Centurion Main Battle Tank - British Tank Legacy
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 лип 2017
- The Centurion main battle tank was one of the most successful post-World War II British tank and is arguably the most successful British tank design of all time. Conceived in the middle of World War II the tank was intended to be the next in Britain’s series of cruiser tanks.
Development of the Centurion started in 1943. The vehicle was designed as a "universal tank" to replace existing infantry and cruiser tanks. The Centurion was the first British vehicle that featured sloped armor plates. The tank entered service in 1947. A total of 100 vehicles of this series were manufactured from 1945 through 1946.
A notable step up from the Comet, featuring a great gun selection and still very agile, just like its predecessors, the Centurion Mk. I is a good tank for its tier. Although notably bulky and with spectacularly poor hull armor, it is quick on its feet and its 20-pounder gun features equally spectacular penetration. It appears to have something of a weakness in that its ammunition rack and driver are both vulnerable to frontal hits.
Hope you enjoy!!
💥 💣 Check out our partnership clothing brand! Attire For Effect💣 💥 www.attireforeffect.com 📸 Also follow them on Instagram: # attire_for_effect
💰 Want to support my channel? Check out my Patreon Donation page! www.patreon.com/user?u=3081754
💰PayPal: paypal.me/Matsimus?locale.x=e...
Matt’s DREAM: www.gofundme.com/f/matt039s-c...
👕 Check out my Merch: teespring.com/stores/matsimus...
📬Wanna send me something? My PO Box: Matthew James 210A - 12A Street N Suite No. 135 Lethbridge Alberta Canada T1H2J
📸 My instagram: Matt_matsimus
🎮 Twitch: / matsimus_9033
👋DISCORD: / discord
📘 Facebook: profile.php?...
🐦Twitter: / matsimusgaming
Centurion Main Battle Tank - Legacy Tank - Наука та технологія
that tank looks so modern for the time when it was desingned
leonidas leonidas I've noticed that with many old British tanks, it's probably the unusual angles on the armor.
Tonamcbuna the boxes on the turret, sideskirts and angles all make them look modern
Felix Osbourne the mk 1 centurion (the one used during the Korean War) looked a lot more different than the more modern centurions, but still looked like a abrams for its time.
@@farmerman7947 The Mk III was used in Korea?
@@VadoVoodoo Indeed it was, why did you ask?
the fact that the Centurion is still being used today and can still do the necessary only goes to show what a great machine she is...... the first true MBT
The Panther was the first MBT, not the Centurion.
@@NorthernNorthdude91749 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My nana is so old she was around when centurion was a rank, not a tank
Good joke
That was indeed a good joke... cheered me up no end.
This made me grin
Good enough that it was the best tank of the Korean war. So all other tanks are EXTRA RANK
So, when you were still legally male
Best tank of all time. I would not be surprised if it could work very well today with some modifications.
The Chieftain made a statement when he did a review of the Centurion (with the inevitable comparison to it's counterpart, the T-55). "In my opinion, pound for pound, the Centurion was the best tank ever made".
The first vehicle what will become "Main battle tank" in the future. I'm surprised this post ww2 design still survive and even operate to some extend. In Korea, it had reputation of being reliable in crossing and climb up hull, plus it 20 pdr gun giving it an excellent indirect fire support(which kinda odd, consider it role as a tank, being use as mobile artillery support). In the Arab conflict in the 60 and 70s, it agains prove itself a winner againts the odd, fighting against soviet made T-55 and T-62 tanks in both front. Then 30 years later, it saw it first modern combat action where it serve in the Gulf war. Boy do this tank was designed in 1945 but still operate today.
1955 to 1958 Just under 3yrs as driver and a gunner lovely time and happy memories.
Here she is, the last of the swedish Centurions.
I worked as platoon commander back in the -80s in the swedish army at Pansartruppernas Stridsskola (Pansertroops fighting school) in Skövde Sweden.
"My" tank was heavily uppgraded with new lasersights, new nightsights, new suspension, 29 liter diesel V12 producing 1100 hp, Allison automatic gearbox, new steering, new ammunition and add on protection!
It was way more fuelefficiant than the old RR engine. (Almost 40% less even with 500 more hp.)
Shooting with projectile at targets the size of 1x1 meter at 3000meters, no problem..
We had seldom any problem with this tank, and it was warm inside even thou it was -15c outside in the winter..
Probably one of the best tanks ever created.
4 Tonnes of Fury hitler:hold my beer
To heavy , Russian are tousens times better ...
Tiberiu Roth .. I would think that even the stupidest dunce would know that the Israelis proved your comment to be crap.
The Israelul is nota the belly button of the world of tank !
Tiberiu Roth .. I suggest you look up Israel vs Arabs and see the Centurion actually wipe out Russian/USSR tanks. With kill records of Hundreds to one.
Remember when Australia nuked one of these tanks? Then kind of scrubbed it down and sent it to Vietnam
Yep
Mark Felton did a story on the Atomic Tank
As you do
Fucking unreal! I was listening to that story when I was stuck in the rain outside and was so astonished I stopped walking and just stood there listening to it lol.
@tyron smith It was expected that the tank would be destroyed; it was placed at 500 yards from ground zero. At that range, even a modern MBT would be unable to protect the crew. For a tank to remain an operational vehicle in such circumstances is beyond amazing.
I'll always love the Centurion. I may be contradicted (but I don't care) but I think the performance of the Israeli "Shot" version in the Golan Heights in '73 was its golden moment. Superb tank!
I'm old. I remember the Cent very well. I was in the engine bay as an apprentice at 16 when I first started my workshop time. The ex Merlin engine looked pretty daunting to a 16 year old but I had a good fitter as my boss. Derated to about 650BHP it still sounded lovely. Then there was the Conqueror engine, also ex Merlin, that was around 900 BHP, that was perol injection but no blower of course. Pity. I did have a 'cabby' in a Cent, made a right mess of it but didn't hit anything. Can you imagine what it was like for a 17 year old to drive a Centurion. I won't lie, I was scared. £2 8s 1p a week (at 15 years old) and meal tickets. God those cheese rolls old Mary served off the tea wagon were good and the dripping sanwiches were food of the gods. They were good days the 60's.
Liked because my father drove one in the australian army during the Vietnam war.
Boba Fett oh
You kids are funny, the Centurion must go down as the best tank ever built, 75 years of service and still (even if very rare) used on the front line! Your father, a brave and gallant man, manned a Centurion in Vetties, my father destroyed German panzers in Greece and Crete with his team and a bofors anti-aircraft gun, at the same time they had to shoot down Stukas that were trying to drop bombs on them and Messerschmitts that were trying to straff them. But I know a few people who served in Vetties plus a lot that are no longer on this mortal coil, the last to go was a U.S. NAVY SEAL who passed two years ago from jack-dancer. So I hope your father is in good health and please thank him for me for his service and for possibly saving some of my mates, one never knows. 👍
You Brits have always been good at building MBTs and AFVs that despite some problems have always had a track record of reliability, performance, survivability, durability and longevity. There are a lot of smaller armies that are still around because of of this tank. Cheers from Florida USA!!!!
Everything after 1943 - before that - frankly we were bad with occassional good vehicles.
After learning about how well this armor weapon system performed against far superior numerical attackers, which were more modern than them, I couldn't help but fall in love with this tank. I believe their great success also was a result of the superior live fire training the crews received. -- Once in a while a real cherry comes along and you have to admit it to yourself, even if it does belong to another country.
A thing of beauty, beautifully designed, aesthetically pleasing, accurate, well armoured and its longevity speaks for itself.
Us South Africans are making good use of the chassis. I was at an air show this year at AFB Waterkloof and the Olifant tank was on display with its shells as well, together with the crew. The 105 mm APFSDS is a beast looking shell. We've made some good modern upgrades to the old girl and she is rather capable
There is so much to admire about this tank. It has such a long history of success for its combat reliability that nobody can't deny it's great track record. It is also a strong and beautiful design in my opinion.
Thanks for the video and the story. I've been into tanks since childhood (for nearly 40 years) and the Centurion is my absolute favourite tank of all time. To me this is what a perfect tank is and looks like. And boy, that 105mm gun and those burning T-55s and T-62s on Golan Heights - that's something, huh? I think it somehow still looks more beautiful, menacing and powerful than any modern day MBT.
Beautiful tank , brings a tear to my eye
Ashton Fields indeed, I showed this video to my grandfather who worked alongside these when he was doing his national service and he said that it brought back so many memories
There’s one on display outside Australian war museum in Canberra
it could be argued that this is the finest tank ever made.
I have a photo of myself in front of a Centurion at the Australian War Memorial. Beautiful machine the Centurion.
To rigid , no Speedy !
My dad was a crew commander of a Centurion Mk III during his time at 1 Special Service Battalion (South African Defence Force 1969-1970).
Was stationed in Waalvis Bay in what was known then as South West Africa. I've pictures of them firing in the Namib Desert - even for the period, the photos appear almost HD quality given the blazing sun, blue skies which contrast so well with the sand.
We still use a heavily modified version of this tank (Olifant Mk2, Mk1B) in South African service).
Oooh that was a morale booster. I arrived at my Regiment on Jan 7 1966. Gunner 2B Badger 2RTR Hohne. Bloody Hohne ! We were confined to camp. Dirty den 'Leslie Grantham' had shot a Taxi driver the previous summer. The locals got a bit upset and did things ! We were confined to camp until we won the World Cup. Anyway I did three firing seasons in my Lovely Centurion 12 BA 70 105mm. I loved that tank. The sausage and beans cooked up on the auxilliary engine's exhaust, Three cans is possible. So one has to wait :) Lovely. A brew pot for when you stop. The clean engine decks you CAN sleep on, warm underneath through the sleeping bag, only to wake up with frost on the eyelids. Being so wet you could squeeze the water from your sleeve, then get into your sleeping bag with boots on and wake up completely dry the next mornig. Having the back decks open engine on 1000 rpm and feeling the warm air passing through the radiators and getting you dry in minutes. Oh I loved that tank, what a privilege it was to serve on such a wonderful piece of machinery. Strong, powerful, not fast, but IT GOES UPHILL ! Unlike other C Class tanks ! If a house gets in your way, you can drive straight through it. Not recommended, because the occupants may not like it, an emrgency is an emergency though :)
I'm from the USA and I can appropriate the Centurion just as much as the the M60A3 both tanks are good, reliable, inexpensive tank platforms. I think the centurion could use a modern upgrade like the M60A3. With its L3 upgrade package. With a 1500hp engine, better FCS, and 120mm gun upgrade. I would love to see a Centurion with a 120mm gun. lol. Personally, the Centurion and M60A3 to me are like brothers to one another. Which I think would make a great fictional story.
0mega Zer0 the centurion was from ww2 the m60 came out 15 years later
The South Africans did a version the Olifant Mk 2 which had a new turret to hold a 120mm smoothbore which it could do but they opted for still the 105mm gun since there is no great threat of modern tanks in other countries in African countries nearby. It is the ultimate Centurion upgrade as of date. www.military-today.com/tanks/olifant_mk2.htm
MrTangolizard, Depends on the variant buddy. The Mk1 came out at the very very end of ww2, the variants comparable to an m60 came out much later.
Yeah but you have to admit.... the centurion is wayyyy sexier
Would the t54/55 be their bully
Loved it, fired hundreds of 20 pounders down at Lulworth. Taught hundreds of gunners there and drivers of the tank tracks.
the Panther 8.8 is a fantasy design.
the turret ring on the panther wasn't large enough to handle the recoil on the L/71 8.8cm gun.
it's fantasy in that it wouldn't work.
the Tiger 1 had a turret ring of 185cm, the Panther of a 168cm. it was determined by the OKW that the L/71 could not be fitted to the Tiger 1 as the gun would have to be #1 heavily modified, #2 it would make the loaders job much more difficult.
my dad was in 8RTR in 1950/53, Paderborn, Germany. national service. it was this tank that gave him his love of that superb engine. and his fondness of the German folk from his time in Germany was relayed to all of us over many years. German beer, German girls and German hospitality.
who else thinks this tank is sexy As all hell?
Prefer the look of the Challenger and Challenger 2, but yeah, it looks pretty damn cool.
They are sexy .. but not easy to drive. I had the good fortune of actually driving one of these beasts while serving as a Sergent in the danish army back in 1984-85. The engine-sound is amazing,- we always knew when one was started up at the depot 75-100 meters away, because the windows started rattling when that awesome RR engine was idling. Despite my age (55) I play World of Tanks, and I naturally have a Centurion in my garage there. Love it!
It's okay, Chieftan honestly looked the best to me out of the British post war tanks.
I prefer the Chieftain but the Challenger 1 / Chally 2 are nice as well. The Chieftain, in my opinion, looks like its a no-nonsense late Cold War death dealer on tracks.
Not me, but see my comment re. marrying one.
Centurion 'abouts' and 'reviews' are always so much fun. The combination of armour, weapon, maintainability, and reliability set it ahead of everything. The 20pdr was a monster gun and its successor even more phenomenal.
old, but gold
Passed my track test in a Cent in 1966. Drove most of the British army equipment (as an A Mechanic) but the Centurion was the best drive of all. Loved driving it.
As a former Australian gunner in 1962, I agree that this was a great tank
In 1962 did the centurion you used have a stabilized main gun ?
@@darthyang7605
Darth Yes the gun was stabilized and could shoot very accurately while moving over rough ground, as far as I know it was the first and best of its kind at the time, using armor piercing discarding sabot ammunition at 1000 mtrs you could hit within 250 mm accuracy and pierce 250 mm armor plate.
@@kenrobinson8060 cool as man I have a guy in a PlayStation chat who is saying the centurions never used them at all and labeled the centurion as a tinder box with string attached to it's engine, he's a t54 fan so that's pretty rich from him
My dad used to work on the Centurian. Alas I never had the chance... worked on the 43x series, scorpion, warrior, chieftain & challenger though. Oh such fun! The chieftain was pretty high maintenance though.
South African "Olifant Mk1A , Mk1B and Mk2" tanks are built on centurions but are heavily modified. Still in use today though :)
Could probably throw on some dorchester armour plates, some cage armour to protect agaisnt shaped charges and this thing would be a beast once again.
My oldest brother had a 1/35th scale model of the Centurion. Got me hooked on tanks for life.
the main battle tank with the longest service record. still very sexy tank. i love it very much
T-34 has longest service history.
@@zepter00 i stand corrected. I meant MBT
@@jenell73 so T-55 has longer. You were not.
We used the Cent. in Vietnam 20 pound gun! We had to increase it's range by adding extra fuel tanks in the rear! It's main problem was going 'off road'.Far to heavy and it bogged frequently! However, at Bin Ba it proved invaluable! It would just chug up, and fire a round into a building, and follow it with a canister round through the hole punched in the wall! Terrible carnage inside after that! Good thing about it, unlike the American tanks, the Centurion seldom broke down!
Laurence Hirst
I know this is a year late but two things:
1.Funny how that changed from WWII when the American tank was the most reliable
2. I had not heard anything about the M48, M41 and M551 being unreliable
@@roninkraut6873 maybe you should look into the history of those American tanks a bit more then, and from unbiased sources
Reading a biography of fire base coral and balmoral. If I recall, they stated they removed the side skirts as the terrain, foliage, logs and mud would otherwise jam the tracks, especially if the mud dried. Our local Vietnam war museum has a centurion, and it unbelievable how large the bastard is in real life. The Caribbean gardens market also had a centurion ? as a play piece, us kids would climb all over it happily. But sadly it was not treated right.
and it has a boiling vessel to make tea!!!
....was a combat engineer Sgt with them at the battle of Bin Ba....awesome gun!!
If a tank bilt in WW2 is still being used today then you know it's a bloody good tank
Love this tank. Saw a documentary once in which a British colonel from the armored corp Sais that driving it was like learning to ride a bike backwards and that you could almost fix anything on it with only two spanner. That efficiency in design.
My favourite sand pit Dinky toy back in 1960. I had saved my pocket money and bought one, along with it's Thorneycroft Mighty Antar transporter. So, this video is evocative and I well with pride to know of those days of British engineering prowess in the world. Well done.
Don't forget that a Centurion was the first tank that could survive a close proximity nuclear detonation and still be able to drive. "Close" is somewhere between 380 and 500 meters, and it was pushed back a dozen meters from the 9,1 kiloton detonation, but it survived and served on the front line for many years after that test. Granted, it probably gave the crew that drove it back cancer afterwards, but it still was able to drive. It even took a direct RPG hit and kept fighting with no casualties.
I adore this tank, my Great-Uncle was a radio operator (also drove when the driver needed a break) on the Mk. III in the Queen's 2nd Dragoon Guards, 'The Bays' back in the early - mid 1950s
I love the Centurion, its legit one of the sexiest tanks ever built, atleast the later models.
I had just under 3 yrs as centurion driver in 1955 to 1958 great times,
my grandpa used to be a gunner/loader on a centurion back when conscription was a thing here in the Netherlands. He told me about the time someone drove a centurion into the basement of a house and how they used to smuggle liquor back home.
Camel cigarettes in the barrel lol
Of course its a classic!One of the best tank designs in history...
I commanded one of these in the '50s with The Queen's Bays. Still remembered with pride
I drove a Centurion for some 4 years it was a very reliable tank and an excellent gun platform, I wish I had one now, fun to drive.
Was wireless Operator Gunner in these tanks with 1st Armoured Regt. in Australia 1959!
The cent has been my favourite for years. I visit the one in Calgary regularly.
was a gunner and radio op on these great days long gone.
Nice to see our own tank as the thumbnail ✌🏻 Strv 102, that's my dad as the driver
If you want to read a good book about armoured warfare from a British perspective (WW2) read Foley"Iron Fist"
Absolutely in the top 5 tanks of all time.
I saw this tank at CFB Petawawa ,1973 with the CF Reserves . It would be the last time for the Centurion in the CF . Thank you .
A lovely vehicle- superb engineering...
It was the tank in the world after WWII until the mid sixties . Yes I agree legendary tank .
I am a tank nut. I served in 9/12th Lancers for far too many years. What I remember most about tanks is how cold they were! I remember sleeping on the engine deck of my Chieftain. Please keep these videos coming, they bring back so many memories.
Centurion is one legendary MBT. Because it is the very tank that pioneered the MBT concept.
What a beautiful, classic tank! A real proven warhorse!
I served in the British army in the late 1950s i was stationed at 16 base unit at olen belgium.we were advenced base for b.a.o.r Germany. we transported centurions to munchan gladback in Germany with military escorts,the prime movers were diamond T trailers were dysons designed for the centurion .a nightmare to load. at the time I was a 18,19 year old what an experience for a lad
My fav tank of all time
You forgot to mention that the Centurion tank in modified form is still serving in South Africa which they call the Olifant. They did also come out with the Olifant 2 with a 120mm L44 and new turret but it didn't go into service. The South Africans did well against the Angolans and Cubans T54/55 and T62's.
Not the best tank any more but my favourite tank of all time too. Partly because it was the first UK tank to get a good balance between mobility armour and firepower, and partly because it's the only tank I have ever driven. Years ago there was a company in the midlands between Coventry and Birmingham that had I think 6 of them. It cost £200 for the day (damn expensive back then) but you could race them round a circuit. Best fun you can have with your trousers on.
My grandad worked alongside centurions from 1956-59, he loves these tanks although he personally drove Daimler armoured cars while doing his service
When I think of the tanks responsible for the way tanks are used and thought of today, I think of the Centurion I and the T-44/T-54 mod. 1946. both eventually evolved into probably the most iconic and recognisable tanks in the modern age. At least post-war.
Awesome tank..... ARV, AVRE, AVLB, BARV....... MBT.... And thats just the british versions.... isreal lived by this tank for god knows how long. I have to agree with you, proud that its british and proud that it still works.
Yes, we lived with this tank, constantly improving it. Israeli companies such as Elbit worked with British Defense Research secretly designing its replacement, based on real world war experience against Russian tanks. That resulted in the tank project which was to become the Challenger, incorporating many unique Israeli designs. Israel had this tank on order, scheduled to go into service at the end of 1982, beginning of 1983. However, after it was discovered that Israel had sent air force advisors to Argentina during the Falklands war, Britain used the excuse of the 1982 Lebanon war, to place a complete military embargo on Israel, depriving it of the tank which it had helped design. Consequently, Israel went back to the basic Centurion design and developed its own main battle tank called Merkava. Merkava, (based on the chassis of a Centurion), which means "Chariot", in other words, the vehicle which the Roman Centurions rode on. There are many similarities between the Challenger and Merkava. However the Merkava incorporates many more features to protect its crew. Tanks it can replace. Fully trained crews are much harder to replace. So thank you Britain for the wonderful Centurion, the hero of the Yom Kippur Syrian war, and its legacy lives on with the Israeli Merkava.
Indecently, it's true that the Centurion entered Europe in May 1945, a few weeks too late to see combat against the German Panthers which it had been designed for. But it did see combat against those same German tanks in the 1967 Arab/Israeli war. Syria had bought around 60 German tanks, upgraded in the 1950s in Europe. The Israeli tank crews in their British Centurions decimated the German tanks, who did not manage to land one hit on the Israelis. The Syrians witdrew the tanks due to their abysmal performance against the Centurion. So, what would have happened has the Centurion arrived in 1944, has been pretty well answered.
Incidentally, incidentally, there is an open air Centurion Museum in Katzrin on the Israeli Golan Heights, dedicated to the tank and the crews who served, many of them injured and died protecting Israeli's north. It was recently vandalized by a group of BRITISH "Peace" activists who caused thousands of pounds of damage, smashing memorials and spray painted the tanks with anti-war slogans.
When I was 10 I did a book report on Lightning Out of Israel a book about the 6-Day war (yes…I was that kid). Anyway, I remember seeing photos of Shermans, T-54s and T-55s then I saw a picture of the Centurion and went, yes that is what a tank should look like. This was 1982 so there was no internet so off to the library I went to find out about my first favorite tank. By the look of the Centurion and the success it had in the Sinai I thought it must have been just introduced in the mid 1960’s. I was surprised to learn that it was introduced just after WW2.
So much better looking than any tank built until maybe the Chieftain with that angled gun mantlet. What is it with British tanks, even in WW2 the Crusader, Comet and Cromwell all just look great. Well I guess there is always the Challenger (you know, the WW2 one) which looked like and basically was a dog.
As a child I saw a Centurion parked on the main Road of our quiet Somerset Town, probably as part of an Army recruitment drive. Even as a 5 year old I realised just how large and intimidating these vehicles were for adults as well as children, sitting back and thinking 'how the hell are you going to counter this?'
Nigh on seven decades later and there are still Centurion chassis' in active service.
Did a great job for the Aussies at the Battle of Coral-Balmoral in Vietnam......fired canister rounds at NVA massed infantry assaults
Best meanest looking tank........ ever. Hard to believe it was designed in 1943.
The last time I was this early, centurion was a rank
booda sias haha! Best comment so far!! Thanks for watching :-D
Thanks for the videos, they're amazing! (also the idea for my joke comes from the "the last time I was this early" cliche and Ethan Thomson's comment, "My nana is so old she was around when centurion was a tank, not a rank" but shhhh nobody needs to know)
booda sias haha thanks for your support
A fantastic machine, beautiful design...….
GREAT TANK ,, I was a driver/signaler on the cent in the 1961+had mk 7 42 BA 55 named CHESTER -LE-STREET as it was C squadron 15/19 Hussars and had mk 3 in Libya in 1967 just before i was demob late 67
When a tanks so good it’s still used nearly 70 years after it’s inception, British engineering right there
She looks the way a armored vehicle should look . And this tank has a very imposing look . Any Time Baby . Thank you .
Stabilized gun ,Rolls Royce power plant . Thank you .
Love all your tank info videos! Always great! Thank you!
Served on the cent for many years, It’s a love affair unbeatable.
It's interesting for me to read all the comments, as I'm the original maker of most of this video. My part of it is borrowed from my video "Åben Hede 2015" or in English "Open Heath 2015".
First of all: Denmark is not using the Centurion tank anymore. It was replaced by The Leopard 1 at two occasions. The first 120 tanks from the 3 armoured brigades in Jutland were replaced in 1976-77, and the 80 tanks from the 2 armoured brigades at Zealand were replaced in 1994.
But before the last replacement, we updated the Centurion in 1985 with laser range finder, night vision for the gunner and the driver (the commander got a night vision goggle) and thermal camera. As you can see on the video 6:59 and 7:05 our gunner hits two different hard targets (wrecked Leopard 1 tanks) with only one round per target. 100% kill ratio!
After the retirement of the Centurions from the Danish Army, a few, together with a big variety of different vehicles, were stored for future museum purposes. But in 2007 it was decided, by people from the army and the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum, to create some clubs under the old tank regiments, The Dragoons of Jutland, the Royal Guard Hussars, the Garrison Museum of Aalborg and the Tank School at Oksbøl.
In the year of 2009 we started with the annual Open Heath event at the shooting range at Oksbøl. This event is a cheap way to "destroy" old ammunition for the 105 mm cannon, and it's lot af fun for the old tank soldiers. And for the increasing numbers of visitors.
The Open Heath event 2018 will take place on Sunday the 24th of June.
For Your information: The crew of "Primus Pilus 2" is almost as old as the Centurion itself - here in the beginning of 2018, we have an average age of 62 years.
I like the side armour over the tracks...nice.
IDK why but I freaking...LOVE ALL the POST-WW2 British designs! They are simply (...I don't even know how to say it!...) - "BADASS" is the word that springs to mind first! :D ...and THIS ONE "puppy" practically revolutionised the tank design WORLD-WIDE! DAMN - what a machine! Thanks for the video! :) :)
Keep them coming Matt. I love this retrospective!
Great video as usual. Love soaking up this tanky goodness!
Easily one of my all time favourite tanks...
Watch a show before where people restore old vehicles and there was one where they had to restore a collectors Centurion AVRE, the same one had previously been a MK2 or 5 can't remember which one in Suez as an MBT...
How mad is that decades later the same tank would be chugging along leaving the modern tanks behind over the sand banks, simply because it had the older drive system, the ABRAMS (not sure about the Challenger) had a computerised drive system and they kept stalling, got to live manual XD
Then of course Israel and it's Sho't variants and the proven combat record with the Israelis is amazing.
The Aussies fielding one after it was in a nuclear bomb testing ground, ballsy in itself.
What a tank
I'm American and can honestly say that this is the best tank ever built.
I read somewhere that during the "Yom-Kippur Offensive" few Israeli "Centurions", that were - more or less - "forgotten" after the INITIAL onslaught on the Egyptian front, practically turned the tide for the Israeli's. They hid in some "ad-hoc" prepared positions on the FLANKS of the main Egyptian "column" and line of advance. Some of them couldn't even move - they had their tracks and wheels ripped apart, so they dug-in as best as they could. When the Egyptians got hold of the Canal, massed on the Western bank and started pushing armour "en masse" through the desert towards the "heart" of Israel, those "Centurions" (as far as I remember it wasn't ten tanks in ALL), that were deemed to be pretty much "inoffensive" by the Egyptians, with their powerful guns and extremely precise rapid fire capability started PUNISHING Egyptian armour that - pretty much - the Egyptians had to give STRATEGICAL PRIORITY to finish-off SINGLE (ENTRENCHED) TANKS ON THEIR FLANKS, BECAUSE IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO SIMPLY "PASS THROUGH" with them in the proximity. One of those "Cenurions" - suppesedly - KOut something like 20 Egyptian (Soviet-produced) tanks and God knows how many "IFV"s, trucks, etc in a matter OF MINUTES. In anycase - it's a DAMN, TRUE "BEAST OF WAR" THIS TANK! Awesome!
I been driving this tank in the danish army for about 5 years, from 1981-1986 and I can see on the footage, some of my old soldier body, is in the video, he"s the one whos loading the canon in some clips. those old guys have something called open house i Næstved in Denmark. I wont comment on some of the issue that this tank had, but for one, some of the gear tap often broke. and the two big control device for stearing , placed in the transmission area often had to be adjust to make the tank not turn when driving forward etc ,etc But I do stelle love that tank I spend so many hours in it. And one of the most heavly armored tank ever.
A GREAT tank! No need to apologize for its British roots or for extolling the vehicle's many virtues!
The centurion was a very hard tank to knock out. Going on memory here. An Australian Cent took 18 RPG hits and was still going at the battle of coral base. The crew had to be changed due to wounds.
I love how at 4:13 the driver knocks the pebbles out of his shoes before entering his compartment. A clean tank is a happy tank and all that.
Bruce Parr: During the Arab/Israeli war (1960s) an Israeli Centurion took over 100 "hits"......tank and crew both survived.
I was the driver of a M60a1, our unit serve with the Queens own hussars at Bergen belson, they had these tanks , damm good tank, that stabilized 120mm main gun was a killer.
What M-60 variant ever had a 120mm gun? They mounted the 105mm L7A1 main gun unless it was an A2. Those had the 155mm gun launcher for Shillelagh missile.
Not talking about his tank .Read carefully .Regret centurion did not have 120 mm gun.20 pounder ,105 mm.later.Regards.
I respect your opinion, especially since you said you may have the bias for the tank. Great video, the centurion is one of the great tanks.
The Centurion's design was so ahead of its time. It still looks "modern" for a tank that was introduced in the 1940s.
Having worked as REME on Centurion derivatives (AVLB, AVRE and ARV, MBT was before my time although we still had one for foreign students in training) I love these machines. They are probably too old for modern operations now in any capacity and I say that all existing Centurions deserve a retirement home as gate guards, in museum or for private display. It is a design that has proved itself as one of the very best.
In 1965, the bulk of India's tank fleet was older M4 Sherman tanks, but India also had Centurion Mk.7 tanks, with the 20 pounder gun, and also AMX-13 and M3 Stuart light tanks. The Centurion Mk.7 at that time was one of the most modern western tanks.
The offensive of Pakistan's 1st Armoured Division was blunted at the Battle of Asal Uttar on 10 September. Six Pakistani armored regiments were opposed by three Indian armoured regiments. One of these regiments, 3 Cavalry, fielded 45 Centurion tanks. The Centurion, with its 20 pounder gun and heavy armour, proved to be more than a match for the M47 and M48 Pattons. On the other side, when Pakistani Army armoured division primary composed of M47 Pattons and M48 Pattons, they proved to be only able to penetrate a few of the Centurion tanks, as witnessed in the Battle of Chawinda in the Sialkot sector. A post-war US study of the tank battles in South Asia concluded that the Patton's armor could, in fact, be penetrated by the 20-pounder tank gun (84 mm) of the Centurion (later replaced by the even-more successful L7 105mm gun on the Mk. 7 version which India also possessed) as well as the 75 mm tank gun of the AMX-13 light tank.
In 1971, at the Battle of Basantar, an armoured division and an armoured brigade of the Pakistani I Corps confronted two armoured brigades of the Indian I Corps, which had Centurion tanks. This resulted in a substantial tank battle, between the American-built tanks of the Pakistani Army and the Indian Army's mixture of Soviet T-55s and British Centurions. Casualties were heavily skewed against the Pakistani force, with 46 tanks destroyed.
biggest problem with the Cent is that it is a petrol engine when the Aussies got the Leopard to replace it in the 1970s the initial idea was to leave the Cent in Reserve service as a second and even 3rd tank regiment however some high ups decided that it was likely the Cent was suffering with age and metal fatigue so a test was conducted using 2 Cents as targets for their replacements and the result was that it was still very good metal wise and even stood upto the 105 rounds well with damage from each hit but unless hit in critical areas not fully knocking out the tank. So this idea of keeping them in service for reserve training was discussed for years with updating of the hull to make it as like a Leopard as possible with the same power pack and suspension system and even the same electronics inside the turret so a crew trained on a Cent could hop straight into the Leopard and be able to fight it with no real extra training. In the end in about the late 1980s or even into the 1990s it was finally decided this was not a viable idea and was scrapped and the Cents were eventually all sold off given to museums etc.
To this day there are many tankers in Aussie that think we missed a great opportunity to have a great training tank that if ever needed could have been used to bolster our tank numbers imagine a centurion tank doing close to 100KPH on the road with all modern stuff inside!
As an ex-tanky, if I was asked to describe what a tank was and is, I would probably be describing the Centurion. Surely, the very best of tanks.
The gun sights were very advanced for its time.
And I mean... It's also just fucking awesome looking. It's gentleman like as well as just badass.
I never noticed how huge the Centurion’s turret looks compared to the hull seen from the front until i watched the beginning of this video.
I love the Centurion tank. I'm from the US and I've never liked the M60,46,4748 style tanks. Aesthetically it is an absolutely beautiful tank.