Irish Tanks That Need Adding to War Thunder

While not usually a nation one thinks of when discussing tanks, Ireland has had a long history of using them, starting all the way back in 1929, with many different types being brought in the interwar period and during the Cold War, with many unique modifications and variants being developed from these tanks.

Indeed with so many types of tanks and armoured cars being used in Irish service, I believe that Ireland could even be added to War Thunder as a subtree!

So join me today as we take a look at the various tanks that were used by Ireland, their history in Irish service and why I think they should be added to War Thunder!

Intro: 00:00
Vickers Medium MK D: 00:48
Landsverk L-60: 03:25
Churchill MK VI: 04:59
Churchill with 650hp Merlin engine: 07:12
A34 Comet: 08:04
The Headless Coachman: 08:28
FV101 Scorpion: 10:23

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Sources ⬇️
https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/Ireland/vickers-medium-mk-d/

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/Ireland/landsverk-l-60-irish-service/

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/Ireland/churchill-mkvi-irish-service/

Flether, D. (2019). Churchill Infantry Tank. Osprey Publishing.

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/cold-war/ireland/a34-comet-irish-service/

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/irish-armour-fv101-scorpion-in-irish-service/

Foss, C., & Dunstan, S. (2011). Scorpion Reconnaissance Vehicle 1972-94. Osprey Publishing.

War Thunder for ingame stats

Music ⬇️
Icelandic Arpeggios by DivKid

🎮 Game: War Thunder ⬅️

#warthunder #irish #tanks #ireland #éire #vickers #landsverk #comet #headlesscoachman #scorpion #worldwar2 #coldwar

So initially I’d hoped to leave this video  until I had sent off for my Irish passport,   but as it’s taken a little bit longer than  I hoped for, I figured now is as good a   time as any to look at the Irish tanks I  would like to see added to War Thunder.

This episode will deal purely with  the actual tanks used by Ireland,   with a future episode to cover the various  armored cars used by Ireland and honestly   I think you could get a small sub tree out  of the various Irish tanks and armored cars,  

Though I could also see some of these being  added premium or event vehicles as well. Like with the other Irish Vehicles already  in the game like the LE Orla Corvette and   the Vickers Mark 11 which is based on the  Irish Timoney APC, these would probably be  

Added to the British Tech Tree but they could  also fit into other tech trees if required. So for the first two tanks we will be looking at  the Vickers Medium Mark D and the Landsverk L-60   with tanks of these two designs being brought  by Ireland in the inter War period and were  

The only tanks Ireland had available for  the inter War and World War II period. So starting with the Vickers Medium Mark D, this  was a one-off design which was essentially an   offshoot of the Vickers Medium Mark 2 and  of which only one example was produced,  

Which was the one that went to Ireland like  with the Vicker’s Medium Mark II it is very   lightly armored, with the armor maxing out  at 8 mm thick, so useless against almost any   incoming fire including heavy caliber machine  guns and possibly even lower caliber machine  

Guns and due to being built in the 1920s it  unfortunately doesn’t have the best speed,   maxing out at around 20 mph or 32 km  an hour while having a crew of five. Moving on to the main armament,  

The gun was a bit of a mixed bag as it  was a quick firing 57 mm 6 pounder gun,   though not to be confused with the later quick  firing 57 mm 6 pounder gun of World War II fame. I haven’t been able to find any concrete  penetration figures for against tanks or  

Armor but comparing it to the 3 pounder  on the Vickers independent tank in game it   should have a slightly lower muzzle velocity  at 554 m/s versus 563 m/s for the 3 pounder,   so we are likely looking at a gun that will  do around 30 to 35 mm penetration at 500m,  

Which isn’t great to be honest though not the  worst penetration figure in the world either. In addition to this it also had 4  x 7.7 mm machine guns at various   points around the tank which will  help against unarmored vehicles,   but probably isn’t going to change  your odds of success too much.

When introduced into Irish service it was  used to give troops a chance to train on   how to operate and work alongside tanks though,  as you might guess as it was literally the only   tank in Ireland at the time it would have  been of limited use and would probably have  

Been easily outmatched in combat, though  unfortunately the tank was destroyed in an   accident in 1940s so it wouldn’t have  had a chance to prove itself anyway. In game I would suggest placing it at about  rating of 1.0 or possibly lower like with my  

Suggested battle rating system for World War I  and Interwar tanks that I covered in a previous   episode and while not the best tank in the world  I think it would make a good start for an Irish   subtree or just act as a decent Irish tank  in general at the very early battle ratings.

A few years after acquiring the Mark D Ireland  would be interested in acquiring more tanks,   this time the Swedish Landsverk L-60 of  which two would be brought and shipped   to Ireland bringing the total tank force to  3 tanks, with the more modern L-60’s being  

Far more mobile and versatile than  the rather outdated and slow Mark D. Like with the Mark D these would be used to train  troops and they survived in surface until 1968,   giving a whopping 34 years of service  and both examples survive to this day.

Now this tank is already in War Thunder in the  Swedish Tech Tree under the name strv/m38 at   battle rating 1.0, but there are some differences  compared to the examples acquired by Ireland,   as the Irish tanks were equipped with a 20 mm  Madsen Cannon instead of the 37 mm Bofors gun.

This gives a much faster firing rate but less  penetration with the 20 mm Madsen cannons having   a penetration of 25 mm at 175m compared to the  37 mm Bofors guns 55 mm penetration at 100m. The rest of the stats and battle rating would  be the same, so a maximum armor thickness of 13  

To 15 mm, a top speed of 47 km hour or 29 mph  and a crew of three at a battle rating of 1.0. This would be a good upgrade  from the Vickers Medium Mark D,   giving Irish players a much more mobile  vehicle with a much faster firing weapon  

And just generally making a very good upgrade  from the slow and less well armed Mark D. By the outbreak of World War II Ireland only  had the three tanks that we’ve covered with   which to defend itself and as mentioned at  the beginning this was quickly reduced to  

Just the two L-60’s when the Vickers Medium  Mark D was destroyed in an accident in 1940,   though again it’s very hard to imagine this  rather old and outdated tank being useful   against a modern enemy so this probably  wasn’t such a huge loss on that front.

Ireland did acquire Bren carriers and  Standard Beaverette armored cars to   complement its tank and armored  car forces but these still would   have been inadequate to defend Ireland’s  neutrality in the event of an invasion. Due to the war Ireland wasn’t able  to acquire any more tanks but in the  

Post-war period it rented four Churchill MK  VI’s, these being labeled 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D,   with all four of these arriving by 1949  and later being brought outright in 1954. For the most part there was very little  change to these tanks with even the paint  

Scheme being kept the same, as there was a  stipulation when they were being rented that   they would be returned to Britain immediately  if required, so they were basically banned from   making any changes to them though of course this  would change once they were brought outright.

However one of these tanks would later get  stuck at the training ground where they   would conduct gunnery tests and basically  Ireland didn’t have any heavy equipment   with which to remove it and so what they  did instead was just remove the gun and  

Return it to the tank whenever they had to  do gunnery tests and eventually when it was   decommissioned in 1967 instead of recovering  the tank they decided to simply bury it,   though it was finally recovered in 2003  and now stands in Dunmore Park in Belfast. The rest of the tanks were retired in 1969,  

Primarily due to a lack of parts and the  arrival of the more modern Comet tanks. Unfortunately the Churchill Mark VI’s are not  currently in War Thunder so this would need to be   produced by Gaijin but essentially it is a slight  upgrade from the previous Churchill Mark VI’s,  

Being armed with the quick firing 75mm  gu,n a new cupola and applique armor fitted   to the hull sides, so this shouldn’t be too  difficult a tank to implement in War Thunder. However a lack of spares for the original  engines for the Mark VI would result in a  

Rather unique variant of the Churchill  tank as it was proposed to replace the   original 350 horsepower Bedford engines with  the 600 horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin engines   from the supermarine Seafire Fighters  which were used by Ireland at the time.

Tests were conducted with one of the new engines  fitted to one of the tanks but for whatever reason   this would not be adopted for the rest of the  mark VI’s, but of course in War Thunder this   variant could be added as an interesting event  vehicle, giving us a Churchill with much better  

Acceleration and potentially a greater top speed  which would help to fix the major issue of the   Churchill tanks which is its slow speed and  giving Ireland a rather unique and powerful   variant of the Churchill tank and like I say it  just would be a rather unique tank in general.

After the Churchill Mark VI’s the  next major tank adopted by Ireland   would be the A34 Comet with eight  of these entering service by 1960. This was a much more modern and mobile  vehicle than the ponderous Churchill   tanks and again there were no major  changes undertaken to these tanks so  

They would operate much like the Comets already  in the British Tech Tree at Battle rating 5.3. However there would be one major variant that  would come about due to an accident destroying   the turret of one of the Comet’s, as while  the turret was destroyed the hull was intact  

Leading to the installation of a borrowed  90 mm recoiless rifle on the turret ring. This allowed a 360° arc of fire, though  extra armor had to be installed around   areas leading to the driver  and bow machine gun positions   to mitigate against the effects of  back blast when firing the weapon.

Unfortunately the turret itself  is now completely exposed,   leaving the gunner vulnerable to  enemy fire especially from the air. The 90mm recoiless rifle however would be an  extremely effective weapon, which depending   on the source used has a penetration of  at least 330 to 380 mm when firing HEAT  

Shells which is a pretty damn good performance  and far superior to the Comet’s original gun. Unfortunately in real life this  modification would not be permanent   and the recoiless rifle was uninstalled  and returned to Infantry service but in   War Thunder this could make a highly mobile  and effective tank destroyer able to quickly  

Traverse the battlefield before unleashing  devastating fire from its new main weapon. Its only downside is the exposed fighting  compartment making it especially vulnerable   to enemy aircraft and ground machine gun fire. Perhaps a new feature for this tank would  be to give the player the ability for the  

Gunner or other gun crew to duck  inside the hull when not in combat,   which would help to improve protection when  not in combat and could be offset by giving   a delay for remanning the main weapon, but  I suspect such a feature would not be added.

As for the battle rating I think this could go  at around 6.0 or 6.3 where its gun wouldn’t be   too overpowered and it would still be able to  deal with most enemies and in general I think   this would be a rather unique and pretty cool  vehicle to have available for Irish players.

Last but not least we come to the FV101  Scorpion which was a British light tank   of which 14 were acquired by Ireland in the 1980s. I have covered this tank in a previous  episode on British light tanks and for   the most part very few changes have  been made to the Irish variant,  

With the main weapon still being a 76  mm gun firing HESH shell’s with 80 to   90 mm of penetration, as well as smoke  shrapnel, HE and illumination shells. It also has a coaxial 7.62 mm machine  gun, a crew of 3 extremely light armor,  

And a ridiculous top speed of 45  mph or 72 km an hour which also   means it holds the world record  for the fastest production tank. However there is one noticeable change to the  Irish variant in that it can carry a machine  

Gun on the roof which initially was a 50 cal  Browning machine gun, though this was later   changed to a 7.62 mm gpmg machine gun, mainly  due to the large silhouette of the 50 cal weapon. This could perhaps be added  as a vehicle modification,  

Allowing you to switch between the two weapons or  maybe remove them entirely to aid in concealment. Like with the British Scorpion  tank I would suggest adding this   at a about rating of around 5.7-6.0,  mainly on account of its HESH shell,  

Because while the HESH shell only has 80 to 90  mm penetration this is not affected by sloping,   so you could still take out T-34s and Panther  tanks relatively easily but more heavily armored   tanks would be mostly immune against the Scorpion  tank, so I think better rating 5.7-6.0 would be a  

Fairly good place for it to go, though its battle  rating could be lowered or raised as required. So that is all of the various Irish tanks  I think should be added to War Thunder. I think out of all of these The Headless  Coachman or the Churchill Mark VI with  

The Merlin engine are probably the  ones I’d be looking forward to the   most as these are rather cool and unique  variants that we can’t really get in other   tech trees and I think they would be a  major boon to War Thunder in general.

But I’d like to here in the comments  what your favorite Irish tanks are,   which ones you’re looking forward to the  most as well as suggestions for any other   Irish tanks I might have missed, I look  forward to reading your comments below.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the episode  hopefully, you’ll join me for the next one. I’ve been Toreno and I’ll see you next time!