Centurion Tank

[2nd of foot]

If you would like more Cent pictures then these two are very good for AVRE

http://tanxheaven.com/cent/fv4003avr...avre11ba46.htm

http://www.armouredengineers.co.uk/photose.htm

And in the last link at the end in happy snaps there is a nice pic of some sappers cooking on the engine decks.

[Panzerknacker]

Very nice as usual George...I really like this pic

[George Eller]

Very nice as usual George...I really like this pic

Thanks Panzerknacker.

I would have liked to seen the "before and after" they took care of business.

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If you would like more Cent pictures then these two are very good for AVRE

http://tanxheaven.com/cent/fv4003avr...avre11ba46.htm

http://www.armouredengineers.co.uk/photose.htm

And in the last link at the end in happy snaps there is a nice pic of some sappers cooking on the engine decks.

Nice pics "2nd of foot". Great interior shots too. Thanks for the links.

A few from the many that I would like to post:

From Tanxheaven site:
http://tanxheaven.com/cent/fv4003avr...avre11ba46.htm




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Centurion AVRE 165mm with fascine bundle on cradle




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From Royal Engineers Association site:
http://www.armouredengineers.co.uk/photose.htm

Centurion AVRE 165mm:

On tank transporter


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In the Middle East


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With fascine bundle on cradle




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After emptying fascine cradle and depositing fascines


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Using dozer blade


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Undergoing maintenance


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Centurion Bridgelayer






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Happy Snaps - Cooking



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[George Eller]

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I will have to correct myself on the previous post. I think that these are actually Centurion AVRE 165mm with Class 60 roadway (trackway mat) on cradle.






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[Timbo in Oz]

aaah yes, the Aussie 20-pder Centurions.

I was behind one when we were doing - 'coop'n with armour' - on a firing range

I was 'on the phone', my skipper was a bit further back with P'n hq, we were moving, simulators going off everywhere around and I faintly heard 'action armour front' or something like that,

and the turrte traversed crew fired off a HESH round, and the blast was pretty serious. and the dust. Which, once settled .......

they fired an APDS round! ....... @ > twice the MV ~5000fps

Faarrrrrrkkkkk! I was all but knocked over!

SEVERAL times louder than when firing a KarlGustav, I can tell you.

[FluffyBunnyGB]

Following on from Timbo's tale, let me tell a tale of the CENTURION then, involving a senior instructor of gunnery (IG) at the Royal School of Artillery (now retired) who we shall call Big Vern in the interests on anonymity ......

This was recounted to me by his driver of the time, who ended up as my MT Sgt some years later.

Back when Big Vern was a fairly junior FOO in the 1970s, the Royal Artillery was still using CENTURION as an OP vehicle so the FOO party could keep up with armoured units using CHIEFTAN tanks.

Unlike the WARRIOR OP vehicles used nowadays, the CENTURION still had it's main armament intact. A point to note for what follows.

Out on the ranges in Germany one day, with Big Vern's Field Gun Battery on a live firing artillery excercise, an IG jumped up onto the back of Big Vern's tank and told him to shell the farmouse, middle left at 2,000 m or some such.

Quick as a flash, Big Vern shouted "gunner, traverse left, farmouse, 2,000m, HESH, fire!" (or whatever the correct sequence is ....)

As the IG picked himself up, slightly deafened. from the engine deck, where he'd been flung by the muzzle blast, he belaboured Big Vern about the helmet with his clipboard, shouting "I meant with your Battery, you c**t!".

[George Eller]

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Sorry for being slightly off topic, but I noticed this article at the Strategy Page website. Australia appears to be buying American M-1A1 tanks to replace some of their German Leopards. I believe the Leopards had previously replaced the Centurion.

The Australian Centurions did well during the Vietnam Conflict from what I've read.

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Abrams in Oz
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hta.../20060427.aspx

April 27, 2006: Australia has purchased 59 refurbished American M-1 tanks for $8 million each (including lots of ancillary equipment and spares). The M-1A1 tanks will replace German Leopards, which are nearing the end of their useful life. The 59 tanks are enough for one tank battalion which, with the addition of two mechanized infantry battalions and some support units, would produce one mechanized brigade. This would be the largest unit Australia would be expected to send overseas. Australia, due to its size and location, does not anticipate being invaded by a hostile armored force. So the M-1s would be mainly for any overseas operations.

There are other reasons for getting M-1s. First, there is reputation. For fifteen years, the M-1 has demonstrated clear battlefield superiority. There is nothing on the horizon that can match it. Then there is the compatibility angle. Australia and the United States are close allies. If Australia gets into an overseas scrape, it will probably be as an American ally. Thus Australian M-1s would have an easier time getting supplies and spares. Another angle is that Australia might not even have to send its M-1s overseas. If the Australian mechanized brigade was relieving an American brigade, the Australians could, as American units currently do, just send the crews to man the tanks of the troops returning home.

The 59 Australian M-1s are expected to serve about twenty years.

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[Hiddenrug]

Yes. Australia has already ordered thier 59 M1A1 Abrams. I saw one a couple of weeks ago. Some Leopards will stay in force.

Centurion tanks were used in WWII especially in the final months although they were over shadowed by the Grant, Sherman and the Panther, Tiger and others.

[Cuts]

I always thought they came in far too late to be involved in action, I'd be interested to hear any stories about their contacts with the Tigers and Panthers.

[George Eller]

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According to what I've read, the first six produced were delivered in May 1945 and rushed to Germany for testing in combat conditions with the 22nd Armoured Brigade, but hostilities had ceased by the time they arrived.
http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/show...83&postcount=6

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[Doug 1956]

Talking BARVs, the last M3 Medium in service anywhere was probably a BARV version with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, used (for training) until 1972.

Talking Centurions and WW2, yes, some made it to troop trials, but then again would anyone argue that troop trials constitutes service?

Seeing how the Brits were just able to get some - not a huge number - of Comets into service, and kept Comets in service until 1962 in Berlin and Hong Kong in 'trip wire' units, that is just good enough to have to be knocked out, but also good enough so that if they are knocked out it means the enemy is serious; the Comet was really the ultimate Brit tank of WW2.

If they had really wanted to expend the energy and effort they could have gotten Black Princes into combat in Europe, and these would have been useful for the slogging through Japanese home island defences if armed with a 94mm howitzer rather than the 17pdr.

[2nd of foot]

Some is a little bit of an understatement. 11 armoured was fully equipped with them as well as a number of other regiments if not the complete div.

[W MENARD]

HELLO

My name is Wayne and I was with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps in the 60s and 70s. I was a Driver Gunner and Radio operator/loader on the Centurion tanks both in Canada and in Europe during the Cold War. I have first hand knowledge of performance and capabilities of the Beast.

Wayne

[Panzerknacker]

Is this epigraph true ?

seems hard to believe, more than ten hours to change an engine.

[Nickdfresh]

I think you mean 12 in a garage and 18 in the field....

That does seem lengthy, but I think she rarely needed such care...