World of Tanks

World of Tanks is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Belarusian-Cypriot company Wargaming, featuring early to mid-20th century era fighting vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-to-play, but participants also have the option of paying a fee for use of "premium" features. The focus is on player vs. player gameplay with each player controlling an armored vehicle, which may be a light, medium or heavy tank, tank destroyer, or self-propelled gun. World of Tanks debuted as an eSports game at the World Cyber Games 2012.

On 10 June 2013 it was announced that World of Tanks was coming to Xbox Live Arcade on 12 February 2014 as World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition. Xbox 360 players use separate servers to those playing the Windows version, and players of each version have separate accounts. The Xbox 360 version was developed by Wargaming West studio. An Xbox One version has been announced, and was released on 28 July 2015. A PlayStation 4 version is scheduled to release in 2016.World of Tanks has also recently expanded to mobile platforms under the name World of Tanks Blitz, in addition to a board game titled World of Tanks Rush and a collectable card game titled World of Tanks: Generals.

SU-152

The SU-152 (Samokhodnaya ustanovka-152) was a Soviet self-propelled heavy howitzer used during World War II.

It mounted a 152 mm gun-howitzer on the chassis of a KV-1S heavy tank. Later production used an IS tank chassis and was re-designated ISU-152. Because of its adopted role as an impromptu heavy tank destroyer, capable of knocking out the heaviest German armoured vehicles—Tiger and Panther tanks, and Elefant tank destroyers—it was nicknamed Zveroboy ("Beast Slayer").

Development

The Stalingrad counteroffensive, Operation Uranus, exposed the Red Army's urgent need for mobile heavy guns. Primary targets for these guns were German fortifications in and around Stalingrad. At the time Soviet front-line ground units did not possess sufficient firepower to deal with pillboxes and other fortifications.

Close support of artillery and combat engineers was an important factor in the success of Operation Uranus. However, with rare exceptions, all Soviet guns and howitzers at this time were towed rather than self-propelled. This lack of mobility proved to be greatly exacerbated by the absence of roads, the presence of deep snow cover and a scarcity of artillery tractors. Towed guns were also highly vulnerable to counterattack while on the move, especially since they were often hauled by horses or their own crews. The 152 mm heavy howitzers were particularly difficult to maneuver; owing to their great weight, they were incapable of crossing rivers on anything but tank bridges and were prone to becoming hopelessly mired and needing to be abandoned by their crews. This situation did not satisfy the state authorities. In November 1942 the State Defense Committee ordered the development of a heavy self-propelled gun armed with the 152.4mm ML-20 howitzer.

Kliment Voroshilov tank

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov and used by the Red Army during World War II. The KV series were known for their heavy armour protection during the early part of the war, especially during the first year of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In certain situations, even a single KV-1 or KV-2 supported by infantry was capable of halting the enemy's onslaught. German tanks at that time were rarely used in KV encounters as their armament was too poor to deal with the "Russischer Koloss" - "Russian Colossus."

The KV tanks were practically immune to the 3.7 cm KwK 36 and howitzer-like, short barreled 7.5 cm KwK 37 guns mounted, respectively, on the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks fielded by the invading German forces. Until more effective guns were developed by the Germans, the KV-1 was invulnerable to almost any German weapon except the 8.8 cm Flak gun. Even then, in a speech to the Panzerkommission on 18 November 1941, Guderian stated that "the sloped armor causes hits from the 8.8 cm Flak gun to ricochet" referring to the KV-1.

Rage comic

A rage comic is a short comic using a growing set of pre-made cartoon faces, or rage faces, which usually express rage or some other simple emotion or activity. These comics have spread much in the same way that internet memes do, and several dead memes have originated in this medium. They have been characterized by Ars Technica as an "accepted and standardized form of online communication." The popularity of rage comics has been attributed to their use as vehicles for humorizing shared experiences. The range of expression and standardized, easily identifiable faces has allowed uses such as teaching English as a foreign language.

History

Although used on numerous websites such as Reddit, Cheezburger, ESS.MX, and 9GAG, the source of the rage comic has largely been attributed to 4chan in mid-2007. The first rage comic was posted to the 4chan /b/random board in 2008. It was a simple 4-panel strip showing the author's anger about getting "splashback" while on the toilet, with the final panel featuring a zoomed-in face, known as Rage Guy, screaming "FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-". It was quickly reposted and modified, with other users creating new scenarios and characters.

Tank

A tank is a large, heavily armoured fighting vehicle with tracks and a large tank gun that is designed for front-line combat. Modern tanks are mobile land weapon platforms, mounting a large-calibre cannon in a rotating gun turret. They combine this with heavy vehicle armour which provides protection for the crew, the vehicle's weapons, and its propulsion systems, and operational mobility, due to its use of tracks rather than wheels, which allows the tank to move over rugged terrain and be positioned on the battlefield in advantageous locations. These features enable the tank to perform well in a tactical situation: the combination of powerful weapons fire from their tank gun and their ability to resist enemy fire means the tank can take hold of and control an area and prevent other enemy vehicles from advancing. In both offensive and defensive roles, they are powerful units able to perform key primary tasks required of armoured units on the battlefield. The modern tank was the result of a century of development from the first primitive armoured vehicles, due to improvements in technology such as the internal combustion engine, which allowed the rapid movement of heavy armoured vehicles. As a result of these advances, tanks underwent tremendous shifts in capability during the World Wars of the 20th century.