I remember watching a US made documentary where a US Vet is taken to a tank museum and he heads straight to the British Centurion. He said they saved the life of him and his platoon because the Centurion was able to climb quite steep hills to where his unit was under assault.
It is good to remember that the Centurion had excellent off road capability especially when climbing the hills thanks to the Horstmann suspension with much improved reliability compared to the torsion bars! Possibly it was the most successful English tank...
Apparently sometime during the Cold War, at least one Australian Centurion was tested in a nuclear bombed testing sight. Situated merely 400 meters from a 10 kiloton explosion, afterwards the tank was intact & fully functional! WTF.....what a Tank ! 😮
The tank survived but if there where crewman they would have died. Hence part of the test would help derive NBC protection for the tank which crewman can survive in a modern MBT using specialy made filters.
The biggest problem we had in WW2 was the tank's engines were around 350hp That meant you could have a fast tank or a heavily armoured tank, not both in one vehicle The Meteor with it's 600hp (812hp in later fuel injection versions) allowed this balance to be redressed Of course, the Centurion was designed from the ground up to take the 17 pounder (and bigger) gun So, a tank with the killing power, armour but not the weight of a Tiger (or even a Panther)
The Panther weighed 44-45 tons, so the Centurion was heavier at 50t. The Germans, even though they did have some relatively powerful tank engines in WW2, still had nowhere near powerful enough engines to give the Tiger 2 some decent mobility. The Panther did have pretty decent mobility, however.
It is funny you look at the development programs for underperforming aircraft and tanks, most of them are held back by underpowered or unreliable engines.
@@politenessman3901 it did kind of, but from what I understand not even that much when it comes to the engine. Once the teething issues on the tank were resolved, of course, with one of them being spontaneous engine fires. There were other issues though, mostly related to the transmission. The bigger problems were with the Tiger and especially the Tiger 2, both of which had the same engine as the Panther while weighing considerably more.
This is the tank that saved Israel in the Battle of the valley of tears in the 70's less than 100 ripped 500 T55 and T62's to bits . Can be seen at Bovington tank museum in Dorset in the U.K
The omission of the Golan battles of Oct. 73 from this video is... weird. These have been documented to death, and it wouldn't have been too difficult to include a minute or two of footage and commentary about this. I've had the honor to watch the last reserve battalion of Centurions on exercise at Tze'elim ca. '92. The way they were moving was impressive, and even our battalion's veteran tankers were admirative. We had these bubba'ed M60-A1's, the Magach 7*.
Suggest you proofread your scripts better. Centurion had a crew of 4 not 5. T55 was not involved in the Korean War. Someone has already pointed out that there wasn’t an American M45 tank.
Well, unfortunately for them, there was an M45. Its original designation was the T26E2 later changed to Medium Tank M45, and was the Pershing fitted with a 105mm howitzer. Very few were ever made, but they did see limited service in the Korean War.
A comment in the Commonwealth armies is that someone was "in the Army when Centurion was a RANK, - not a TANK"...... The Centurion is STILL the Standard which all other tanks are measured by!
I really enjoyed this because there's a Centurion outside a regemental museum that my grandad loves and I was so happy he got to see it move under it's own power.
When the Centurion MK tank really shone was during the 1973 "Yom Kippur War" against the Syrian onslaught of T-55 and T-62's Soviet's MK tanks. This is of course, because the Israeli's upgrades along with the superb training by the I.D.F. which truly exploited the efficacy of this tank that is known in Medinat Yisrael as the "Shot-Kal" or the "Sling with a 105mm main bore canon.
Whats funny when I noticed the thumbnail is that its not even a Centurion, its a Vickers mbt. Not only that that picture is taken from the videogame Sprocket: Tank design
There's an interesting anecdote from the battle of the Imjin river in the Korean war; when the British positions were overrun by Chinese troops, the centurions were swarmed by troops crawling over them, the crews radioed each other and decided to shoot at each others tanks with the coaxial machine guns to clear the Chinese off.
Under-appreciated tank. WoT was my first exposure to the Centurion and I was immediately drawn to it. It's design and proportions were strikingly modern for 1945. Clearly way ahead of its time, a pioneering design.
What held back British tank development was the lack of decent engines. From the start to the middle of the war, the most common tank engine was the Liberty, a 27 litre V12 with an output of 300-450 hp. It was a slightly modified WW ONE aero engine made under license. The Matilda and Churchill used their own unique engines. It was the Meteor engine made from surplus Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that solved the problem and first fitted into a Crusader III for testing and first deployed in the Cromwell. First engines were salvaged from wrecks but later engines came from retired planes that used earlier marks of the Merlin. The Meteor was the same physical size, layout, and capacity as the Liberty, but was making 600 hp. Final variants were making 850 hp. Although the Cromwell was a "Cruiser" tank, it had armour near that of an Infantry tank. This was the engine that powered the Cromwell, Comet, and Centurion which spawned the "Universal Tank" which later became the Main Battle Tank.
Yes the Swedes used centurions for about 70 years (before replacing them with leopard 2s) they ended up with diesel engines which were not only more reliable but more fuel efficient
The AVRE version of the Centurion remained in service with the British Army till Gulf War I, and Centurion gun tanks were also provided to the Royal Engineers in the 1980s to provide close protection to bridge-layers.
People forget, the Centurion was used by the Israeli Army over many years in various disguises AND used in Vietnam by the Australians, to great effect (in fact probably the most effective use of tanks in Vietnam).
During India Pakistani Wars both in 1965 & 1971, MK3 is responsible alone for destroying bulk of M47 pattons fleet & few M48 as they were rare sight over battlefield ..
@@deanrobinson4129 wouldnt matter these days anyway, once most of the empire went we havent really needed tanks, all our remaining territories are islands or tiny bits of land in which 1 brigade of tanks is more than enough. our land forces now are basically to help support allied armies as the only country with enough aircraft carriers and planes to get the air supriority needed to invade us is already an ally. its probably why more funding is going towards projects like the tempest instead.
Lovely bit of fiction, perhaps you should check before you speak! Centurion only ever had four crew and never had a 7.62 co-ax gun (7.92 BESA up to Mk3 & then had the .30 Browning).
Came to see Olifant mk1 A & B and saw the B, thanks. Heavily mod SA army Centurion late 80's early 90's which then eventually became Olifant Mk 2. Still in service.
Many years ago I looked after (ex Health Prof) a chap who had driven Centurions in Korea. He told me how it was so cold, and the rivers so frozen, that they had a competition to see who could skid their Centurion furthest ...
I believe the Centurion was the first tank with a gyroscopically controlled gun. So despite the hull's manoeuvring across the terrain, the turret/gun remained fixed on it's aiming point. This video has a short demo of this at 4:41.
You mean the stabilizer, yeah it had one but the sherman had one too so did the British a13 light tanks , which were used in ww2 . They were not much reliable like these stabilizers shown in the Centurian mk3 , they only worked when on combat speed , which is slow like below 5 mph . So this wasn't the first
As noted earlier the gyroscopically controlled gun was a breakthrough enabling the gun to remain pointing at the target regardless of the tanks attitude as it travelled. There was panic when a centurion was left on the battlefield in korea , immobilised and open to north korea/chinese examination. The tank was later recovered with the gyro assembly untouched.
i know its not entirely relevant to the rest of the video but the preamble about british tank development in ww2 is pretty incorrect, although it is the kind of misleading summary that most people will churn out.
Once the UK got rid of the aristo ex calvary generals they began to learn in north africa. But then they had the aussies and kiwis there to teach them how to fight.
Australia used Centurion’s in Vietnam there’s one in the Australian War Museum in Canberra if I remember correctly it has a big dent in the bottom from a mine then we had Leopard’s now Abrams
Damn, the British sure know how to build good tanks, Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger 1 and now Challenger 2. Amy idea why British named their tanks starting with the letter C?
because britain calls them all cruiser tanks, so instead of doing cruiser tank A1, A5, A13 MK2 and so on, similar to how russia names their tanks, thinking it would be too difficult to remember each number for each model,britain decided to just give all their tanks names beginning with C, the C hinting that its a cruiser tank Covenanter, Crusader, Cavalier, Centaur, Cromwell, Challenger, Comet, Centurion etc.
Excellent video and very informative. However, there was never an official "M-45 Patton tank" M46 Patton, a medium tank model operational during the Korean War M47 Patton, the first US main battle tank, in service from 1952 through 1959 with the U.S. Army, and through the mid-1990s in foreign service. M48 Patton, a tank model in service from the mid-1950s through the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army, and still operational in foreign service. M60 Patton, the standard main battle tank of the United States from 1960 until it was replaced by the M1 Abrams in 1980, still extensively used worldwide. Not officially designated a member of the Patton tank family.
My Fav MBT By Far is the Challenger 2 & With the 3 coming out in a couple of years with a Smoothbore & An Awesome Trophy system it will be an unstoppable force I would not like to be in any Tank when hit by any AT Weapon be it an AT4 or RPG or even and ATGM , But if i was forced to sit in one and it was going to be hit , Id sit in a British Made Challenger Tank all day long , The M1A2 is a very close second tho that thing is a Beast & the Leopard is a Gorgeous Tank
If that was developed during WWII, I'd be very surprised if it used a 7.62 mm machine gun. IIUC, many British machine guns and rifles used .303 calibre.
Yes, apparently 'Cooper Force' lost 14 Cromwells the night of 03 Jan 1950 whilst withdrawing under fire. Communist forces got two running, one destroyed by a Centurion 01 Feb and the other captured by South Korean marines on 10 Feb; apparently returned to running order and handed back to the British.
A Centurion chassis is still in the fight today, as the "Puma" combat-engineers vehicle of the reserve units. It is being gradually replaced by the larger and much pricier, Merkava IV-based "Namer-Handassa".
In the Six Days War of June 1967, most IDF Centurions had already been upgunned to the 105 mm L7, although only a handful had been dieselized and most had retained the Meteor engine.
@@DanielLLevy When I see a photo of those Israeli Centurions with the white chevrons, it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. You know the Bad Dudes have arrived.
Apparently it was originally the T26E2 Patton, an M26 carrying an M4 105mm howitzer. 185 built, and the assault gun platoon of the 6th Medium Tank Battalion had 6 until January 1951. I'd never heard of them before either. (edited for grammar).
The Korean War was the best 'sales campaign' for the Centurion, leading most of its eventual buyers to it. The 20-pounder (83.4mm) came in two barrels, the Type A which was smooth on the outside and with the counterweight at the muzzle. The Type B had the fume extractor bulge midway and was the basis of the famous L-7 105mm gun. It should have been noted the move to the 105 was accelerated by the discovery of the thick armour on the Soviet T-54's and T-55's with the need to match or exceed the 100mm gun. Also, it's too bad the video didn't go into the Centurion's use by the Israeli Defence Forces. Be it on the Golan Heights against the Syrian Army in the Sinai Desert against the Egyptians, the Centurions prove very effective with their IDF modifications. Perhaps most important were the diesel engines replacing the fuel-hungry gasoline engines that severely limited the Centurion's range.
British armor in early ww2 suffered from the concept of Infantry tanks and Cruiser tanks. though they were no worse than contemporary vehicles from other countries. if USA had entered ww2 in 1939 their tanks would have been even worse... it wasn't until the Sherman that they had a decent tank. and the German Panther and Tigers were still largely rare on the battlefield. most of German armor was the pzIV right up to the end of the war and a mix of foreign armor re-purposed. whole divisions had French armor in Normandy in 1944.
The Sherman was an adequate tank available in large quantities which compensated for its deficiencies, British tanks improved significantly with the arrival of the late war comet and centurion just as hostilities in Europe finished.
And we may not have got Centurion out for WW2 in time, but we did build 1,200 A34 Comets. 36 tons Same 102mm front armour profile as Churchill (excellent armour) 77mm HV Gun 600 HP Meteor (17 hp/ton) Christie Suspension 198km range 52 km/h Came out late '44 Basically a baby Centurion, or Medium Centurion. Incredible WW2 tank, arguably the best WW2 tank anybody had.
It’s only weak point was the power pack (engine and gearbox). The British kept the petrol engine, they should have modernised and converted to diesel, that would have increased the battle range quite substAntially. My Cent ARV was excellent, but the fuel usage especially when towing chieftains MBTs cross country reduced the range and we were always mindful of how much fuel we had.
In 1980 I was handed the Swiss Army manual of fuel consumption, the Centurion topped the list with a whopping figure that surpassed any other wehicle on the list.
Quite so but the problem was to find the government who would pay the bill. None of the political parties were improving the forces at that time if you remember. All parties reduced or even wished to annihilate the RAF and the army was under constant reduction. The navy became a shell. I think it was Jeremy Thorpe who wanted to bomb Rhodesia after UDI and could not understand why people fell about laughing! Matters have not improved. Look at us today! Politics in this country are currently pitiful and we have to give our arms to others to fight for us. Those of us who have worn uniform feel very angry about it.
I know a bloke who's ex RAAC and was a Centurion loader in Vietnam. He once asked his commander why no diesels and was told "operational reasons". He then remembered that diesels under hard acceleration can give off thick clouds of dark exhaust smoke. One fellow's opinion at least.
Latrun is still internationally recognised as being part of the disputed West Bank due to Israel's failure in capturing it from the Jordanian Arab Legion
Aber warum? There were FCS upgrades available for the Centurion that would have made its firepower on par with the Leo-einz, if not better, and with at least realistic armor protection.
the is realis used the centurion to great effect , with their training by British tankers and ability to retain that training without short cuts they were able to destroy hundreds of Arab tanks during the the Yom Kippur War
Ah, the UN did NOT withdraw from Korea after 1953, though most countries that had fought in Korea did remove their forces, except for these United States which is still there under the auspices of the UN order in 1950.
As a American I always thought it was a really great tank. Proved along with the Comet during WW2 when both were designed that the British could make great tank s. Once they said the hell with all the railway and other rules that kept them from making great tanks. If only both tanks could of been made 2 years earlier. Would of made a huge difference. But those Sherman s did get it done 😂💥💥💥💥🇬🇧🇺🇲
What was the incident being described at the start? No date. No place. No unit. Sheer waffle without substance. No, the British did not "struggle to come up with innovative and functional designs" after WWI. They were probably the most innovative in the 1920s and early 1930s and their designs were widely bought and copied. My father was in Korea and said that the Centurion had a peculiar weakness to anti-personnel mines. In soft terrain tanks rend to sink when parked up. If Centurions sank onto an anti-personnel mine the hull prevented dissipation of the blast and it jolted the vehicles so badly that it damaged the gear box and rendered the tank unserviceable pending repair. If I remember correctly, one Centurion used at Suez in 1956 was later converted to an armoured recovery vehicle and served in the first Gulf War 35 years later!
This is probably the only bad video by Dark Tech I've ever watched. It's the intro on British WW2 tanks that is bad. Apart from the A13 Covenanter and the first A15's, British tanks ranged from okay to absolutely outstanding. It was the way they were used, and the lack of training of crews in the early part of the war which was flawed. Leaders blamed their tanks rather than themselves, such as General Roger Evans in France.
govt had prevented the proper equipping.. in France in 1940 the BEF had a comparative handful of the Matilda II tanks - if they had hundreds the panzers would have been toast. as demonstrated when TWO of them rolled thru everything they met at Arras.. as always the govts resent spending on defence and leave the military to make do. *Matilda I tanks deployed in France were armed only with mgs
Indian Army also successfully diployed British tanks to counter more powerful Panton Tanks creating Graveyard of Pakistani Armor Specially in Battle Of Asal Uttar ( We can say Real Answer ) ❤
Nope. The tanks were phased out during the early Nineties, but the chassis soldiered on until today with a number of heavy APCs and specialist vehicles. The Centurion reserve units weren't let go, they were converted to Merkava Mk. 2 and 3 back then, as they had the deserved reputation to have the best crews in the Army.
Hang on! This video doesn’t even touch on the events in the Middle East during the 70s! Israel used the Centurion against modern soviet armour in the biggest tank battles since WW2 (up to that point), and it isn’t covered? Something stinks to high heaven here…🤨
I remember watching a US made documentary where a US Vet is taken to a tank museum and he heads straight to the British Centurion.
He said they saved the life of him and his platoon because the Centurion was able to climb quite steep hills to where his unit was under assault.
It is good to remember that the Centurion had excellent off road capability especially when climbing the hills thanks to the Horstmann suspension with much improved reliability compared to the torsion bars! Possibly it was the most successful English tank...
Would have been an Australian Centurion as Britain to my knowledge never fought in Vietnam
@@rons4778
we can still provide or sell goods without fighting?
Bob
England
Was in korea@@rons4778
Korean War,perhaps?@@rons4778
Israel & South Africa had good results using their Centurions in combat. The British 105mm gun became standard in Western tanks for many years.
You mean the L7 gun
Its official title is “ royal ordinance L7 “…….all variants had to be OKd by the British authorities….
@@nobbytang yeah, that is correct
Yes Israel and South Africa.
Bastions of freedom and equality over their indigenous populations.
Apparently sometime during the Cold War, at least one Australian Centurion was tested in a nuclear bombed testing sight. Situated merely 400 meters from a 10 kiloton explosion, afterwards the tank was intact & fully functional! WTF.....what a Tank ! 😮
The tank survived but if there where crewman they would have died. Hence part of the test would help derive NBC protection for the tank which crewman can survive in a modern MBT using specialy made filters.
@tasman006 there's a thing called NBCD suit. Since 1960. It's foolish to believe the tank crew actually was present for the detonation.
I believe that this particular hull number is still in situ at the ADFs first armoured regiment in Darwin as a gate guard.
@@prichards5113 It was also hit by a couple of RPGs in Vietnam 1968
@@tasman006 At 400 metres the shockwave would have killed any crew
The biggest problem we had in WW2 was the tank's engines were around 350hp
That meant you could have a fast tank or a heavily armoured tank, not both in one vehicle
The Meteor with it's 600hp (812hp in later fuel injection versions) allowed this balance to be redressed
Of course, the Centurion was designed from the ground up to take the 17 pounder (and bigger) gun
So, a tank with the killing power, armour but not the weight of a Tiger (or even a Panther)
The Panther weighed 44-45 tons, so the Centurion was heavier at 50t. The Germans, even though they did have some relatively powerful tank engines in WW2, still had nowhere near powerful enough engines to give the Tiger 2 some decent mobility. The Panther did have pretty decent mobility, however.
@@MaxCroat Though the Panther paid the price in mechanical unreliability, you operate an engine hard as a matter of routine, it breaks a lot more.
It is funny you look at the development programs for underperforming aircraft and tanks, most of them are held back by underpowered or unreliable engines.
@@politenessman3901 it did kind of, but from what I understand not even that much when it comes to the engine. Once the teething issues on the tank were resolved, of course, with one of them being spontaneous engine fires. There were other issues though, mostly related to the transmission. The bigger problems were with the Tiger and especially the Tiger 2, both of which had the same engine as the Panther while weighing considerably more.
I'm telling it by heart but I think before being upgunned with the L7 (105mm) the main gun of Centurion was the 84mm 20 pounder.
This is the tank that saved Israel in the Battle of the valley of tears in the 70's less than 100 ripped 500 T55 and T62's to bits . Can be seen at Bovington tank museum in Dorset in the U.K
A tank designed in WW2 (and updated since) was still destroying the latest Soviet weapons, decades later.
The omission of the Golan battles of Oct. 73 from this video is... weird. These have been documented to death, and it wouldn't have been too difficult to include a minute or two of footage and commentary about this. I've had the honor to watch the last reserve battalion of Centurions on exercise at Tze'elim ca. '92. The way they were moving was impressive, and even our battalion's veteran tankers were admirative. We had these bubba'ed M60-A1's, the Magach 7*.
@@raypurchase801took 30yrs of Soviet ingenuity to present a threat 😂
Suggest you proofread your scripts better. Centurion had a crew of 4 not 5. T55 was not involved in the Korean War. Someone has already pointed out that there wasn’t an American M45 tank.
Yeah someone doesn’t really match the tanks in the startup with his statements.
ChatGPT hallucinations
Well, unfortunately for them, there was an M45.
Its original designation was the T26E2 later changed to Medium Tank M45, and was the Pershing fitted with a 105mm howitzer.
Very few were ever made, but they did see limited service in the Korean War.
There was an M45 tank lol
These channels are of consistent quality 😂
A comment in the Commonwealth armies is that someone was "in the Army when Centurion was a RANK, - not a TANK"......
The Centurion is STILL the Standard which all other tanks are measured by!
Lol in the RAF we used to say 'when Pontius was a pilot ' or 'when I was in we didn't have ID cards, we all knew each other '.
@@SteveDonaldson-r5k 🤣
It outclassed its peers and influenced tank development.
I really enjoyed this because there's a Centurion outside a regemental museum that my grandad loves and I was so happy he got to see it move under it's own power.
The Centurion was the west’s original main battle tank. Best of class
German cat intensely staring into your soul...
It was the _world's_ first MBT.
Except at the time they were called "Universal Tanks"
@@d.o.g573those unreliable cats....
Not even close 😂@@d.o.g573
When the Centurion MK tank really shone was during the 1973 "Yom Kippur War" against the Syrian onslaught of T-55 and T-62's Soviet's MK tanks. This is of course, because the Israeli's upgrades along with the superb training by the I.D.F. which truly exploited the efficacy of this tank that is known in Medinat Yisrael as the "Shot-Kal" or the "Sling with a 105mm main bore canon.
i from Israel 7 Armor division Retired Sergeant - you say all wright
Toda Raba ani chaver.@@MaxKrumholz
105mm main bore cannon
T-62 ???
T-67's never existed.
Whats funny when I noticed the thumbnail is that its not even a Centurion, its a Vickers mbt. Not only that that picture is taken from the videogame Sprocket: Tank design
I knew I wasn’t just seeing things
Yes, I thought this was a video about the Vickers when I looked at the thumbnail.
There's an interesting anecdote from the battle of the Imjin river in the Korean war; when the British positions were overrun by Chinese troops, the centurions were swarmed by troops crawling over them, the crews radioed each other and decided to shoot at each others tanks with the coaxial machine guns to clear the Chinese off.
The Centurion's greatest moment, one of the greatest moments in armoured warfare, gets no mention.
When was this..? Love to hear Your Opinion
Probably the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Cheers thanks@@love_it_to_death
Centurion is masterful tank still in use in many places
In addition to its other qualities, the Centurion boasted onboard tea brewing capability! A perfect war machine.
Yes James I trained as a centurion tank driver in Catterick in1959. Winter time. The tea kettle came in very handy.
I liked that you showed all the versions thx for a great video
Under-appreciated tank. WoT was my first exposure to the Centurion and I was immediately drawn to it. It's design and proportions were strikingly modern for 1945. Clearly way ahead of its time, a pioneering design.
What held back British tank development was the lack of decent engines. From the start to the middle of the war, the most common tank engine was the Liberty, a 27 litre V12 with an output of 300-450 hp. It was a slightly modified WW ONE aero engine made under license. The Matilda and Churchill used their own unique engines.
It was the Meteor engine made from surplus Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that solved the problem and first fitted into a Crusader III for testing and first deployed in the Cromwell. First engines were salvaged from wrecks but later engines came from retired planes that used earlier marks of the Merlin. The Meteor was the same physical size, layout, and capacity as the Liberty, but was making 600 hp. Final variants were making 850 hp.
Although the Cromwell was a "Cruiser" tank, it had armour near that of an Infantry tank.
This was the engine that powered the Cromwell, Comet, and Centurion which spawned the "Universal Tank" which later became the Main Battle Tank.
Yes the Swedes used centurions for about 70 years (before replacing them with leopard 2s) they ended up with diesel engines which were not only more reliable but more fuel efficient
The AVRE version of the Centurion remained in service with the British Army till Gulf War I, and Centurion gun tanks were also provided to the Royal Engineers in the 1980s to provide close protection to bridge-layers.
It’s funny we started the war with the worst tanks and finished with the best .
People forget, the Centurion was used by the Israeli Army over many years in various disguises AND used in Vietnam by the Australians, to great effect (in fact probably the most effective use of tanks in Vietnam).
During India Pakistani Wars both in 1965 & 1971, MK3 is responsible alone for destroying bulk of M47 pattons fleet & few M48 as they were rare sight over battlefield ..
India Pakistani wars. Multiculturalism working OK?
@@paulsara9694
What’s that got to do with it? Everyone has had wars.
@@paulsara9694no one cares, get a life kid.
The best post WW2 tank for decades
Over 4000 were produced unreal now the uk can't keep a few hundred tanks in the field
The empire is not what it used to be
A lot to be fair paid for by the Americans to rearm a number of European inventories post war.
@sobobwas6871 yea true but even the fact that they could manufacture them back then can you imagine the bureaucratic crap nowadays
@@deanrobinson4129 wouldnt matter these days anyway, once most of the empire went we havent really needed tanks, all our remaining territories are islands or tiny bits of land in which 1 brigade of tanks is more than enough.
our land forces now are basically to help support allied armies as the only country with enough aircraft carriers and planes to get the air supriority needed to invade us is already an ally.
its probably why more funding is going towards projects like the tempest instead.
The last British Army Centurion saw service in the first Gulf War
Lovely bit of fiction, perhaps you should check before you speak! Centurion only ever had four crew and never had a 7.62 co-ax gun (7.92 BESA up to Mk3 & then had the .30 Browning).
Nice sprocket image as the thumbnail lol
Came to see Olifant mk1 A & B and saw the B, thanks. Heavily mod SA army Centurion late 80's early 90's which then eventually became Olifant Mk 2. Still in service.
The Oliphant is bad ass
The days we made the best tank guns in the world, germans, Americans used them the 105mm
Classic design. ! proper stuff. 👍💛👊
..Thanks for the Stream and all the information you provide on this matter …very informative …💙💛💙
That sprocket thumbnail XD I didnt expect you guys to try anything like this ever!
Whats even funnier is that its the wrong tank, its not a Centurion, its a Vickers MBT
@@Kenshi_2900 wait, the video wasnt about the comercial success of the vickers tanks? I quess i made a good call by not watching the video :D
Is that sprocket in the thumbnail?
Many years ago I looked after (ex Health Prof) a chap who had driven Centurions in Korea. He told me how it was so cold, and the rivers so frozen, that they had a competition to see who could skid their Centurion furthest ...
Its still in service in the sandf as the olifant mk1a, mk1b and mk2.
M-45 Patton (1:43 min) ? great research for the narration.
M-48 isn't it?
I can see an 8 misprint as a 5.
I believe the Centurion was the first tank with a gyroscopically controlled gun. So despite the hull's manoeuvring across the terrain, the turret/gun remained fixed on it's aiming point. This video has a short demo of this at 4:41.
You mean the stabilizer, yeah it had one but the sherman had one too so did the British a13 light tanks , which were used in ww2 . They were not much reliable like these stabilizers shown in the Centurian mk3 , they only worked when on combat speed , which is slow like below 5 mph . So this wasn't the first
Sprocket thumbnail no way
BROOOO YOU MANS PUT A SPROCKET THUMBNAIL
As noted earlier the gyroscopically controlled gun was a breakthrough enabling the gun to remain pointing at the target regardless of the tanks attitude as it travelled. There was panic when a centurion was left on the battlefield in korea , immobilised and open to north korea/chinese examination. The tank was later recovered with the gyro assembly untouched.
Bro used a Sprocket screenshot and tought i wouldnt notice
i know its not entirely relevant to the rest of the video but the preamble about british tank development in ww2 is pretty incorrect, although it is the kind of misleading summary that most people will churn out.
Once the UK got rid of the aristo ex calvary generals they began to learn in north africa. But then they had the aussies and kiwis there to teach them how to fight.
@@patrickporter1864 thats not really what I was talking about
Why didnt they put a British 3.7 in AA gun in a tank its the same caliber as an 88 MM on a tiger.
Australia used Centurion’s in Vietnam there’s one in the Australian War Museum in Canberra if I remember correctly it has a big dent in the bottom from a mine then we had Leopard’s now Abrams
Damn, the British sure know how to build good tanks, Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger 1 and now Challenger 2. Amy idea why British named their tanks starting with the letter C?
because britain calls them all cruiser tanks, so instead of doing cruiser tank A1, A5, A13 MK2 and so on, similar to how russia names their tanks, thinking it would be too difficult to remember each number for each model,britain decided to just give all their tanks names beginning with C, the C hinting that its a cruiser tank Covenanter, Crusader, Cavalier, Centaur, Cromwell, Challenger, Comet, Centurion etc.
Excellent video and very informative. However, there was never an official "M-45 Patton tank" M46 Patton, a medium tank model operational during the Korean War
M47 Patton, the first US main battle tank, in service from 1952 through 1959 with the U.S. Army, and through the mid-1990s in foreign service. M48 Patton, a tank model in service from the mid-1950s through the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army, and still operational in foreign service. M60 Patton, the standard main battle tank of the United States from 1960 until it was replaced by the M1 Abrams in 1980, still extensively used worldwide. Not officially designated a member of the Patton tank family.
My Fav MBT By Far is the Challenger 2 & With the 3 coming out in a couple of years with a Smoothbore & An Awesome Trophy system it will be an unstoppable force
I would not like to be in any Tank when hit by any AT Weapon be it an AT4 or RPG or even and ATGM , But if i was forced to sit in one and it was going to be hit , Id sit in a British Made Challenger Tank all day long , The M1A2 is a very close second tho that thing is a Beast & the Leopard is a Gorgeous Tank
Pretty much the daddy of the modern tank
If that was developed during WWII, I'd be very surprised if it used a 7.62 mm machine gun. IIUC, many British machine guns and rifles used .303 calibre.
Fascinating!!!
The Sprocket : Tank Design type thumbnail
They were marvellous. The only downside was they were very, very thirsty.
The most successful tank ever made.
6:32 North Korean Cromwell tank?
Yes, I wondered about that.
Yes, apparently 'Cooper Force' lost 14 Cromwells the night of 03 Jan 1950 whilst withdrawing under fire. Communist forces got two running, one destroyed by a Centurion 01 Feb and the other captured by South Korean marines on 10 Feb; apparently returned to running order and handed back to the British.
The destroyed Cromwell was abandoned.@@michaelmclachlan1650
A very underrated tank but it needed other countries to improve it, the Israelis certainly used it well by by upgrading the engine and armament.
A Centurion chassis is still in the fight today, as the "Puma" combat-engineers vehicle of the reserve units. It is being gradually replaced by the larger and much pricier, Merkava IV-based "Namer-Handassa".
You didn't mention that the Centurion introduced the Vickers 105mm. The Mitla Pass?
In the Six Days War of June 1967, most IDF Centurions had already been upgunned to the 105 mm L7, although only a handful had been dieselized and most had retained the Meteor engine.
@@DanielLLevy When I see a photo of those Israeli Centurions with the white chevrons, it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. You know the Bad Dudes have arrived.
Bros using a sprocket tank as a thumbnail that’s crazy
Glad im not the only one who noticed that lol
What does that mean?
Sprocket is a game where you build tanks, the thumbnail of this video is from that game@@MostlyPennyCat
What is an M-45 Patton?
Apparently it was originally the T26E2 Patton, an M26 carrying an M4 105mm howitzer. 185 built, and the assault gun platoon of the 6th Medium Tank Battalion had 6 until January 1951.
I'd never heard of them before either. (edited for grammar).
@@michaelmclachlan1650
Thanks👍
Not to note that the Centurions ONLY combat kill of the Korean war was against a Cromwell captured from the same regiment a few weeks earlier.
Jolly good show chaps, time for a cup of tea!
The Korean War was the best 'sales campaign' for the Centurion, leading most of its eventual buyers to it.
The 20-pounder (83.4mm) came in two barrels, the Type A which was smooth on the outside and with the counterweight at the muzzle. The Type B had the fume extractor bulge midway and was the basis of the famous L-7 105mm gun. It should have been noted the move to the 105 was accelerated by the discovery of the thick armour on the Soviet T-54's and T-55's with the need to match or exceed the 100mm gun.
Also, it's too bad the video didn't go into the Centurion's use by the Israeli Defence Forces. Be it on the Golan Heights against the Syrian Army in the Sinai Desert against the Egyptians, the Centurions prove very effective with their IDF modifications. Perhaps most important were the diesel engines replacing the fuel-hungry gasoline engines that severely limited the Centurion's range.
British armor in early ww2 suffered from the concept of Infantry tanks and Cruiser tanks. though they were no worse than contemporary vehicles from other countries. if USA had entered ww2 in 1939 their tanks would have been even worse... it wasn't until the Sherman that they had a decent tank. and the German Panther and Tigers were still largely rare on the battlefield. most of German armor was the pzIV right up to the end of the war and a mix of foreign armor re-purposed. whole divisions had French armor in Normandy in 1944.
The Sherman was an adequate tank available in large quantities which compensated for its deficiencies, British tanks improved significantly with the arrival of the late war comet and centurion just as hostilities in Europe finished.
And the Panther really wasn't actually very good.
And we may not have got Centurion out for WW2 in time, but we did build 1,200 A34 Comets.
36 tons
Same 102mm front armour profile as Churchill (excellent armour)
77mm HV Gun
600 HP Meteor (17 hp/ton)
Christie Suspension
198km range
52 km/h
Came out late '44
Basically a baby Centurion, or Medium Centurion.
Incredible WW2 tank, arguably the best WW2 tank anybody had.
It’s only weak point was the power pack (engine and gearbox). The British kept the petrol engine, they should have modernised and converted to diesel, that would have increased the battle range quite substAntially. My Cent ARV was excellent, but the fuel usage especially when towing chieftains MBTs cross country reduced the range and we were always mindful of how much fuel we had.
In 1980 I was handed the Swiss Army manual of fuel consumption, the Centurion topped the list with a whopping figure that surpassed any other wehicle on the list.
Quite so but the problem was to find the government who would pay the bill. None of the political parties were improving the forces at that time if you remember. All parties reduced or even wished to annihilate the RAF and the army was under constant reduction. The navy became a shell. I think it was Jeremy Thorpe who wanted to bomb Rhodesia after UDI and could not understand why people fell about laughing! Matters have not improved. Look at us today! Politics in this country are currently pitiful and we have to give our arms to others to fight for us. Those of us who have worn uniform feel very angry about it.
I know a bloke who's ex RAAC and was a Centurion loader in Vietnam. He once asked his commander why no diesels and was told "operational reasons". He then remembered that diesels under hard acceleration can give off thick clouds of dark exhaust smoke.
One fellow's opinion at least.
@@michaelmclachlan1650 So we invented the Chieftain!
The Centurion was a British tank, but it was also used by foreign forces.
It was t34/85 used in Korea not t55s
Why is some of the footage stretched sideways? It looks terrible. Keep it in the original format.
Thumbnail looks like a screen shot from the tank building game Sprocket
Centurions have a crew of 4 Not 5 Pal
Kept them in service longer than a T55? I would say not on this remark :)
What suprised me is that it's bigger than the leopard 2
Interesting but get the tanks right, most show totally wrong, if you want to premote your site then take time to get it right
Although this is possibly the least-worst Dark video for some time, the lack of attention to its Israeli service is surprising.
YOU JUST NEED TO GET IT PREPPED CORRECTLY TO REACH ITS FULL POTENTIAL NOW CWM 😂😂😂
Didn't want to mention the 1st ARMD nuclear tank?
Centurion Tanks were NOT fitted with coaxial 7.62 mm guns during the Korean war ; Weren't they still fitted with .303 machine guns ?
North Korean Cromwell?
Yes, captured early by the North Koreans and destroyed when hiding under a bridge by a Centurian at over 2,000 metres.
@@StephenFleming-kk7uk Thanks for clearing that up.
There's an amazing collection of Centurion and Centurion derivatives on display at Latrun in central Israel
Latrun is still internationally recognised as being part of the disputed West Bank due to Israel's failure in capturing it from the Jordanian Arab Legion
@@stephenchappell7512So?
@@DanielLLevy
so it means it's not in 'Central Israel' that's 'So'
@@stephenchappell7512Yes it is. Heve you bothered looking up Latrun on a map?
@@DanielLLevy
Have you???
It's situated within the Ramallah & al-Bireh Governorate of the Palestinian Authority 🇵🇸
We used them in Canada until replaced by the Leopard A5.
Aber warum? There were FCS upgrades available for the Centurion that would have made its firepower on par with the Leo-einz, if not better, and with at least realistic armor protection.
I swear the thumbnail of this video has a centurion made in sprocket (a tank design game for those who don't know what it is)
OMG IT IS FROM SPROCKET
the is realis used the centurion to great effect , with their training by British tankers and ability to retain that training without short cuts they were able to destroy hundreds of Arab tanks during the the Yom Kippur War
Pommies can make good stuff. There is one just down the road. Designed to take on the Tiger
Ah, the UN did NOT withdraw from Korea after 1953, though most countries that had fought in Korea did remove their forces, except for these United States which is still there under the auspices of the UN order in 1950.
As a American I always thought it was a really great tank. Proved along with the Comet during WW2 when both were designed that the British could make great tank s. Once they said the hell with all the railway and other rules that kept them from making great tanks. If only both tanks could of been made 2 years earlier. Would of made a huge difference. But those Sherman s did get it done 😂💥💥💥💥🇬🇧🇺🇲
🇺🇸
North Korea used T34/76 and few T34/85 Russia had only started using T54/55 in its own army.
What was the incident being described at the start? No date. No place. No unit. Sheer waffle without substance.
No, the British did not "struggle to come up with innovative and functional designs" after WWI. They were probably the most innovative in the 1920s and early 1930s and their designs were widely bought and copied.
My father was in Korea and said that the Centurion had a peculiar weakness to anti-personnel mines. In soft terrain tanks rend to sink when parked up. If Centurions sank onto an anti-personnel mine the hull prevented dissipation of the blast and it jolted the vehicles so badly that it damaged the gear box and rendered the tank unserviceable pending repair.
If I remember correctly, one Centurion used at Suez in 1956 was later converted to an armoured recovery vehicle and served in the first Gulf War 35 years later!
Not at all believable. This is pure nonsense.
@@Slaktrax What is and why? You are not clear.
4 man crew .30 machine gun co-axial and commanders.
This is probably the only bad video by Dark Tech I've ever watched. It's the intro on British WW2 tanks that is bad. Apart from the A13 Covenanter and the first A15's, British tanks ranged from okay to absolutely outstanding. It was the way they were used, and the lack of training of crews in the early part of the war which was flawed. Leaders blamed their tanks rather than themselves, such as General Roger Evans in France.
govt had prevented the proper equipping.. in France in 1940 the BEF had a comparative handful of the Matilda II tanks - if they had hundreds the panzers would have been toast. as demonstrated when TWO of them rolled thru everything they met at Arras.. as always the govts resent spending on defence and leave the military to make do. *Matilda I tanks deployed in France were armed only with mgs
i remember there was one outside a shop on the way from brisbane to toowoomba in queensland
0:22 Denmark
crew of 4
Featured in the Beatles 1965 musical comedy film "Help". where it was used to protect the band from a religious cult trying to kill Ringo.
Indian Army also successfully diployed British tanks to counter more powerful Panton Tanks creating Graveyard of Pakistani Armor Specially in Battle Of Asal Uttar ( We can say Real Answer ) ❤
Most British tanks were reliable they just didn't have the firepower that the Germans had until the end of the war.
What are britons
The North Koreans had a Cromwell tank how in the fuck did they get that?
Israeli Centurion tanks upgraded with 105 mm cannon destroyed Egyptian and Syrian armored brigades equipped with T55 and T65 tanks
Israelis still get great use out of the Centurion and have many in reserves
Nope. The tanks were phased out during the early Nineties, but the chassis soldiered on until today with a number of heavy APCs and specialist vehicles. The Centurion reserve units weren't let go, they were converted to Merkava Mk. 2 and 3 back then, as they had the deserved reputation to have the best crews in the Army.
Hang on! This video doesn’t even touch on the events in the Middle East during the 70s! Israel used the Centurion against modern soviet armour in the biggest tank battles since WW2 (up to that point), and it isn’t covered? Something stinks to high heaven here…🤨
Ya think? There may be more to it than fear of the noted "youtube censorship" bot...
Not foreign but allied