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Welcome aboard Ark Royal, Captain!

Ark Royal is one of the most famous aircraft carriers in the history of the Royal Navy. The pilots of her air groups achieved the first British aerial victory of World War II, and contributed greatly to destroying battleship Bismarck. Ark Royal hunted German raider ships and submarines, and participated in the Norwegian campaign as well as the defense of Malta. The ship was awarded five battle honors for just 18 months of combat. Now you have a chance to take command of the renowned aircraft carrier in World of Warships!
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The building of a large aircraft carrier was planned by the British Admiralty as far back as 1923. However, due to the economic and political situation, it was postponed until the mid-1930s. Ark Royal was laid down at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead on September 16, 1935. At that time, the task of designing the ship was carried out by the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Arthur Johns. On April 13, 1937, the aircraft carrier was launched.

The money invested into the project was not spent in vain. During the sea trials held in May 1938, the ship's speed exceeded the expectations of the design, reaching 31.2 knots.

Ark Royal inherited her name from the first purpose-built seaplane tender in the Royal Navy. The name itself dates back to the 16th century, when it was borne by the flagship of Admiral Charles Howard.

After World War II broke out, Ark Royal joined an anti-submarine "hunter-killer" group. In this role, she hunted German submarines together with a flotilla of destroyers in the Atlantic, west of the British Isles. On September 14, 1939, the aircraft carrier launched her dive bombers in response to a distress call received from a dry-cargo ship, Fanad Head. But in the meantime, she was attacked by submarine U-39. Ark Royal managed to dodge the torpedoes, and the escort destroyers sank the submarine with the aid of depth charges. It was the first time the Royal Navy was victorious in opposing a submarine in World War II. However, they failed to protect the cargo ship from a U-30 attack. Moreover, two aircraft crashed during an unsuccessful bombing run, and their pilots were captured.

After aircraft carrier Courageous had been sunk by submarines on September 17, 1939, it was decided to withdraw this type of ship from “hunter-killer” groups. However, Ark Royal would continue to launch aircraft carrying depth charges when on patrol in case of underwater threats, including during her last voyage.

On September 26, 1939, pilots from Ark Royal became the first British forces to down a German plane in World War II. While defending their task force from three German Dornier Do 18 "flying boat" scout aircraft, they managed to destroy one of them. In their turn, the Germans declared that they had sunk the aircraft carrier, which turned out to be a premature claim.

Between October–December 1939, Ark Royal participated in hunting the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. The aircraft carrier, sailing with battlecruiser Renown, didn't manage to arrive at the Battle of the River Plate in time, but the British attempted to mislead the Germans by spreading false information about the imminent arrival of the two ships. The day after the battle, officers from Graf Spee spotted a ship on the horizon that was mistakenly identified as battlecruiser Renown. Those factors are believed to have played a key role in the Germans’ decision to scuttle their own ship in the harbor of Montevideo.

Between April–June 1940, Ark Royal took part in the battle for Norway. The carrier's aircraft were covering the Allied forces from German aviation and providing them with close air support. On June 13, 1940, a few days after aircraft carrier Glorious had been sunk by German battleships, Ark Royal tried to strike back. But during her attack on battleship Scharnhorst, she lost eight Skua strike dive bombers in vain.

After the surrender of Norway, Ark Royal joined Force H—a task force of the Royal Navy based in Gibraltar and reporting directly to the Admiralty. She debuted in that theater of operations with the attack on the French Navy at Mers-El-Kébir. Subsequently, Ark Royal participated in the escort of convoys to the besieged island of Malta and in one battle—the Battle of Cape Spartivento. The aircraft carrier repeatedly attacked Genoa during operation Grog, which was aimed at bombarding the city and its port from the sea. She was regularly targeted by Italian aircraft herself but didn't receive any damage.

In May 1941, Ark Royal played a crucial role in the hunt for battleship Bismarck, which had broken through into the Atlantic to carry out raids. On May 26, the carrier's aircraft detected the German battleship, but the main forces of the Home Fleet still were too far away to stop the raider from reaching French ports. Ark Royal was ordered to intercept Bismarck with a torpedo attack.

The first approach was unsuccessful—Ark Royal’s Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers mistakenly attacked British cruiser Sheffield, which was also in pursuit of the German battleship. Luckily, not a single torpedo hit the target. The torpedo bombers returned to the carrier for re-armament and refueling, before being launched again to attack Bismarck just before sunset. The obsolete "Stringbags" (the nickname was given to them because of the numerous bracing wires they had between the wings) turned out to be surprisingly effective, managing to score three torpedo hits. One of them brought the battleship face to face with her doom. The torpedo jammed the rudder, costing Bismarck her speed and maneuverability. She was sunk in the course of the battle with the British squadron.

Following those events, Ark Royal returned to the Mediterranean Sea to escort the supply convoys to Malta. On November 13, 1941, the aircraft carrier was hit by a torpedo launched from German submarine U-81. The resulting flooding extinguished her boilers, which in turn stopped her steam turbine generators. The ship didn't have any standby diesel generators, so all of her pumps stopped and damage control became impossible. Tugboats tried to tow the aircraft carrier to Gibraltar, but Ark Royal sank 30 miles out from the port. All out of almost 1,500 people aboard survived, except for one sailor who was killed by the torpedo explosion. British shipbuilders learned from the destruction of Ark Royal and introduced the required improvement into the designs of the Illustrious- and Implacable-class aircraft carriers that were under construction at the time.


Attack aircraft: Blackburn Skua strike dive bombers


Torpedo bombers: Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers/scouts/bombers
Bombers: Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers/scouts/bombers

• Air Supremacy
  
• Improved Engine Boost
  
• Improved Engines
  
• Aircraft Armor
  
• Survivability Expert

• Air Supremacy
  
• Improved Engine Boost
  
• Improved Engines
  
• Aircraft Armor
  
• Survivability Expert
  
• Sight Stabilization
  
• Demolition Expert
  
• Adrenaline Rush

• Air Groups Modification 1
  
• Aircraft Engines Modification 1
  
• Attack Aircraft Modification 1
  
• Bombers Modification 2

VI Ark Royal was the first British aircraft carrier on which the hangar and flight deck formed integral parts of the hull, instead of being parts of the superstructures. The carrier was instrumental in the destruction of German battleship Bismarck, participated in the Norwegian campaign, and escorted British convoys to Malta. In World of Warships, she is the first Premium Tier VI aircraft carrier to enter the game. The ship boasts a large air group and has a fast aircraft-restoration time.

• Larger squadrons and attack flights compared with other Tier VI aircraft carriers. She can have as many as nine bombers, attack aircraft, or torpedo bombers airborne and attacking a target, with flights of three aircraft each.
  
• Fast aircraft-restoration time: 48 seconds for attack aircraft, 56 seconds for bombers, and 59 seconds for torpedo bombers.
  
• In terms of their individual characteristics, Ark Royal's aircraft are somewhat inferior to the aircraft used by other Tier VI carriers.
  
• The permanent camouflage provides extra credits per battle, as well as 50% more XP, and –10% to the cost of the ship's post-battle service.

For a detailed look at the ship's technical specifications, follow this link.


Unsinkable Sam: Ark Royal –15%

• VI Ark Royal
• Commander with 10 skill points 
  
• Port Slot
  
• Unsinkable Sam permanent camouflage for VI Ark Royal
  
• Historical permanent camouflage for VI Ark Royal
  
• 2,500,000
• 80×Equal Speed Charlie London
  
• 80×India Bravo Terrathree
  
• 80×Zulu
  
• 80×Papa Papa
  
• 80×Zulu Hotel
  
• Combat mission: x3 XP for 25 battles
  
• Commemorative flag

Bundles are available for purchase until Fri. 18 Oct. 07:00 CEST (UTC+2)

• Shock! Could IX Kronshtadt be a new submarine in World of Warships?
  
• VII Fiji's fuming maneuvers!
  
• The true power of IX Dmitri Donskoi!

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• VIII Vladivostok in pursuit of VIII Richelieu!
  
• IX Benham’s torpedo delivery service!
  
• VII Sinop’s incredible luck!

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Any player can send us an unlimited number of replays. Players will receive a reward for every replay chosen for the show!

Destroyer Yūdachi was one of ten Shiratsuyu-class ships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1930s.

As with the other ships of her class, she took part in some of the most important naval battles of the Pacific Theater. Yūdachi was eventually destroyed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, but now you can take command of this famous destroyer in World of Warships!
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The Shiratsuyu-class destroyers were built between 1933–1937. Their project was a modified version of the Hatsuharu-class ships—with these original ships having a number of drawbacks that the Shiratsuyu class improved upon. The new ships had better stability and quadruple-tube torpedo mounts which enhanced torpedo armament.

Yūdachi was the fourth ship in the series. Her hull was laid down on October 16, 1934, at the shipyard of the Sasebo Naval Arsenal. Following Japanese tradition, the ship received a poetic name after a weather phenomenon—Evening Squall. Yūdachi was commissioned on January 7, 1937.

Yūdachi never participated in the historically significant attack on Pearl Harbor. As the war broke out, she was situated at the Mako navy base on the Pescadores Islands to the west of Taiwan, together with her three sister ships Murasame, Harusame, and Samidare. However, the ships of Destroyer Squadron 2 weren't destined to be out of action: they were engaged in the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and after January 1942—in battles for the Dutch East Indies.

The first significant battle in which Yūdachi took part was the Battle of the Java Sea on February 27, 1942. The Japanese formation, under the command of Admiral Takeo Takagi, crushed the Allied squadron without suffering any significant losses.

Yūdachi spent the spring of 1942 in battles for the Philippine Islands, and in June she took a small part in the Battle of Midway. After that, she was planned to be used for raider operations in the Indian Ocean, but the course of the war made the ship return to the Pacific.

On August 30, Yūdachi joined the Tokyo Express, a group of ships delivering reinforcements to the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal during night-time hours. Under the cover of darkness, the fast cruisers and destroyers were safe from the U.S. aviation attacks. In one such operation, Yūdachi scored her first victories: she contributed to the destruction of the old U.S. destroyers—Gregory and Little—that had tried to prevent the Japanese forces from bombing the Henderson Field airfield.

In October 1942, Yūdachi took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, and during the night of November 12–13 she set sail on her last voyage. In the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal—which resembled a bar brawl with the lights turned off, according to the participants of the U.S. side—Yūdachi and another Japanese destroyer, Amatsukaze, separated from the main Japanese forces and stole up to the U.S. convoy from the rear. Amatsukaze successfully torpedoed and sunk destroyer Barton and attacked light cruiser Juneau. Yūdachi wasn't so lucky: amidst the chaos of the night battle, she mistook U.S. destroyer Sterett for a friendly ship. As a result, the U.S. ship managed to make several accurate hits, leaving Yūdachi dead in the water. Most of the heavily damaged ship's crew was evacuated by Samidare. The destroyer tried to give her old ally a coup de grace with torpedoes, but missed. Yūdachi was eventually sunk by U.S. heavy cruiser Portland.



In the game, the ship is featured in her state as of early 1937 when she entered service.

Main Battery
Five 127 mm/50 Type 3 guns in two twin and one single turrets. Similar guns were mounted on the majority of Japanese destroyers, from Fubuki to Shimakaze.


Torpedo Armament
Two quadruple-tube 610 mm torpedo launchers. Type 93 Japanese oxygen torpedoes enabled the Imperial Japanese Navy to attack Allied ships out of the blue from distances that had been deemed unreachable for torpedo armament up until then.


Anti-Aircraft Armament
Two single-barrel 40 mm HI Type 91 AA guns. This is how the British QF 2-pounder guns, widely known as "pom-poms", were designated in the Imperial Japanese Navy. About half a thousand of these guns were purchased in the late 1920s–early 1930s.

• Priority Target
  
• Last Stand
  
• Torpedo Armament Expertise
  
• Concealment Expert

• Priority Target
  
• Last Stand
  
• Torpedo Armament Expertise
  
• Concealment Expert
  
• Survivability Expert
  
• Superintendent
  
• Adrenaline Rush or Torpedo Acceleration
  
• Preventive Maintenance

• Main Armaments Modification 1
  
• Steering Gears Modification 1
  
• Aiming Systems Modification 1
  
• Propulsion Modification 2

In World of Warships, VII Yūdachi is a typical Japanese destroyer with powerful torpedo armament and decent concealment. Attacking with torpedoes from medium- and long- range distances is the best tactic for her. Her long-range torpedoes make it possible to attack radar-equipped targets without the risk of being detected, and the Torpedo Reload Booster consumable in a separate slot enables her to fire 16 torpedoes within a period of a few seconds.

However, Yūdachi is inferior to enemy ships in battles that require extensive maneuvering at close and medium ranges due to her low turret traverse speed and slow rate of fire. Her small HP pool also means that she isn’t well-suited to engaging in firefights with enemy destroyers, and particularly cruisers.

• Torpedo armament with eight torpedoes per salvo and a range of 15 km—pretty decent for her tier—but a high torpedo detectability range. Having the Torpedo Reload Booster consumable in a separate slot from Smoke Generator enables her to set a smoke screen and fire 16 torpedoes from within it at her enemies (two salvoes of eight torpedoes, with just an 8 second gap between salvoes).
  
• Good concealment for her type and tier.
  
• Five main battery guns with precise and powerful HE shells, although they are not as rapid-firing as the guns of destroyers of other nations.

For a detailed look at the ship's technical specifications, follow this link.


POI!~

Don't miss this perfect opportunity to replenish your Clan's Treasury and clash for Coal, Steel, and other rewards.




In contrast to Clan Battles, Clan Brawls take place throughout the course of a single day, with only victories being counted.

• Clan Brawl 4: October 5—for Tier X ships

• ASIA 13:00 — 18:00 CEST
  
• CIS 17:00 — 22:00 CEST
  
• EU 18:00 — 23:00 CEST
  
• NA 01:00 — 06:00 CEST

Please note: you won't be able to change the prime time once it has been selected! Unlike in Clan Battles, a Clan's place in the Brawl Rating is determined within the region of the selected prime time.

• Any Clan can participate in a Clan Brawl.
  
• Battles are held in a 3 vs. 3 format.
  
• Battle duration: 15 minutes.
  
• There is a limit of one destroyer, one cruiser, and one battleship per team.
  
• Any number of teams from a single Clan can fight in a Brawl if the composition of the teams meets the listed conditions.
  
• Only victories are counted for the Rating.
  
• Since only victories are counted and defeats aren't taken into account, there’s no option to select Alpha or Bravo Ratings in the Clan Brawl.
  
• Victories earned in the Clan Brawl aren’t counted towards the requirements to obtain Clan Battle emblems.
  
• If two teams share the same number of victories, the higher position in the Rating will be given to the Clan that first gained their last victory.

• Victory: 2,500 base XP and 300,000 credits (without modifiers applied).
  
• Defeat: 250 base XP and 150,000 credits (without modifiers applied).
  
• Draw: both teams earn an amount of XP and credits equal to that received for a lost battle.

To prevent unsporting conduct in Clan Battles, if a battle lasts less than 4.5 minutes, neither team receives experience nor credits for that battle. In the Clan Brawls of Update 0.8.8, this restriction will be set to 3 minutes.

• In the Clan Brawl of September 21, players will be able to receive up to 2,500,000 credits; 100,000 Elite Commander XP; and 3,500 Coal!
  
• In the Clan Brawl of October 5, players will be able to receive up to 2,500,000 credits; 3,500 Coal; and 350 Steel!

* Each subsequent position between 5–50 brings 250 Coal less.


Clans which rank in the Top 1,000; Top 100; Top 10; or are named the Champion Clan in the selected prime time will be awarded special achievements. In such cases, all Clan members who have played at least one battle during the Clan Brawl will be awarded these achievements.


Battles of the third and fourth Clan Brawls will be held on maps of a reduced size. This will add greater dynamics to battles in their particular formats, where teams have a small number of players.

Both Clan Brawls will take place on the following maps: Hotspot, Mountain Range, Shatter, and Warrior's Path—Domination mode; and Two Brothers—Epicenter mode.

We wish you the best of luck in the Clan Brawls! See you in battle!

Captains!

Update 0.8.9 introduces the Italian arc and our Halloween-themed event. In this episode of Developer Diaries, we'll tell you the story of what went into creating the new ship branch and its gameplay features. We'll also lift the veil on a new "scary" game mode.

What are the new mechanics of the Italian cruisers? What is the Exhaust Smoke Generator? What are the peculiarities of SAP shells? And how can you get more rewards in the Raid for the Filth?

Find out the answers to these questions in the new episode of Developer Diaries!
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