A French Army tank crewman has leaked a portion of the Leclerc Main Battle Tank’s classified manual on the forum for popular online game War Thunder, the second time a leak of tank specifications has happened.

War Thunder is a vehicular combat multiplayer video game developed and published by Gaijin Entertainment. Despite the fact that Gaijin Entertainment lists itself as a Cyprus-based studio, it was originally founded in Moscow, Russia, where it still has offices today.

It also has branches in Germany, Hungary, and Latvia, you can read more on the studio here.

This article was submitted by John. John is a student at the University of South Carolina studying political science. He has also studied the Arab-Israeli conflict at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. John currently hosts ‘The Osint Bunker‘ podcast, a popular bimonthly production focusing on global events, you can read more about the podcast on our dedicated page here.

Screenshots below have been blurred to protect any information that’s not public domain.

The posts were made Sunday night during an argument between multiple users regarding the in game representation of the Leclerc. The tanker claims to have been a crew member on the Leclerc S2, currently fielded by the French Army.

Forum moderators removed the content quickly, but the some of the information remains on the website at this time.

Moderators posted the following statement after the redactions.

“Guys its not funnny to leak classified Documents of modern equipment you put the lives of many on stake who work daily with the Vehicles! Keep in Mind that those documents will be deleted immediately alongside sanctions. Thanks for reading!”

This is not the first time classified tank documents have been leaked on the War Thunder forums.

Earlier this year, another War Thunder user posted classified specifications of the Challenger 2 main battle tank.

The user posted a classified document online relating to the Challenger 2 in order to improve the accuracy of the design of the tank in-game.

Classified Challenger tank specs leaked online for videogame

The gamer, identifying as Challenger 2 commander, posted a classified document online in order to improve the accuracy of the design of the tank in the game ‘War Thunder’. You can read more about that by clicking here.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

44 COMMENTS

  2. I recall reading that this has happened more than twice on the forums, and that the Challenger 2 leak from earlier this year wasn’t the first one by that user.

  3. Who really cares, the people who actually want the specs of the Frog tank will either already have or will get it easily.

  4. Never played the game myself. Looked like it would cost cash to get decent kit. Those players take it really seriously lol

    • I mean, if you want to play with the modern stuff instantly, yeah you’re gonna have to pay, but for someone like me who likes to play with early-mid WW2 tanks I’ve already reached where I want to be without paying to progress. It’s a fun game, but both the community and the devs can sometimes be really stupid (usually because of eachother).

      • And you dont need to fear the UK ones, the crew is far from the tank to embark and back to england as soon as they see the ennemies.

        Did all Brits forget what happened in 1940 or ?

        We all know about the hates of the low minder anglosaxon and french but I think this website is more oriented on facts and reality news

        • Dunkirk is a bit more complicated than that Hermes as you well know. I would point out that the British expedionary force was protecting France and Belgium – I think there needs to be due gratitude to the British men that laid down their lives for foreign countries – something Europe has a problem in showing due gratitude to Britain for saving them twice (yes Britain largely did in WW1 and played a major role in WW2 including fighting alone up until 1941 and essentially nearing break the back of the all powerful Luftwaffe). Indeed Britain forced the German’s to turn their attention to the Russians as their plan to invade Britain ground to a halt in the face of the Hurricane, Spitfire and radar as well as the largely British pilots (with small numbers of commonwealth and Polish pilots). The French definitely should have held longer and most modern historians do agree about a mixed bag of French resistance in the battle for France and French force collapse in the fast of relentless German soldiers drugged up to the hilt with speed. There was gross mismanagement of the British armed forces in France and lines of communication between the British and French were cut further causing morale collapse amongst both sides as they became encircled by the Germans. British armoured warfare was grossly underfunded and mismanaged in the 1930s and the rearmament programme didn’t go far enough for our army so our weaponary was obsolete compared to the German and even the French army. I think the French over confidence in the Maginot line was their downfall. However, there is sympathy as we now know through the very latest research that the German army was drugged up to the hilt with methamphetamine so they could march through the day and night without rest and fight more aggressively. It’s a sad fact that when push comes to shove a large numbers of soldiers will drop their weapons and surrender – it just so happens that the Belgium and French troops did in large numbers but who could blame them really when you had drugged crazed German soldiers who were fearless only because they were taking speed. An excellent analysis of the battle for France is provided here:

          https://longreads.com/2017/08/07/whose-fault-was-dunkirk/

          • Of course I know, I was just answering at the same low level of @David

            Despite the french-british historic rivalry we stand together since the last 200y.

            And even if our relations are complicated, especially these last weeks after the AUKUS and the BREXIT affairs.

            I dont understand how so hateful against the french seams anglosaxons can be, although we know that we are going to face a major issue with China and probably not her alone.

            What is the plan to be so stupid among us ? The last 1000y of bloody wars between us are not enough ?

            It’s like we dont learn from our past

          • I like France and I like French people – they are kind and welcoming. We can all agree Macron has been using unfair and underhand tactics against Britain so our ire should be directed at his government. Macron is a moron and that’s being polite. He sees himself as this modern day Napoleon but in reality the emperor has no clothes. They are deliberately exacerbating the migrant crisis which is largely due to the dreadfully poor external borders of the EU and the schengen zone where you (or illegal migrants and criminals) can pass through all EU borders without showing your passport. These are not British problems but EU problems but we are carrying the can because they can’t clean their own mess up. I would agree that strategically we need to work together as NATO to counter the Russian and Chinese threat but really the EU does need to grow up (especially the French government) and stop trying to poke the British people with threats of removing electricity from our crown dependencies and even mainland UK. Don’t forget that we bought the French EPR reactor and this is worth £21Billion to France and largely saved AREVA from absolute bankruptcy so the French government should work with us and not against us. Yes I know leaving the EU hurt a lot of European politicians but for Christ sake surely they can now accept it and move on and work with us as well as trade with us. This punishment tactic will just put more people off the EU project.

          • EPR is not french, it’s a FR-GER (50/50).
            Framatome(Areva) is one these entities unable to bankrupt because of strategics interests.

            I dont think EU politicians see the Brexit as a problem, but they need to stand as “one” to show up, the UK should never be a part of EU, too many conflict. That doesn’t mean we cannot be fair partner, its just… very bad timing with COVID.

            You cannot ask for governments to act as grown men…

            The electricity cut affair of Jersey is just BS, even the fr.ench citizens will not tolerate such a threat against a neighbor.

            But yeah, the current time is very complicated (Or mostly politicians tend to complicate small affairs), especially for brits.

          • Hopefully the adults in the room will prevail and relations with our French cousins will normalize, but I’d imagine it will take time. Macron may see some easy wins in his bid to be reelected in bashing us, the EU will continue to do the same over Brexit and the NI protocol, and our lot will bluster and threaten their way through all these issues even after signing up to the withdrawal agreement. It all seems like a political game to politicians despite the fact it has a big impact on ordinary people.

            All the while normal people on both sides of the Channel get along perfectly well as does industry and our respective armed forces.

            It will all work out in the end, it will just be bumpy for a while.

          • It would probably be a good start to not refer to the British as ‘anglosaxons’.
            Although I do appreciate that it was probably stirred by the childish comments before you.

          • I don’t say Anglo-Saxons as a bad thing, it’s just to talk for UK/US/Aussie and not just the UK.
            I didn’t know that “Anglo-Saxon” was seen as bad for British.

            If its the case, it was not my intention.

          • Anglo-Saxon was just one cultural group making up a patchwork across the the British isles. The term Anglo Saxon relates to the German peoples who populated and controlled a fair chunk of what is know England, the culture merges with the Norman culture and governance model after the conquest.

            You have to remember wider British culture is a patchwork of Q and P Celt, Romano Celt, Dane, anglo Saxon and Norman.

            So Anglo Saxon is more a term for one of the UKs root cultures.

          • Hi H there will always be childish comment on here some through ignorance, some through friendly teasing and unfortunately there are some muppets out there. 👍🏼

          • “I think the French over confidence in the Maginot line was their downfall.”

            No it was not. Maginot line worked. Germans did not invaded there.

            Sending the best army to Belgium and Holland and having no coherent reserves was the biggest fault.

        • Let’s be honest Hermes the french third republic sowed its own destruction and was pretty moribund by its collapse in 1940. Yes both the french and British military leadership were out thought and beaten by first military to really grasp mid 20c warfare and combined arms. But the big difference was in how the governments of the U.K. and the third republic reacted to this. The U.K. government and society found the reserves to fight on, the third republic did not and was essentially not a government the french public were willing to bleed for.

          Thats not to say individual french solders civilians lack the will to fight for their county. The free french and resistance are clear examples of the passion to free France. But did anyone fight for the third republic ? More telling was that fact it was never re-instated after liberation.

          • Jonathan it is difficult to say what would be the UK reaction if there wasn’t the channel and Royal Navy.
            Like in later in Falklands the defeatist attitude was only defeated by a small margin even then.

          • True, but in the UKs case the defeatism was more in a select group the ruling class who thought they could keep the empire and live with Hitler ( and they would have probably been correct, that warped empire saw the Britains as a kindred Germanic people and would have likely left us to it, as they headed off to murder all the Slavic peoples and steal their land for German families to farm). But this did not reflect the view of the county, which was to fight for every inch. Churchill’s greatness was about understanding that. The third republic as far as my reading goes was likely to fail from internal stress at some point anyway as most of the population could not really stand it for one reason or other ( think US politics but about 10 times as toxic and hate filled) If you take the example of other nations with shall we say a population willing to to go all the way, they bleed for every inch and would fight to ruination, Germany and Russia are examples. Now we know the french culture is as bloody minded as any other in Europe in defence of their own nation, which means it alway goes back to the third republic and the french populations general dislike of it.

        • Just to add some of the comments on this piece are a more than and bit racist and utterly inappropriate.

          Some people tend to forget how interwoven french and British history actual is and that once apon a time many of us were all governed by the same dynasties and that both or nations have proud histories ( even if a lot of that history involved our two nations beating the crap out of each other).

          • Inappropriate yes, racist no.
            Check the definition and perhaps say Francophobic or xenophobic.
            Frequently misunderstood and misused.

          • The old Wacist banner…give me a break…it’s been overused so much I actually don’t know what the word “racist” means anymore. Typically left overuse a term designed for reprehensibel behaviour and tar everyone with the brush to stir up hatred. This encapsulates every single reason why I would never vote for a party on the left.

          • What is and is not race or racist is one of those areas of contention. There are the biological characteristics crew and the culture crew. I just go if your being a fuck about someone’s culture or ethic background your being a racist dick. I give a little if someone does not understand if what the say is racist, as I’m not a believer in jumping on someone’s cus they don’t know today’s favourite term. But if your say something like “Frog” in an unpleasant way, your be a racist dick, I don’t do Woke but I don’t do or let people get away with insulting whole cultures or groups. If I heard someone talking about Taffs in an insulting way, I’d walk up to them and give them a chance to apologise for being a racist before giving a lesson in natural consequence.

  6. I knew top tier was toxic but this is something else.

    That said I do recommend the game, mostly because Britain could do with a larger playerbase and I know I can count on you guys to do your bit for blighty.

        • Most data is somewhere on the internet if you look lol, i would go with 9 as 11 is a bit M48 American rotation speed and that’s a tank from the 1950’s!

    • I wonder if there is a physical human limit on the turret rotation speed? How fast can it spin before someone becomes either disorientated or sick? This is probably more pertinent to a SPAAG vehicle rather than a tank.

  8. This is actually getting quite comedic. It’s children endangering national security, for a game. Like the workings of a joke, you lead the audience one way: classified information / well disciplined soldiers, only to shoot off in another direction: “lets make this video game more accurate, I’m fed up of getting ganked”.

    Also, I’m somewhat curious as to why it’s founding place was relevant. It’s a video game company, not a government asset.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here