Centurion (tank)
The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat into the 1980s. The chassis was adapted for several other roles, and these variants have remained in service. It was a very popular tank with good armour, mobility, and a powerful main armament.
Development of the Centurion began in 1943 with manufacture beginning in January 1945. Six prototypes arrived in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945. It entered combat with the British Army in the Korean War in 1950 in support of the UN forces. The Centurion later served on the Indian side in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, where it fought against US-supplied M47 and M48 Patton tanks, and it served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in the Vietnam War.
Israel's army used Centurions in the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1978 South Lebanon conflict, and the 1982 Lebanon War. Centurions modified as armoured personnel carriers were used in Gaza, the West Bank and on the Lebanese border. Jordan used Centurions, first in 1970 to fend off the Syrian incursion within its borders during the Jordanian Civil War and later in the Golan Heights in 1973. South Africa deployed its Centurions in Angola during the South African Border War.
The Centurion became one of the most widely used tank designs, equipping dozens of armies around the world, with some in service until the 1990s. During the 2006 Lebanon War, the Israel Defense Forces employed modified Centurions as armoured personnel carriers and combat engineering vehicles. South Africa still operates over 170 Centurions, which were modernised in the 1980s and 2000s as the Olifant.
Between 1946 and 1962, 4,423 Centurions were produced, consisting of 13 basic marks and numerous variants. In the British Army it was replaced by the Chieftain.
Development
In 1943, the Directorate of Tank Design, under Sir Claude Gibb, was asked to produce a new design for a heavy cruiser tank under the General Staff designation A41. After a series of fairly mediocre designs in the A series in the past, and bearing in mind the threat posed by the German 88 mm gun, the War Office demanded a major revision of the design requirements, specifically: increased durability and reliability, the ability to withstand a direct hit from the German 88 mm gun and providing greater protection against mines. Initially in September 1943 the A41 tank was to weigh no more than, the limit for existing Mark I and Mark II transport trailers and for a Bailey bridge of span. The British railway loading gauge required that the width should not exceed and the optimum width was, but, critically, for the new tank this restriction had been lifted by the War Office under pressure from the Department of Tank Design. A high top speed was not important, while agility was to be equal to that of the Comet. A high reverse speed was specified, as during the fighting in southern Italy, Allied tanks were trapped in narrow sunken roads by the German Army. The modified production gearbox had a two-speed reverse, with the higher reverse speed similar to second gear.The Department produced a larger hull by replacing the long-travel five-wheel Christie suspension used on the Comet with a six-wheel Horstmann suspension, and extending the spacing between the second and third wheels. The Christie suspension, with vertical spring coils between side armour plates, was replaced by a Horstmann suspension with three horizontally sprung, externally mounted two-wheel bogies on each side. The Horstmann design did not offer the same ride quality as the Christie system, but took up less room and was easier to maintain. In case of damage by mines, individual suspension and wheel units could be replaced relatively easily. The hull was redesigned with welded, sloped armour and featured a partially cast turret with the highly regarded 17-pounder as the main gun and a 20 mm Polsten cannon in an independent mounting to its left. With a Rover-built Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, as used on the Comet and Cromwell, the new design would have excellent performance.
But even before the Outline Specification of the A41 was released in October 1943, these limits were removed, and the weight was increased from 40 tons to, because of the need for heavier armour and a wider turret with a more powerful gun. The new version carried armour equal to the heaviest infantry tanks, while improved suspension and engines provided cross-country performance superior to even the early cruiser tanks. The War Office decided it would be wiser to build new trailers, rather than hamper what appeared to be a superb design. Historian David Fletcher states, "But was Centurion, after all, a Universal Tank? The answer has to be a qualified negative."
The design mockup, built by AEC Ltd, was viewed in May 1944. Subsequently, twenty pilot models were ordered with various armament combinations: ten with a 17-pounder and a 20 mm Polsten gun, five with a 17-pounder, a forward Besa machine gun and an escape door, and five with a QF 77 mm gun and a driver-operated hull machine gun.
Prototypes of the original 40-ton design, the Centurion Mark I, had 76 mm of armour in the front glacis, which was thinner than that on the then current infantry tanks, which had 101 mm or 152 mm on the Churchill Mk VII and VIII being produced at the time. However, the glacis plate was highly sloped, and so the effective thickness of the armour was very high—a design feature shared by other effective designs, such as the German Panther tank and Soviet T-34. The turret was well armoured at 152 mm. The tank was also highly mobile, and easily outperformed the Comet in most tests. The uparmoured Centurion Mark II soon arrived; it had a new 118 mm-thick glacis and the side and rear armour had been increased from 38 mm to 51 mm. Only a handful of Mk I Centurions had been produced when the Mk II replaced it on the production lines. Full production began in November 1945 with an order for 800 on production lines at Leyland Motors, Lancashire the Royal Ordnance Factories ROF Leeds and Royal Arsenal, and Vickers at Elswick. The tank entered service in December 1946 with the 5th Royal Tank Regiment.
Continued development
Soon after the Centurion's introduction, Royal Ordnance finished work on the 84 mm calibre Ordnance QF 20 pounder tank gun. With this, the Centurion went through another upgrade to mount the 20-pounder. By this point, the usefulness of the 20 mm Polsten had been called into question, it being unnecessarily large for use against troops, so it was replaced with a Besa machine gun in a completely cast turret. The new Centurion Mark III also featured a fully automatic stabilisation system for the gun, allowing it to fire accurately while on the move, dramatically improving battlefield performance. Production of the Mk 3 began in 1948. The Mk 3 proved substantially more capable than prior variants, resulting in the earlier designs being removed from service as soon as the new Mk 3s became available, and existing tanks were then either converted into the Centurion armoured recovery vehicle Mark 1 for use by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers or upgraded to Mk 3 standard. Improvements introduced with the Mk 3 included a more powerful version of the engine and a new gun sight and gun stabiliser.The 20-pounder gun was used until the Royal Ordnance Factories introduced the 105 mm L7 gun in 1959. All later variants of the Centurion, from Mark 5/2 on, used the L7.
Design work for the Mk 7 was completed in 1953, with production beginning soon afterwards. One disadvantage of earlier versions was the limited range, initially just on hard roads, hence external auxiliary tanks and then a "monowheel" trailer were used. But the Mk7 had a third fuel tank inside the hull, giving a range of. Additionally, it was found possible to put the Centurion on some European rail routes with their larger loading gauges.
The Centurion was used as the basis for a range of specialist equipment, including combat engineering variants with a 165 mm demolition gun Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers. It is one of the longest-serving designs of all time, serving as a battle tank for the British and Australian armies from the Korean War to the Vietnam War, and as an AVRE during Operation Desert Storm in January–February 1991.