, the production was stopped, because the Renault company stopped supplying Romania with parts (by that time, 126 were already made by Malaxa). Additional vehicles were however given (or sold) to Romania by the Germans from the captured stock left by the French army.

Another French vehicle in Romanian service was the Renault R-35 infantry tank. At first (in the beginning of 1938), the Romanians wanted to license-complete 200 R-35's from parts supplied by the French, but this plan failed because the French didn't have the capacity to produce parts for Romania by that time (other contracts for Yugoslavia, Poland and Turkey were already closed). In order to appease the Romanians however, French government decided to sell 41 R-35's to Romania from the French army stock - it would be redesigned to Care de Lupta Tip R-35 (combat vehicle type R-35).
This tanks was hated by the Romanians - it was well armored for its time, but very slow and unreliable. It didn't even have a radio set. It was used only for training the crews. Later on, these vehicles were partially modified (by for example removing the original 7,5mm Chatellerault MG and replacing it with the Czechoslovak ZB-30). Suspension was also improved and the roadwheels recieved steel bandages for better survivability.

As mentioned earlier, by 1938/39, Romania still needed more tanks. After the failure of the French to deliver enough of their tanks, Romanian turned back to Czechoslovakia with medium tanks on their mind. ČKD showed the Romanian delegation the new improved AH-IV-S, TNH-S light tank and also the V-8-H, while the Škoda company tried to catch their attention with Š-I-D and Š-I-j light self-propelled guns and with the Š-IIc medium tank. Nothing came of it - the only thing that was somewhat followed was the AH-IV-a deal, mentioned earlier. The main reason was that most of these vehicles were simply too complicated for Romanian industry.

The Romanians were mostly interested in R-2a (improved R-2 with better engine, radio and improved armor) light tank, V-8-H and T-21 medium tanks (T-21 was licensed to Hungary and later fought under the Turán I designation) and in May 1939, these tanks were sent to the test polygon near Suditi, where they passed the Romanian tests with flying colours. However, at this point, Germans intervened. Germans were interested in "divide and conquer" tactics in the Balkans. Basically, they sort of pushed Romania, Hungary and Slovakia against each other. The Romanians ordered 216 T-21 medium tanks from Škoda (seeing as the Hungarians went for them too), they also ordered 395 TNHPS light tanks from ČKD, but the Germans intervened and didn't approve any exports.

Captured tanks

Third way how to improve their armor for the Romanians was the use of various captured armor. Naturally, this by itself was a logistics problem, as captured tanks had little to do with each other and spare parts could be obtained only by cannibalizing other vehicles, but in 1939/1940 the Romanians took whatever they could get their hands on.

The first vehicles they recieved this way would be several Czechoslovak armored cars from the Czechoslovak 7th light tank batallion, that crossed Romanian borders in order to avoid letting the Germans have their tanks after Czechoslovakia became a part of the Reich. These vehicles included one LT-35 and several OA vz.27 and OA vz.30 armored cars.

Romania also gained 34 R-35 tank from Poland, because some Polish units crossed the Romanian borders to escape the Germans and were interned. Their tanks were incorporated into the Romanian army. More captured tanks came from Soviet Union, but that will be in the second part.

Sources:
I.Pejčoch - Obrněná Technika
Valka.cz

Francev, Kliment - Škoda LT vz.35
Francev, Kliment - Československá obrněná vozidla
P.Pilař - Lehké tanky Škoda T-11, T-12 a T-13M
Utocnavozba.wz.cz