VTB-8
Contents
Description
The VTB-8 is a rank I French motor torpedo boat with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Dance of Dragons".
General info
Survivability and armour
As with all reserve torpedo boats, there is no real armour to speak of. VTB-8's 40mm thick wooden hull and 15mm thick wooden superstructure is typical of early torpedo boats and is shared with the MAS-561, PT-6, and Type T-14. The radio station and pilothouse are relatively small and set roughly amidships, which reduces the size of the target the enemy needs to hit to damage the craft's steering. The single gun mount is very small and therefore hard to disable, which will allow you to keep firing in desperate situations. If it is somehow destroyed, it won't affect your overall crew count. In total, the boat can hold ten crew members, with three in each hull section and one in the pilothouse, needing a minimum of three crew to operate.
Mobility
The boat is surprisingly agile, but it's primary asset is its speed. Being faster than any reserve boat other than the Russian G-5, you can beat the competition to the capture point, escape from big ships, and close the distance with the enemy as needed.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 125 | 37 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 89 | 26 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armament
Primary armament
When looking at 7.7mm guns in naval forces, it's common sense to compare the Darne M1922 with the 1916 Lewis gun found on the British MTB-1 and MTB Vosper series boats at the same battle rating. In fact, the ballistics between these two guns are very close, as the bullets share the same mass. The Darne M1922 has a somewhat slower muzzle velocity but a much higher rate of fire, more bullets per magazine, and can reload almost three times faster. This makes it a superior weapon to use on the fly. However, its overall damage per second is lower due to having only two barrels vs the 4-8 per British vessel.
While weapons of this calibre work well against open-topped tanks, they struggle to do meaningful damage through the hull of a boat. As such, they're complemented best by quick movement, extraordinary volume of fire, and ambush tactics. For maximum effect, captains will want to get close to retain as much shot velocity as possible and target vulnerable areas. This is particularly important if the opponent's hull is angled. Precise fire into flat sides of the hull will allow you to pick off crew compartments, since the bullets struggle to reach vital components like the engines. Raking the opponent's gun positions may help you approach in one piece, but only if there are no gunshields present to stop your shot.
The difference in belts relates to their ratio of AP and API rounds. The damaging effects of these two bullet types are nearly identical, so the choice of belt isn't particularly important. However, the solid AP shot is slightly heavier and thus is listed as having slightly increased penetration under certain circumstances. The incendiary filler in the API rounds appears to have negligible effect on surface targets, if any can be observed at all, but incendiary rounds are theoretically better against aircraft. The choice of which type of belt to take is up to personal preference.
- Universal: AP · T · AP · T
- 7.7 mm AP belt: AP · AP · AP · T
- 7.7 mm API belt: IT · IT · IT · IT
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| T | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | |
| AP | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | |
| IT | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay | Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| T | 835 | 0.01 | - | - | - | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
| AP | 830 | 0.01 | - | - | - | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
| IT | 830 | 0.01 | - | - | - | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
Additional armament
Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.
Usage in battles
The boat is very fast for a reserve vessel, beating out all but the sleek duralumin G-5 for top speed. This can be used to your advantage when attacking capture points or for closing the distance with your enemy - something you will need to do regularly to achieve any sort of lethality from your small calibre weapons. The tripod gun mount provides an excellent 360 degree firing arc as well as between -10 and 80 degrees of elevation for use against aircraft. Keeping this in mind, it's best to attack all targets "bow-in" to expose as little of your hull as possible. Given the wooden construction, it's not the best boat for "bow-tanking" but that is by far your best hope for survival against aware enemies. As with all belt-fed weapons, managing your reloads is key. However, with a weapon of this low calibre, you need as many bullets as possible to be ready before you hit that several second reload downtime. If you believe an engagement is coming up or lack visibility on the threats ahead, make sure to empty your magazine and get a fresh one.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Fast and agile
- Stable gunnery platform at high speeds
- 360° arc of fire for both guns, with very good vertical guidance
- Good survivability for the BR
- Small silhouette
- Tiny steering gear is very unlikely to suffer critical damage
Cons:
- Poor firepower
- Limited selection of ammunition
- Very short range of the torpedoes, making them extremely situational
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire (ACL) | |
|---|---|
| Motor Torpedo Boats | |
| VTB-8-class | VTB-8 · VTB-9 |
| VTB-11-class | VTB-11 · VTB-13 · VTB-14 |
| Destroyers | |
| Jaguar-class | Leopard |
| Battleships | |
| Bretagne-class | Lorraine |
| See also | Loire Aviation |
| France boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | VTB-8 · VTB-9 · VTB-11 · VTB-14 |
| VLT-1 · VLT-2 · VTB-19 | |
| MTB-96 | |
| Motor gun boats | L9059 · La Combattante · VTB-13 |
| Gunboats | La Suprise |
