War Thunder pics and such

[RustyRelics]

War Thunder is a highly realistic WWII and beyond game for planes, tanks and now warships. I started this game last month purely for getting the hang of how WWII aircraft operated in battle. Okay, that's what I tell myself, but it is informative as to how the real planes were at handling.

I fly for the United States Army Air Force, the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force, though I may branch out to maybe some Russian or Swedish planes soon.

When I do tanks, as of now I fight for Germany and Russia, though with an M1 Abrams down the American line, that looks promising. I don't do navy, ships are boring.

One of my favorite aspects of this game is, that I can go into a replay, hit the f12 button, and take screenshots.

Stalingrad Stuka firing at target.jpg

In the game, you have to work for your planes. I've always admired the Stuka, so when I earned it, I was line love with it. mostly.

In the picture above, my Ju 87 is strafing troop trucks near Stalingrad Russia. I know, I know, wrong camo. The point is, that is what this plane was made for. Strafing and bombing, strictly ground attack.

Diveboming in black and white.jpg

In this doctored photo, my Stuka was dive bombing an enemy AA gun.

The Stuka is an excellent ground attack plane, but very vulnerable to enemy fire. It's maneuverability is lacking, and is all but useless in a dogfight. That being said, I have shot down three enemy planes with it before, though I would not recommend taking them on.


Any WT players on this forum?

[RustyRelics]

WWII Desert Strom.jpg

The American P40e is a low level, bottom of the barrel fighter. Though dangerous if used properly, in dogfights it is easily out turned and out gunned. However, it's hard not to love this plane.

In this photo, a P40e flies over a village somewhere over Africa. The plane was based off of a real plane used during Operation Torch It was named Janie, presumably after the pilots girlfriend.



Spitfire Dogfight.jpg

This one is not my plane, but it is a cool photo. Spits are maneuverable, but when you get three Fw190s on your tail, it gets hairy real quick.


DO17.jpg

Sometimes if my plane is dull, or boring looking, I'll either download a custom skin on the WT community page, or I'll slap a decal on it. This is a fictional Wespen unit Do17, flying really high above Italy.

[Raul]

Yeah I play wt, it’s usually nice, but sometimes I encounter toxic players on ps4. I play America and France and Germany, my favorite veichle is the f.2222 bomber of France. Raul

[RustyRelics]

Sicily.jpg

So far, this is one of my favorite plans. I'm still a low level nothing pilot as of now, so I get low level equipment. However, the B-34 Ventura is an awesome plane to deal with. At first, I would fly at around 16,000 feet, but enemy pilots knew I was a bomber when flying that high, and made a bee line right for me. I was getting shot down left and right. So I came up with the idea of low level bombing.

My plane carries about 7 150 lb. bombs. There are timers on each of the bombs. By past mistakes, I learned not to have the bombs explode on contact when flying at low levels. So wit the Ventura, I would fly 50 feet above the ground give or take, and fly very quickly to my target. I would drop the bombs over my target, and get out, while the timers of my dropped bombs were counting down. I've destroyed many hangars, airfields and bases that way, and I've been relatively safe from fighters too. Mostly.

I had three Bf-109s coming at me, so I got into my turret and started blasting away. I shot down two of the three, and severely wounded the other. The other got me though, and I made a crash landing about a mile from my own airfield.

Picture taken over Sicily.

[RustyRelics]

Yeah I play wt, it’s usually nice, but sometimes I encounter toxic players on ps4. I play America and France and Germany, my favorite veichle is the f.2222 bomber of France. Raul

I only had one problem with jerk players. They were all screeching at me how escorting bombers was impossible. I'm sorry, how come when I get into a fighter plane I always escort the bombers? Hm.

[RustyRelics]

Skylark IV.jpg

This is a special plane for me. I grew up reading Robert Sands account of WWII in the book, Air Command. This is one of his planes that he did nose art for.

By the way, as weird as they look, P38s are the most maneuverable plane I've dealt with to date.

[RustyRelics]

Bf109e-1.jpg

If there is a plane that makes you feel unstoppable, it's the Bf-109. There were many variants of this plane, and I have the basic Bf-109 E something or other. It's manuverable, fast, and totally cool looking.


Close fight.jpg

The only problem I have with the plane is it's reliability when wounded. This variant of the Bf gets hit often, and 9/10 won't make it back to its base. I guess I could say that for most planes though.

Over France.jpg

[Rakkasan187]

I do have to disagree with your assessment of the P-40 fighter plane being a bottom of the barrel fighter. It performed remarkedly well in China with the AVG (American Volunteer Group) aka "Flying Tigers". This group of volunteers were officially credited with destroying 297 enemy planes in this bottom of the barrel fighter.

And don't forget the 11 fighter pilots who were able to take off during the attack on Peral Harbor. They mostly flew P-40s and one pilot flew an outdated P-36 fighter and all combined were able to shoot down 11 confirmed, 5 probables and at least 2 more damaged...

It sounds like an interesting computer game but to be able to chose the type of plane you get to fly in a computer generated scenario is no where near the same as learning the tradecraft of being a fighter pilot or dive bomber pilot..

If you get the opportunity, see if you can find some of these classic war books by Ballentine.. They are first hand account stories of the fighter pilots who flew the very planes you mentioned in the computer game and they tell how demanding it was to fly their aircraft and the skills needed to out maneuver their adversaries..

Here is a list:

"Samurai" by Saburo Sakai
"The Ragged Rugged Warriors" by Martin Caidin
" I flew for the Fuhrer": Heinze Knocke
"Stuka Pilot" by Heinze Ulrich Rudel
"Reach for the Sky" by Douglas Bader

There are hundreds of other books but these are some of the most compelling first hand accounts by the fighter pilots themselves..

Best regards

Smitty

[Jb4046]

I play mainly realistic ground forces. I love high tier Japanese tanks and mid tier British tanks. Occasionally German low-mid tiers.

Don’t really play planes that much, I do like he Japanese Ki-109 with the 75mm gun. Difficult but rewarding in ground battles.

My current most played line up is
M4A3 (Japan) - Ho Ri prototype - M41 walker bulldog (japan) - M42 duster (Japan) and the A6M5 Ko Reisen

I do have the STB1 and the type 89 and the type 75 SPH unlocked but that’s a weak line up

[RustyRelics]

I do have to disagree with your assessment of the P-40 fighter plane being a bottom of the barrel fighter. It performed remarkedly well in China with the AVG (American Volunteer Group) aka "Flying Tigers". This group of volunteers were officially credited with destroying 297 enemy planes in this bottom of the barrel fighter.

And don't forget the 11 fighter pilots who were able to take off during the attack on Peral Harbor. They mostly flew P-40s and one pilot flew an outdated P-36 fighter and all combined were able to shoot down 11 confirmed, 5 probables and at least 2 more damaged...

It sounds like an interesting computer game but to be able to chose the type of plane you get to fly in a computer generated scenario is no where near the same as learning the tradecraft of being a fighter pilot or dive bomber pilot..

If you get the opportunity, see if you can find some of these classic war books by Ballentine.. They are first hand account stories of the fighter pilots who flew the very planes you mentioned in the computer game and they tell how demanding it was to fly their aircraft and the skills needed to out maneuver their adversaries..

Here is a list:

"Samurai" by Saburo Sakai
"The Ragged Rugged Warriors" by Martin Caidin
" I flew for the Fuhrer": Heinze Knocke
"Stuka Pilot" by Heinze Ulrich Rudel
"Reach for the Sky" by Douglas Bader

There are hundreds of other books but these are some of the most compelling first hand accounts by the fighter pilots themselves..

Best regards

Smitty

Obviously it's not like learning to fly the real thing, but it is designed as real as possible with original specifications.

One thing to consider is , the pilot in this case is a bumbling kid who has no clue how to run computers, let alone fight off people in a simulator who do know what they're doing.



Now about the P-40. Over 14,000 were produced, but it wasn't wasn't the best with engine performance or dogfights. Its niche was being a fighter bomber in North Africa, and from every documentary and book I've ever seen the P-40 in, they'll echo the same. But when it came down to it, it all depended on the pilot. A good pilot can fly anything, even, with some difficulty things never meant to fly.