Today, we’re pleased to announce that a new line comprised of Dutch and Belgian aircraft will be making their way to War Thunder as part of the French air tree! In the next major update these vehicles will be reinforcing the French ranks, so let’s take a look!

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The economic union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg was formally established in 1944, with the initial intention of supporting the post-war recovery between the three nations, which have very strong diplomatic, trade, and of course geographical ties.
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The Belgian Air Force was officially formed in 1946, but operated as a branch of the Belgian Army as early as 1909! Despite this early formation, Belgium had a relatively small air force during the First World War due to a general lack of available aircraft, despite this though the small force boasted several aces.

During the outbreak of the Second World War, Belgium was similarly equipped with only a small force of older designs, which couldn’t stand up to the far more numerous Luftwaffe fighters. Despite the surrender on May 28th 1940, a small group of Belgian pilots in exile operated with the RAF, flying Spitfires and Typhoons.

Into the jet age, Belgium flew a variety of famous examples throughout the years, and currently operate several variants of the much loved F-16, as well as brand-new F-35.
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Similarly to Belgium, the Royal Netherlands Air Force was formed in 1953, but operated as a branch of the army from 1913. As the Netherlands remained neutral during the First World War their air activity during this time was primarily spent on training and the general growth of the air branch.

During the German invasion of the Netherlands in the Second World War, the Royal Netherlands Air Force was overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the Luftwaffe, losing all of their combat aircraft and the vast majority of their pilots as well. A number of Dutch pilots escaped however, and flew in RAF and RAAF service until the end of the War. Pilots of the Dutch colonies in the East Indies actively resisted the Japanese air force, and then continued fighting as part of the Australian Air Force.

After the Royal Netherlands Air Force was officially founded, the ranks of their service aircraft were filled with a wide variety of American and British planes, with their types upgrading and improving over time to suit modern requirements.
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This new branch in the French aviation tree will contain a mix of Belgian and Dutch aircraft. The collective is indeed known as BeNeLux, but as Luxembourg currently does not and did not operate any military aircraft historically (aside from army transport, liaison and recon) they won’t be represented here in the air tree. Let’s take a look at the first batch of aircraft!

Developer comment: Our overall goal with the inclusion of a BeNeLux line is to give France more options and versatility, allowing for the creation of stronger lineups throughout the ranks with a variety of different vehicles. BeNeLux don’t quite have enough machines to make a full tree on their own without significant gaps in unit types and eras, so in order to include these machines in War Thunder they’ll be supporting the French tree.

The majority of vehicles joining the line first will be made up of British and American vehicles that were historically used, with the line kicking off with the familiar Gladiator Mk I, which was ordered in the late 1930s. Belgium will be receiving a wide variety of units overall, including the British Spitfire FR Mk XIVe, Meteor Mk 8, as well as the American F-104G, F-16A Block 15 and the F-16AM Block 15 MLU! They’ll also be receiving the Mirage 5BA, a variant specifically intended for Belgium.




The Netherlands will also have some interesting examples in the line, including the British Firefly FR Mk IV, Hunter F.6, and of course the domestic Fokker G.1A! This variant is armed with 8 x 7.9 mm machine guns in the nose, the caliber may be small but the concentration of fire is undeniably high!




These aircraft will be the first to join the French ranks as part of the new line in the next major update, though of course more examples will be making their way into the game in the future as well.

We’re very happy to include these aircraft and their unique history into the game. We hope you’ll enjoy bolstering your lineups with these powerful aircraft upon the release of the next major update, so until then stay tuned! There’s a lot more to come.

It’s customary to honor the Canadian Armed Forces on the first Sunday in June. Canada actively participated in World War II: the defense of Hong Kong in 1941, the raid on Dieppe in 1942, the liberation of Italy in 1943, Operation Overlord in 1944 and guarding convoys in the Atlantic Ocean. There are currently 68,000 people in the Canadian Armed Forces, 3,000 of which are stationed outside the country.


Get this cool decal for this day!


“Lesser emblem of the Canadian army” decal

When: From May 31st until June 3rd (11:00 GMT).
Task: Play 3 battles using British vehicles at rank III or higher to receive the “Lesser emblem of the Canadian army” decal.

Additional details:

• You must use a minimum of rank III.
  
• Your activity must not be below 70%.
  
• You can complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions, and [Assault] mode.
  
• Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → Canadian Armed Forces Day.
  
• You can find the decal in the “Allies → Tanks” tab in the Customization menu.

For the second major tournament event of 2024, following six weeks of intense competition, team DODEC emerged as the ultimate winners of the Air Superiority 2024 Tournament. They dominated each round of the winners bracket before facing team Wasted Time in the final who pushed them to the limit, with a final score of 5-4 on the late BO9.

Team DODEC have now claimed back to back victories in two major tournament events! Who can stop them?



Congratulations to the winners and all participants!

Thanks to VIRPIL Controls for sponsoring this event and offering great prizes for our winners.



Armored Apex
The Open Qualifiers for our next major tournament event will open in the coming weeks, this time it's going to be 4v4 Tanks in Realistic Battles featuring high tier vehicles.

Keep up to date by joining our social networks, including Telegram and Discord to ensure that you do not miss out on information for the qualification phases.

War Thunder - “Air Superiority” pack

In this pack:
"Flanking Snail" decal
"Slick flanker" title
300 Golden Eagles

Introducing the next major update teaser for War Thunder - "Seek & Destroy"

The Western Front is opening! Take part in Ground Battles during the Operation Overlord event as part of our event cycle to receive the Churchill AVRE. This legendary armored vehicle, integral to the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, was a direct participant in the battles for Normandy, and you can earn this main reward during this event! Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in War Thunder!

When: From June 5th (11:00 GMT) until June 17th (11:00 GMT), earn mission points in Ground Battles, unlock stages and receive rewards!

The Churchill AVRE was first used on D-Day during the Normandy Landings and is armed with a 230 mm Spigot Mortar, specifically designed for use against fortifications. It fires a huge projectile also known as the “Flying Dustbin” that weighs 18 kg, enough to put fear into any enemy tank that it comes up against!



Among the rewards in the event is also this chest, where, when opened, brings the chance to receive one of the following items:

• 50,000 - 100,000 Silver Lions
  
• Silver Lion and Research Point boosters
  
• Random Wagers and Orders
  
• Universal Backups (1 - 3)
  
• A random camouflage for a vehicle you own
  
• 1 day of Premium Account

Each stage can be obtained for 35,000 mission points, where every new stage obtained will give you a new reward.

Please note: After finishing a stage, you need to collect the reward manually. To do this, click on your name in-game, go to “Operation Overlord: Churchill AVRE” and click the “Get Reward” button.

You’re able to earn mission points in Ground Battles at Rank III or above in Arcade, Realistic and Simulator Battles. The number of mission points to complete a stage depends on the game mode and the maximum Rank of the vehicle that you use in battle. There’s a multiplier for earning mission points, which is shown in the task description in-game.

You can also earn mission points by using event vehicles that are Rank I and II. Event vehicles that can be used have the name of the event that they were obtainable in on their stat card.

Stages change every two days at 11:00 GMT on June 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th and 15th.

• For 1 Stage: trophy with a random reward
  
• For 2 Stages: one of the decal rewards
  
• For 3 Stages: trophy with a random reward
  
• For 4 Stages: one of the decal rewards
  
• For 5 Stages: “Flying Dustbin” decoration
  
• For 6 Stages: non-tradable coupon for Churchill AVRE

Unfinished stages can be purchased for Golden Eagles, but If you’re significantly close to completing a stage, its price will now be significantly reduced.

Let’s say you have earned 85% of the required mission points to complete a stage, then the price of purchasing this stage will be halved. If you’re near the finish line for a stage and are at 95% progress, then the price will be reduced by five times. For example, if you’ve scored 30,000 mission points, then the price for unlocking this stage will be 349 Golden Eagles. If you’ve scored 33,500 mission points, then you’ll only need to pay 139 Golden Eagles. Remember to keep this in mind if you cannot complete a stage on time!

When you complete 6 stages, you’ll receive a non-tradable coupon for the Churchill AVRE, where using it will immediately activate the vehicle onto your account. If you don’t want the vehicle and would like to sell the coupon on the Market, you’ll need the “Upgrade for coupon” item.

The “Upgrade for coupon” item can be earned in parallel with the stages throughout the event from June 5th (11:00 GMT) until June 17th (11:00 GMT) for 500,000 mission points.

After receiving the “Upgrade for coupon” item, you can convert a non-tradable coupon for the vehicle into a tradable one and sell it on the Market. The tradable coupon can be sold after 6 days from the moment it’s created.

To make a tradable coupon, select the “Coupon Churchill AVRE (Great Britain)” in your inventory and click the “Modify” button.

The “Upgrade for coupon” item is valid until 11:00 GMT on June 20th. Until this time, you can use it or exchange it for War Bonds. Afterwards, it’ll disappear from your inventory.

You can track the progress of completing stages and receiving the “Upgrade for coupon” by clicking on your Nickname > Achievements > Operation Overlord. If you don’t manage to complete a stage on time or would like to purchase a stage, until June 20th from the Achievements window, you can purchase each stage with Golden Eagles which will give you the corresponding rewards.

• The previously announced Battle Rating separation by gamemodes for high-tier aircraft has been implemented. Please note that separation for aircraft of lower tiers is planned to be implemented within our Planned Battle Rating changes.

• Red Top air-to-air missile — the missile guidance time has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. (Report).
  
• Red Top air-to-air missile — the missile guidance delay has been reduced from 0.6 seconds to 0.3 seconds after launch. (Report).
  
• Red Top air-to-air missile — lateral acceleration has been reduced from 16G to 12G. (Report).
  
• Red Top air-to-air missile — missile dynamics have been reconfigured, the effective launch range at low altitude has been increased. (Report, Report)

• A bug that caused engine sounds to play incorrectly when looking down the scope has been fixed. (Report, Report).
  
• A bug that caused the thermals on scout UAVs of rank VII and VIII light tanks to be missing has been fixed. (Report).
  
• The Spawn Point cost of respawning with air-to-air-missiles with SACLOS guidance on helicopters has been added to Ground Realistic Battles. The cost is 68% of the base carrying helicopter cost in Spawn Points. Currently the only helicopter in the game with such missiles is the AH Mk.1 Apache (with Starstreak AAMs).

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.

In this month’s Pages of History, you’ll be at the center of events that took place in different theaters of war. Karelia and Lithuania, the Normandy landings and large-scale battles in the Pacific Ocean: take part in battles with the vehicles corresponding to these historic battles and receive prizes. 



By the beginning of World War II, Percy Hobart was a major general and an expert in armored vehicles. Because of his unusual ideas, Hobart was forced into retirement in 1940, but after the failure of the Allied amphibious assault at the Battle of Dieppe, innovative ideas were in great demand. In 1943 Hobart converted the Churchill and Sherman tanks of his 79th Armored Division into engineering marvels dubbed “Hobart’s Funnies”. Some of these included the flamethrower Crocodile tank, mine-resistant Crab, amphibious DD and the enemy fortification destroyer, the Churchill AVRE. The Allies were impressed by Hobart’s work and his “funny” vehicles provided invaluable assistance during the Normandy Landings.

You can immediately purchase this profile icon for Golden Eagles until July 3rd, 11:30 GMT without completing tasks. To find it, go to your Nickname → Achievements → Pages of History.


Completing each individual task will give you a trophy with one of the following rewards:

• 20-50% RP booster for 3-10 battles;
  
• 20-50% SL booster for 3-10 battles;
  
• 3-5 universal backups;
  
• Premium account for 1 day;
  
• A random camouflage for ground vehicles (out of the selection of camouflages currently obtainable in game for completing tasks, or purchasing with Golden Eagles).

• Tasks are available from 11:00 GMT until 11:30 GMT on the final day of each task.
  
• Tasks can be completed in random battles except for “Assault” mode.

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.

On June 4th 1942, the Battle of Midway began, one of the most important battles in the Pacific theater. It took place without the participation of artillery, as the planes that took off from aircraft carriers became the stars of the battle. At Midway, the Allies achieved their first major victory over Japan, and the Imperial Navy never recovered from the loss of aircraft carriers and experienced pilots.

On the morning of June 6th 1944, D-Day, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers and officers landed in Normandy, opening a western front against Nazi Germany. The Allies managed to organize this major operation in complete secrecy. The result of this operation was the rapid liberation of not only Normandy, but also the capital of France.

On the Eastern Front at this time, the Red Army was conducing an offensive in the northern direction. As a result of the successful Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation, Finnish troops were driven out of Karelia, which prompted Finland to sign the Moscow Armistice with the USSR and go over to the side of the Allies.

Shortly after D-Day, British troops encountered Wehrmacht forces near Villers-Bocage in Normandy. The Germans took advantage of the surprise effect, inflicted significant losses on the British and forced them to retreat. This led to the fact that the Germans were able to gain a foothold in Caen, which the Allies were able to take only two months later.

On 15th-17th June 1941, British troops launched an offensive in eastern Cyrenaica in an attempt to lift the siege of Tobruk. For the first time during World War II, significant German forces were forced to defend themselves, but they succeeded. With equal forces on both sides, Great Britain lost three times as many aircraft and nine times as many tanks, and the operation was a complete failure.

On June 19th-20th 1944, the last major battle of aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean took place. The United States had both numerical and technical superiority on its side, while Japan was able to field only inexperienced pilots against the American aces. As a result, Japan lost both aircraft carriers and aircraft, and until the end of the war it was unable to make up for these losses.

On June 22nd 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and in the early days of the Blitzkrieg, the scattered forces of the Red Army tried unsuccessfully to hold back the Wehrmacht advance. One of these attempts was made near Raseiniai in Lithuania, where the USSR deployed 750 tanks, three times more than Germany had in this direction, and lost 700 of them in a couple of days. One KV-1 that penetrated the behind the Germans was able to block the Wehrmacht’s supply route throughout the entire battle, not surrendering even after it was hit.

At the end of June 1942, a Wehrmacht strategic offensive operation began, designed to consistently defeat Soviet forces in the southern direction and seize oil fields in the Caucasus. However, due to the fact that Hitler personally interfered with the command of the troops, they were not sufficiently organized, outnumbered and equipped to effectively advance. They eventually got bogged down at Stalingrad, where they suffered a crushing defeat.

Today we’re going to be showing you two new locations that are coming in the next major update: Mysterious Valley for Aircraft Battles, and Bering Sea for Naval Battles!




Hello pilots! This new location is set in the mountainous part of Southeast Asia. A large rock massif is divided by a deep gorge, which is going to be your main landmark. Situated approximately in the middle of the gorge is a hydroelectric power station, which is the main energy resource of this area. You’ll find several towns within the mountains, and downstream to the West of the hydroelectric dam, there’s a mountain village with a river market.




The main strategic points here is a large spaceport complex in the northern part of the location, and to the south of the city there’s a giant radio telescope reflector, clearly visible in any weather and from any altitude.






This new location for naval battles is bringing you to the harsh north. The designers of this location tried to create a collective image of the surroundings of the islands in southern Alaska and the main attraction of the region, the Islands of Four Mountains. This is a group of four active volcanoes situated right in the middle of the sea!




This location has a seascape with decent cover, where smaller ships and boats can maneuver around, while bigger ships will take duels on the open sea.




Both of these new locations will be added to the map rotation with the release of the next major update. Keep an eye out for more news about what’s coming in this update on our website.

The Swedish Riksdag approved the founding of the National Security Forces Day on May 29th, 1940 against the backdrop of the outbreak of World War II, although territorial defense units began to be formed earlier. Today, their number exceeds 22,000 personnel, approximately half of the Swedish Army.

This fast-firing TD is available for 1,300 Golden Eagles.

• The SAV 20.12.48 tank destroyer is very vulnerable to enemy fire, so make sure that you use its mobility to get to positions where you can hunker down without being shot. Its main talking point is its incredible rate of fire and powerful armor-piercing shells. This TD can quickly take effective and unexpected positions and take out several enemies in a matter of seconds thanks to its fast rate of fire!

You can get this decal for this commemoration!


“Emblem of the Uppland Regiment” decal






“Wiki approved: SAV 20.12.48” decal

The French Milan fighter jet was developed on the basis of the Mirage III by order of Switzerland and first took to the skies on May 29th 1969. Exactly 1 year later, the final version of this aircraft equipped with the Snecma Atar 9K-50 engine passed flight tests.

You can get this fighter jet for 9,090 Golden Eagles.

• The Milan can be tricky to fly, but in the right hands it can be a real treat. It has excellent maneuverability and is capable of reaching incredible speeds. Plus, thanks to its good bomb load and ballistic computer, it can also be used for ground attacks.