The all hated beeping noise of the alarm clock filled the room as Miho Nishizumi slowly slid off of her bed and fell down to the floor. She quickly smacked the alarm clock after getting shocked from falling off her bed that also helped her to remove the drowsiness of just getting waked up.
"Maybe Mako should try a raised bed." Miho thought as she got dressed and got ready to today.
She came out of her dorm room and remembered to lock the door. This starts her second year at Ooarai High School. She also can't wait to get started in this year's Sensha-do tournament. Last year, they won the tournament and saved her school from getting closed down. They made new friends during the tournament and can't wait to do a battle with them again. Similar thoughts ran though her mind as she walks towards the main school buildings.
In the Conning tower of the Ooarai school ship, the 3 student council girls walked towards the headmaster's office. Last year ago when they were summoned to his room they were given bad news that their school could close due to finical problems. This time hopefully they wouldn't be given more bad news. Anzu Kadotani, the student council president, knocked on the door.
"Enter." said the headmaster.
The 3 girls opened the door and proceeded towards the headmaster.
"You asked to speak with us?" Momo Kawashima asked the headmaster.
"Yes, first I would like to congratulate your victory in last year's Sensha-do tournament. It has really helped the school however…"
All 3 girls got worried that more bad news would come.
"due to the massive increase in popularity of Western style Tankery, the Japanese government made the Sensha-do Federation to accept the new style into the next national tournament in order to get Japan into the global tankery stage." The headmaster said.
"Western Tankery?" Yuzu Koyama asked.
"It is a different style of Sensha-do that is making headlines all around the world. It is very similar to Sensha-do but involves the use of more modern tanks then what Sensha-do is accustomed to." the headmaster replied.
"If we are to fight those tanks then we are screwed. Our tanks are only World War 2 era tanks they would be easily taken out of the match." Momo responded.
"That is where the Japanese government comes in. They are giving billions of yen to schools with promising Sensha-do teams to purchase new tanks so they could compete in the next national tournament. Thanks to our school's victory in last year's tournament we were one of those schools." the headmaster replied.
"How much did they give us?" Momo asked?
"5 billion yen." The headmaster relied.
"That's enough to buy several new tanks!" Yuzu said with excitement.
"Then get to work. Assemble our team and purchase our new equipment." The headmaster stated.
The day went on in Ooarai as the girls finished up their required school courses. Once the time came for Tankery club the team assembled in the hanger where they stored their tanks. During the summer they did spend time keeping their skills up and even had a few practice battles with St. Gloriana.
"Attention all teams please listen up for important announcements." Momo announced to the school's Sensha-do club. All of the girls approached the 3 student council members. "As you all know thanks to last year's victory in the tournament we all saved our school from closing down. This year we will use our experience we gained to compete in this year's tournament that will feature a different style of Sensha-do called Western Tankery." Anzu announced to the club.
"Western Tankery! Yes! I love to watch that on the internet. I also always wanted to try it out!" Yukari said out loud in excitement.
"Isn't Western Tankery a sport outside of Japan." Miho asked.
"Yes but due to its growing global popularity Japan decided to get into it." Anzu responded.
"In Western Tankery you get to use more modern tanks that what we have in Sensha-do. People get bored watching the same World War 2 era tanks fight over and over again. It's no wonder that is has gotten so popular." Yukari said.
"If we were to fight against those tanks in our current tanks we would stand much of a chance." Miho said worrying.
"Don't worry about that. The government gave schools with Sensha-do clubs a lot of money to purchase new tanks and since we won last year's tournament I think we were given the most amount of money." Anzu said.
"How much did they give us?" Miho asked.
"Well see if I can remember. It was oh… 5 billion yen!" Anzu said with glean.
The whole club got amazed at how much they gotten from the government. They all thought that the government must be very serious to get into Western Tankery if it gave away that much money.
"With this money we are all going to spend today's meeting on researching Western Tankery and identify the new thanks that we will purchase for this year's tournament." Momo declared as excitement spilled all over the club on acquiring new tanks.
The whole club went to the school's library. When they reached there they split of into their teams and began researching Western Tankery and also taking notes on some good tanks that they should purchase. Duck Team occupied the computers and began their research online, Hippo Team took off to the history textbooks, Anteater Team though that they could start by checking out what tanks are in their online tank video games, Rabbit Team and Turtle Team started out by watching Cold War documentary and Leopon Team joined the internet search with Duck team. For Anglerfish Team they already had all of the information they need in Yukari's head.
"After World War 2 the Axis powers where completely destroyed. Both Germany and Japan were trying to rebuild themselves and thus didn't spend much time designing and building new tanks. Instead they used tanks from the Allies, mostly American, for their limited army. It wasn't until the late 1950's, when they started to rebuild their army, was when Germany designed a very successful tank called the Leopard 1. It was so successful that is was exported to many nations in Europe and thus a very popular choice for Western Tankery. The Leopard 1 is similar to our Panzer IV. Both have almost no armor but in return gets excellent speed and maneuverability but what made the Leopard 1 very successful was its 105mm Royal Ordnance L7 cannon. It was very accurate and could fire a wide variety of ammunition like APFSDS and HEAT but do to the fact that it is over 90mm you can't fire HEAT in the Leopard." Yukari lectured for her team.
The rest of Anglerfish was amazed at the amount of information Yukari had on history and in Western Tankery.
"I will ask the student council to see if we can get a Leopard 1." Miho said as she writes down the name of the tank in her notebook.
Down towards the computer area, the Leopon Team and Duck Team were watching some Western Tankery matching online. Then they found something that caught Leopon Team's eye. They saw tanks on wheels! They looked like a large armored vehicle that had a turret mounted on the top with a cannon. Upon further research they were called armored fighting vehicles. Having wheels do give some advantages over tracks. The biggest advantage was that wheels give less resistance to make a vehicle move than tracks and thus wheeled tank destroyers were far faster in terms of top speed some of which can hit 100 km/h which really appealed to the Leopon Team.
"We are totally going to get ourselves an armored fighting vehicle!" Nakajima (Leopon Team's Commander) said to her team.
"I can't wait to drive one of those! They could drift far better than a tank." Tsuchiya (Leopon Team's Driver) said.
Over towards the non-fiction area, The Hippo team had stacks upon stacks of books about the Cold War, Korean War and the Vietnam war.
"It appears that during the Cold War it was mainly the United States and Soviet Union that developed a lot of tanks." Oryou (Hippo team's Driver) said to her team.
"According to this book on the Korean War, the north used T-34s with 85mm cannons that were supplied by the Soviet Union and the south had a mixture of tanks from 2 nations. M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing tanks from the United States and Centurion, Churchill and Cromwell tanks from the British." Caesar (Hippo team's Loader) said.
"In the Vietnam War, the Americans used the M48 Patton as their main tank but also had the M41 Walker Bulldog, M551 Sheridan, as well as the M103 even so it didn't saw combat." Saemonza (Hippo Team's Gunner) said.
"Great let's jot down the names of the tanks and see what the other teams are doing." Erwin (Hippo Team's Commander) said.
In the center of the library both the Rabbit Team and Turtle Team just finished watching the Cold War documentary. The documentary was mostly about the politics and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. There were little to no information on the tanks used during this period but it was still interesting to watch. After they were finished the Student Council gathered the whole club to compile the information they learned. All of the teams gave their list to Momo.
"Good work everyone. Tonight me and the rest of the student council will handle the rest. That is all for today's meeting." Anzu said to the club.
The students exited the library and when on with their business. Miho invited the rest of the Anglerfish Team to her dorm room for dinner.
"I can't wait to see what tanks we are going to get. I hope we can get a Leopard or maybe a M60 main battle tank!" Yukari said with excitement as the Anglerfish team walked towards Miho's dorm room.
"I wonder how different the battles are going to be." Miho said.
"It is faster paced since the tanks in Western Tankery are faster than the tanks in Sensha-do, also when we get to your dorm I can show you recorded battles of Western Tankery." Yukari responded.
When they reached Miho's dorm room, the whole team got to work and created several wonderful dishes that they are going to eat. When they finished their meal, Yukari got the television to play the recorded battle that she told about to Miho.
Yukari told her team that the battle was a flag battle in which each team had a single tank that carried a flag. The objective is for each team to render the flag tank of the opposing team inoperable.
Each team had 10 tanks meaning that it was a quarter final battle. The battlefield was a large hilly and open farmland with only a few small buildings and a small abundance of trees.
So far it is exactly like Sensha-do. In this battle a school from France was up against a school from Germany. The French school was had a half split of AMX-30 and AMX-13 tanks. The German school was completely armed with Leopard 1 tanks.
When the battle started Miho was amazed at how mobile the tanks were. Both teams' tanks quickly got up to 40 km/h and it wasn't long before the first shot was fired. The Anglerfish Team watched with interest and was already guessing on which team is going to win.
"I think that the German Team is going to win." Saori said.
"The French Team's AMX-13 are small and thus harder to hit." Miho said supporting the French team.
The German team spread out into a single large group in order to cover a larger area. The French team however split in to 2 groups. One group composed out of all of the AMX-30 and 1 of the AMX-13 tanks and the other group 4 AMX-13 tanks.
The AMX-13 tank of the first group rushed ahead to find the opponents. When they found them, the AMX-13 tank fired a single shot at the Leopard tanks of the German Team. The shot landed in the ground only a meter of one of the Leopard tanks but Miho knew that the whole purpose was to draw them towards the AMX-30s just like how they drew in St. Gloriana last year in a practice battle.
The German team located where the shot came from and fired towards the AMX-13. The AMX-13 ran back towards the AMX-30s as they got ready to fight the Leopards. Both teams exchanged fire from one another as the German team managed to take out 4 of the AMX-30s while they only had 1 of their Leopards inoperable. So far not a good beginning for the French team.
Over towards the edge of the battlefield the 4 AMX-13s got around to the rear of the German team and rushed towards them. Miho thought that this was a risky move as the German team still had 9 of their tanks left unless the French team had a trick up their sleeves. She got her answer as she noticed how fast the guns of the AMX-13s where firing. Only after a little over a second the 75mm cannons of the AMX-13s had reloaded and fired and fired, over and over again quickly picking away the German Team's Leopard tanks. After about a minute of guns rapid firing between the 2 teams, the final Leopard tank of the German team raised its white flag signifying that is was inoperable and the battle was over, a victory for the French team.
"That was intense." Hana said.
"How could the AMX-13s reload so quickly?" Saori asked.
"They don't, the AMX-13 light tank uses an auto-loading system in which 2 drums each holding 6 rounds can quickly load the cannon. However, once they run out they will need to find a place to hide while they reload both drums from outside the tank." Yukari responded.
"The French team won because they used a tactic in which they could take advantage of their AMX-13s rapid firing capability to overwhelm their opponent." Miho concluded. She will remember this for the upcoming battles they will fight in.
On the conning tower of the Ooarai school ship the 3 student council students were busy talking to dealers in which they could acquire their new tanks. So far all of the dealers told them that all of their tanks for sale was bought out by other schools. Fortunately, they did manage to find some tanks that they quickly took worried that other schools would take them. Momo is currently on the phone with one of the dealers.
"Hello this is Momo Kawashima from Ooarai High school and I are wondering if you still had any Leopard 1 tanks in stock."
"Your just in luck I only have one left. It's a Leopard 1A1 with all of its Tankery certification and other legal paperwork all done so it ready to compete. Quite a busy week, yesterday another school just bought 16 leopards all of a sudden." The dealer said thought the phone.
"Great I will take it. Also do you happen to have any new tanks that you haven't posted up on your website? My school's tankery team is quite short in tanks and I appreciated if you could sell them to me as soon as possible." Momo replied.
"Well we did just get an AMX-30 in my workshop a few days ago. It still needs to get certified before I can sell it but I think that I could bundle the 2 tanks together into fair price. How's 1 billion yen?" The dealer said.
"Can you accept 900 million yen?" Momo asked.
"Well due to the sudden increase in demand… We have a deal." The dealer accepted.
Momo gave the dealer the necessary information about shipping and payment. She then closed the call and checked how the others are doing.
"I managed to get 2 tanks. How did you two do?" Momo asked.
"I found someone who has an M103 and a Kanonenjagdpanzer that she is willing to sell." Yuzu responded.
"What about you president?" Momo asked.
"I have purchased something that the Leopon Team will love, also since our team is called the Turtle team is only seems fitting that we get a tank that can swim." Anzu said showing a picture of a PT-76 swimming across a river.
"So we still need 2 more tanks." Momo said.
It was getting late so the student council called it a day and when to their dorm rooms. In the following day Captain Chōno of the JGSDF (Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force) came to visit Ooarai high school to check on the progress of the girls. She was proud that they won last year's national tournament and since this year's tournament will incorporate Western Tankery, the girls will probably ask her questions about it. After being air dropped out of a military cargo plane she landed in the forest area of the school ship. Last year the headmaster filed a complaint to the Japanese government about one of the JGSDF's tank destroying his car. The Japanese government payed him back the value of the car and told Captain Chōno not to damage any civilian properties again.
She told her driver to drive through the forest and park the Type 10 tank near the hanger where the school's Sensha-do tanks are kept. She looked at her watch and found out that she was 30 minutes early so she walked into the school building and went to where the student council room was. Momo noticed her presence.
"Captain Chōno! I wasn't expecting you to come early." Momo said surprised by the Captain sudden presence.
"It's alright. I always come early as possible no matter if its military related or other occasions. I heard that this year's national tournament is using Western style Tankery are you excited about it?" Captain Chōno asked.
"I would be if I could find more tanks. We currently only have bought 6 but we still need 2 more." Momo responded.
"Actually I think I can help you with that. I remember that the JGSDF had an old Type 74 that we don't use anymore in storage. I will contact my superiors about it." Captain Chōno said.
"That's great but I'm not sure if it is allowed. Isn't a bit too modern?" Momo asked.
"The Type 74 uses steel armor and was made during the same time as the German Leopard 1." Captain Chōno responded.
Later in the day when Tankery club came, the teams gathered in the hanger for today's meeting. Everyone greeted Captain Chōno and some students began to ask questions about Western Tankery. Miho was one of them as she was confused on the new types of ammo and when to use which.
"Captain Chōno I am confused on the differences of APFSDS and HEAT and when to use which." Miho asked.
"Good question Miho. Actually, why don't I also show them to you." Captain Chōno said and walked up towards her Type 10 main battle tank and pulled out 2 rounds. One of the rounds had a sharp looking tip while the other round was more cylindrical in shape but had a tube like tip extruding out of the top of the body. She laid the 2 round on the ground.
"Alright everyone, this round with the sharp tip at the end is an APFSDS round but we also call it sabot because APFSDS is a mouthful. It is a kinetic penetrator like normal AP rounds but the projectile is smaller in caliber, has fins on them for increased stability and can fly much faster though the air. You should use them when you are firing a target at long range. The other round is a HEAT round. It is a shaped charge explosive. When they hit a target they can easily punch though armor by shooting a jet that can melt though the armor. However that only happens if you can hit your target. HEAT may have more penetrating power than a sabot in Western Tankery but is more inaccurate and should be used at close range." Captain Chōno explained.
Miho took notes in her notebook as the JGSDF captain told everyone about the new rounds that they will be using. Saori raised her hand to ask the JGSDF captain another question.
"Captain Chōno in original Sensha-do there are light, medium, and heavy tanks but in Western Tankery there is also main battle tanks. What are they and how are they different?" Saori asked.
"After WW2 many nations found that having different tanks for different roles were too expensive so tank designers then tried to develop tanks that could fill all existing tank roles in the battle and so called them main battle tanks. You can think of them as fast as a medium tank but also have the armor and firepower of a heavy tank. Some main battle tanks that you might fight against are the T-62, M60 and probably the Chieftain. My Type 10 is an excellent example of a modern main battle tank." Captain Chōno explained.
The day went on as tankery club meeting finished. Captain Chōno gave Momo the good news that the JGSDF agreed to give the Type 74 in exchange for a 100 million yen in which Momo accepted. Now the need one more tank.
For the rest of the day Momo desperately looked all over the internet and made calls over the phone but unfortunately came up blank. Then something caught her eye. In the background of a M48, that was sold, Momo saw a rusting hull of a tank that was just sitting with all of the junk parts that the owner had. She instantly started to contact the owner which said at the tank Momo saw was a prototype that was unsuccessful. It had a 90mm gun on an oscillating turret and that she couldn't get the engine to work but could still offer it to her for 50 million yen. Momo accepted the offer as she was certain that the automobile club could get that engine to work. Satisfied that the team now had all of the tanks they needed, Momo reported back to Anzu who was glad that they had all of their tank and commented Momo for her work. Now it was a matter of time for their new tanks to arrive at the school.