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Pages of History (December): The Hero of the Ardennes

[p][/p][p]In Pages of History this month, you’ll be taken all across the world through multiple theaters of war. Belgium and Italy, the USSR and China — take part in battles using vehicles linked to these historical engagements and get extra rewards![/p][p] [/p]
[p]From December 1st until December 30th, you will be able to participate in 8 tasks consecutively. Completing each task will grant you a trophy with a reward, completing all of the tasks will earn you a unique player icon![/p]
[p]
[/p][h3]Francis Sherman Currey[/h3][p]Francis Currey served in the US Army during the Battle of the Bulge. The German offensive was forcing the Americans defending near the town of Malmedy to retreat, as they were under continuous heavy fire. Currey, using a bazooka while being suppressed by German forces, managed to neutralize four enemy tanks, forcing their crews to abandon their vehicles. The destruction of these vehicles halted the advance, saving his fellow soldiers. Currey was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

You can immediately purchase this profile icon for Golden Eagles until January 3rd (11:30 GMT) without completing tasks. To find it, go to your Nickname → Achievements → Pages of History.[/p][p][/p][h2]Trophy reward for each task[/h2][p]Completing each individual task will give you a trophy with one of the following rewards:[/p]
  • [p]20-50% RP booster for 3-10 battles;[/p]
  • [p]20-50% SL booster for 3-10 battles;[/p]
  • [p]3-5 universal backups;[/p]
  • [p]Premium account for 1 day;[/p]
  • [p]A random ground vehicle camouflage (out of those that can currently be unlocked or purchased with Golden Eagles).[/p]
[h2]Other terms[/h2]
  • [p]Tasks are available from 11:00 GMT until 11:30 GMT on the final day of each task.[/p]
  • [p]Tasks can be completed in random battles except for “Assault” mode.[/p]
[p][/p][p]You can read a detailed description of which task is for which day and your overall progress by going to your Nickname → Achievements → Pages of History.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 1st — December 4th[/p][p]Bernhardt Line[/p][p]In early December 1943, the Allies began an attack on Wehrmacht forces in Central Italy, who were defending along the Bernhardt Line. Over a month and a half of fighting, at the cost of 16,000 lives, the attackers only managed to advance 11 km, where the Gustav Line awaited them.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 5th — December 8th[/p][p]Battle of Sio[/p][p]Throughout the winter of 1943-44, forces from Australia, Papua and the USA conducted an offensive on the northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea. The Japanese managed to evacuate part of their garrison from the island, suffering heavy losses, while the Allies captured valuable cryptographic materials that gave them a strong advantage in subsequent operations.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 9th — December 12th[/p][p]Operation Compass[/p][p]On December 9th, 1940, Great Britain launched an operation against Italian forces in Egypt. Despite Italy’s colossal superiority in both manpower and equipment, it was completely defeated. Italy would lose over 133,000 soldiers along with hundreds of tanks and thousands of artillery pieces. Britain took control of western Egypt and Cyrenaica.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 12th — December 15th[/p][p]Operation Winter Storm[/p][p]At the end of 1942, the Wehrmacht’s 6th Army was encircled near Stalingrad during Operation Uranus. The Axis command developed an initiative to restore the front line and supply the 6th Army, but this task proved to be overly ambitious. Due to the unwillingness to abandon Stalingrad after the failure of Operation Winter Storm, the 6th Army remaining in the city was left with no chance.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 16th — December 19th[/p][p]Ardennes Offensive[/p][p]From mid-December 1944 to the end of January 1945, Germany made its last attempt at a strategic counter-offensive on the Western Front. In the Ardennes in southeastern Belgium, the Wehrmacht clashed with British and US forces, and was defeated. The “Battle of the Bulge”, as it was called in the USA, became the bloodiest in the country’s history, with more than 100,000 American casualties.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 19th — December 22nd[/p][p]Kursk-Oboyan operation[/p][p]After repelling the Wehrmacht’s offensive on Moscow in December 1941, the Red Army launched a counter-offensive. The freshly inspired command expected a quick victory over Germany as early as 1942. The offensive was conducted along the entire front by rifle divisions without any supporting actions to pin down or divert enemy forces. This approach predictably failed, with the operation halting after the onset of spring.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 23rd — December 26th[/p][p]Battle of Changsha[/p][p]On December 24th 1941, Japan made its third attempt to capture the Chinese city of Changsha. The Japanese command counted on a swift operation, but Chinese troops tied down the enemy forces near the city, cut off their supply routes, and surrounded them, forcing them to suffer heavy losses during their retreat.[/p][p] [/p][p]December 27th – December 31st[/p][p]Battle of the Barents Sea[/p][p]On December 31st 1942, a German naval group led by the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Lützow attacked a British convoy in the Barents Sea as it ferried fuel and equipment to the USSR. Despite the superiority of the German forces, the British managed to repel the attack, losing just two escort ships. Admiral Hipper sustained serious heavy damage and retreated, and the convoy reached Murmansk without losing a single transport.[/p]

Update 2.51.0.49

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Aircraft[/h3]
  • [p]TWS+ track stability has been improved. A bug where tracking signatures would stop updating during a single scan, resulting in frozen targets and loss of vector tracking has been fixed.[/p]
  • [p]F-16D Barak II — a bug where it was not possible to lock onto targets on the ground when using the GBU-15(V)2/B guided bomb has been fixed.[/p]
  • [p]T129 — a bug where the flares/chaff text was displayed as a text code in the modification window has been fixed. (Report).[/p]
  • [p]F-16A MLU — additional pages have been added to the MFD.[/p]
[p] [/p][h3]Ground Vehicles[/h3]
  • [p]Vilkas —  a bug where the gun barrel and breech modules were displayed incorrectly in X-ray mode has been fixed. (Report).[/p]
  • [p]EBRC Jaguar — a bug where the burning effect from shell hits was displayed in the air when firing at the left side of the turret has been fixed.[/p]
[p] [/p][h3]Interface[/h3]
  • [p]A bug that sometimes prevented the vehicle destruction counter from increasing in the scoreboard after a target was destroyed due to damage has been fixed. Mission points for destroyed vehicles were still awarded. (Report).[/p]
[p][/p][h3]VR[/h3]
  • [p]An issue where there was no image in the headset when turning on VR mode with DX12 selected has been fixed.[/p]
[hr][/hr][p]Patch notes reflect only key changes, meaning they may not include a complete list of all improvements made. Additionally, War Thunder is constantly being updated and some changes may not require an update. Changes reflected in patch notes are formed by taking reactions and requests of the community from the bug reporting service, forums and other official platforms into account. Bug fixes and changes are implemented in order of importance, for example a game-breaking bug will be worked on and implemented sooner.[/p]

Nominate War Thunder in the “Labor of Love” Category for The Steam Awards 2025!

[p][/p][p][/p][p]2025 marks 13 years since War Thunder became available for players! This year, we have released four major updates so far (with another coming in December) with new content, improvements, QoL changes and many new features for all of our players. And it doesn’t stop there! We’ll of course be continuing to develop War Thunder into 2026 with brand-new content, refinements and quality of life features for everyone to enjoy.[/p][p][/p][p]We’d like to thank every War Thunder player for playing the game in 2025 and for leaving your thoughts and positive and negative feedback throughout the year. Some of you have been here with us since the very beginning, shout out in the comments if you remember how it started![/p][p][/p][p]The Steam Awards and the “Labor of Love” category nomination has just opened today. This category is for games that have been developed for a long-time, over a period of years and still receive new content. We’d be honored if you considered the game worthy of this nomination. If you do believe it does, you can nominate War Thunder in The Steam Awards 2025 for the “Labor of Love” category by clicking on the nominate button at the top of this news article here on Steam.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for your support and see you in War Thunder🐌❤️[/p]

Screenshot Competition – City Limits!



Welcome to the 199th War Thunder Steam Screenshot Competition!


Thank you for the great submissions last week! We hope that you are enjoying Spearhead, and are looking forward to the next major update, coming Soon™! For our next theme, we are heading into urban battlefields. You can capture tanks navigating narrow streets, aircraft sweeping low over rooftops, or ships fighting near busy ports and industrial docks. The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!

[h2]Let’s begin the 199th edition of our competition![/h2]

Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen199. You have time until the 28th of November to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.



[h3]Terms:[/h3]
    Your screenshot must include infrastructure such as buildings, bridges, or port facilities.
    You must add the #WTscreen199 tag (title cannot have any other text in it).
    Artists may only win by popular vote once per four screenshot competitions.
  • Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.
  • You need to be the author of the screenshot.
  • Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.
  • We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).
  • You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.
  • You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.
  • Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 14 working days.


[h2]And now, time for the winners of the competition’s 198th edition – Spearhead![/h2]

[h3]Winners selected via community votes:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3606544706
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3607476260
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3606710075

[h3]Winners selected by our judges:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3606087641
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3606026901
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3607113264

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

Update 2.51.0.41

[p][/p][h2]Ground Vehicles[/h2]
  • [p]A bug that occurred when the power system on a player’s vehicle was destroyed and caused desync, which lead to the vehicle twitching when moving, has been fixed. (Report).[/p]
  • [p]Chi-To Late — a bug that caused the hatches on the turret to not rotate with the turret has been fixed. (Report).[/p]
  • [p]ISU-122S — has been added to the SU-85/ISU-122 group as the 3rd vehicle with the release of the Spearhead major update.[/p]
[h2]Locations and Missions[/h2]
  • [p]Japan — a bug on part of the map that caused missiles to explode right after launch, and the sounds of cannon and machine gun fire to sound muffled has been fixed. A bug that caused ground vehicles to float in the air has been fixed.[/p]
[hr][/hr][p]Patch notes reflect only key changes, meaning they may not include a complete list of all improvements made. Additionally, War Thunder is constantly being updated and some changes may not require an update. Changes reflected in patch notes are formed by taking reactions and requests of the community from the bug reporting service, forums and other official platforms into account. Bug fixes and changes are implemented in order of importance, for example a game-breaking bug will be worked on and implemented sooner.[/p]