Commanders!
Walter Christie was the inventor of the famous “helicoil” tank suspension, which was the foundation of many tanks. Some of them became legends, and all of them are playable in World of Tanks.
This weekend, we are celebrating his birthday by offering you many bonuses on all the tanks which have this suspension or are based on it.
This special begins on May 4th at 07:10 (GMT +2) and lasts until May 7th at 07:00 (GMT +2). During this time, you will be able to profit from these bonuses:
X2 Crew Experience
Every day during the special, your crew will earn 2 times more experience in every battle.
Since we are celebrating the great inventor’s birthday, your crew gets to learn faster!
Medal Hunt: Invader
This time there is no difficult terrain excuse for these who fail to conquer the enemy base! When you are in the winning team and have captured at least 80 points-worth of the enemy base, you will gain 15,000 credits in addition to your Invader medal!
The only thing you need to do to participate in this event is to plan your strategy to capture the enemy base! When you obtain the Invader medal, your credit bonus will automatically appear in your account!
Be there first!
50% discount on following vehicles:
 |
 |
Soviet SU-85 |
 |
 |
British Crusader |
|
 |
American T49 |
|
 |
Soviet SU-100 |
 |
 |
British Cromwell |
You will also be able to enjoy 80% increased profits on all of the vehicles above.
30% discount on following Tier VII vehicles:
|
 |
Soviet SU-100M1 |
|
 |
British Comet |
|
 |
Chinese T-34-1 |
You will also be able to enjoy 30% increased profits on all of the vehicles above.
How fast are you? Can you get them all this weekend?
80% profit increase with the following tanks:
|
 |
Soviet BT-2 |
|
 |
British Cruiser Mk. III |
|
 |
Soviet BT-7 |
|
 |
Soviet T-46 |
|
 |
British Cruiser Mk. IV |
|
 |
Soviet A-20 |
|
 |
British Covenanter |
Who says that the small ones get nothing?
Discount on Premium Accounts
During the Special you will be able to get your Premium Account access at a really good price! 3 days of Premium will be available for 350(save 300 gold) and 7 days of Premium for 650(save 600 gold).
The first weekend of May is a really good time for intensive play!
Enjoy the special and roll out!
 |
John Walter Christie was born on May 6th 1865 in New Milford, New Jersey. At the age of 16, he began to work in Delamater Iron Works. He also started his classes at the prestigious Cooper Union in New York. During his career he worked in many fields relating to engeneering and design: steamships, development of early submarines, amphibious tanks, artillery turrets for warships, front-wheel drive fire-fighting cars, and taxi and car racing. He was even the first American to finish the French Grand Prix race. |
When one of Christie’s tank projects was rejected by the army officials due to weak results in the off-road performance tests, the inventor put all his attention onto this aspect of his tank’s development.
After 5 years of work he produced a revolutionary tank prototype, which was marked M1928. Christie named his creation “Model 1940”, because he was certain that the construction was 12 years ahead of its time.
The most important part of the new design was the “helicoil” suspension, which had each large weight-bearing road wheel having its own spring-loaded assembly. This allowed for much better high-speed cross-country mobility than tanks with the contemporary leaf-spring suspension. The new suspension meant less space inside the tank, but it had lower profile and significantly higher speed.
However, Christie was not getting along with the officials. He was offensive and refused to adapt his projects to army specifications. In addition, there were differences in the doctrine – the army wanted better resilience and firepower, while Christie was thinking of greater mobility for the future armour. These were the reasons why only few examples of the M1928 were transferred to the military for further testing. In the end the Secretary of Defence didn’t agree to mass production.
The embittered constructor started to look for buyers abroad. It turned out that Poland, the Soviet Union and Great Britain were interested in his projects. After a long and difficult exchange, a deal was stuck with the Soviet Union.
When the Soviets came up with their M1928-founded BT cruiser tank line, Great Britain became more interested in the design. Eventually the British obtained one prototype from Christie and reworked it heavily. The result was the British Cruiser Mk III tank. In this time, the Soviets improved on their BT line up to the point of creating the famous T-34.
Later, Walter Christie tried to design new ordnance for US Army, but he never had another success on the scale of his previous breakthrough suspension. His tanks never made it to mass production in the USA. Christie died in 1944, poor and frustrated, while tanks based on his design were changing the course of history.
