Photographed in the Valley of Tears in the Northern Golan Heights, this
105mm L7-equipped Sho’t Kal Centurion of the Israeli 7th Armoured Brigade
provides a memorial to the Yom Kippur War of 1973. During this action 150
Israeli tanks faced more than 1,400 Syrian tanks across the Golan Heights.
Although the Centurions fought well, this was to be their last combat before
being replaced by the Israeli-designed Merkava
The Centurion entered regular service with the British Army
in December 1946, when a small number of Mk 1s and 2s were delivered to the 5th
Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Armoured Brigade, which at the time was based at Hamm
in Germany. By the end of 1948 the new tank was also in the hands of the other
two regiments of 7th Armoured Brigade, the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 5th
Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Ultimately, as well as being based in
Britain, there were Centurions with British armoured regiments in Aden, Hong
Kong and West Germany. An armoured regiment of the day was generally equipped
with forty-eight Centurions in three squadrons of fifteen, with the remaining
three assigned to the headquarters; a squadron consisted of four tank troops
and a headquarters, each with three tanks, and each squadron also normally
included a ‘dozer tank in its complement. From the mid-1950s, in West Germany,
six of the Centurions were replaced by Conquerors.
In the gun tank role, the Centurion enjoyed a more than
twenty-year career with the British Army, but by the early 1970s most had been
replaced in service by the new Chieftain, albeit some Centurions were retained
for driver training. It was not quite the same story for the engineer variants,
and both ARVs and BARVs, as well as ‘dozer tanks, AVREs, bridgelayers and ARKs,
remained in service into the 1970s and, in some cases, well beyond …
astonishingly, a small number of AVREs actually saw active service in the Gulf
War in 1990.
The Centurion arrived too late to see action during the
Second World War but nevertheless many of the tanks still spent their working
lives in Germany, where they were assigned to the 1st, 3rd and 4th Armoured
Divisions of BAOR until their replacement by Chieftains, a process which began
in November 1966. Fortunately, there was no live action in Europe, and instead
the tanks of BAOR spent their working lives endlessly training for a Soviet
invasion that never came; the first significant BAOR exercises in which
Centurions were involved were Operation Broadside 1 and Operation Broadside 2.
Involving 7th Armoured Division and 2nd Infantry Division, the exercises were
carried out in late September 1950, and were intended to ‘practise movement and
concentration in the face of enemy air superiority, and to carry out operations
on wider fronts entailing movement laterally and from front to rear, and quick
concentration for attack and dispersion afterwards’. Little was said of the
performance of the Centurions, but it was stated that the length of the barrel
made the tank difficult to conceal.
The tank saw its first combat during the Korean War, with a
number of Mk 3s, originally destined for Australia, being diverted to the 8th
King’s Royal Irish Hussars – generally simply described as the 8th Hussars –
towards the end of 1950, where they joined US Army M26 Pershings facing the
Chinese and the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) at New Year 1951. Centurions
went into action at the Battle of Imjin River in April of that year, where they
were famously used to provide cover for the withdrawing infantry of the 29th
Brigade. By May 1951 the British Army had sixty-four Centurions in Korea and by
the end of the year, when the Hussars were relieved by the 5th Royal
Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, the Centurions were dug in amongst infantry
positions on high ground facing the enemy. There was little movement as the
British Centurions and the Chinese and North Korean T-34/85s exchanged fire
across no-man’s-land. During the following year the tanks were involved in
limited armoured raids across the unfavourable terrain, some of which took
place in sub-zero temperatures. In late 1952, with the war grinding on and
neither side able to gain the upper hand, the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon
Guards were relieved by the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, and the Centurions played
a significant role in repelling Chinese forces during the second Battle of the
Hook in 1953. During one night’s action 504 high-explosive (HE) 20-pounder
rounds were rained down on the enemy.
Centurion ARVs were also first deployed in Korea, replacing
older vehicles based on the Churchill infantry tank. Their performance was
described as ‘excellent’.
The Centurion was highly praised for its all-round
performance, and particularly for its apparent ability to go anywhere, while
the minimum elevation (-10 degrees) of the main gun allowed the Centurion to
operate almost completely concealed in a ‘hull down’ position. Its lack of
vulnerability under fire provided a real boost to the morale of the fighting
men … one official report specifically singled out the lack of internal effect
from a hollow charge from a 3.7in Russian bazooka or a captured US Army
recoilless rifle which created a 3in deep hole in the back of the turret but
failed to penetrate. Several tanks also received multiple direct hits that
caused little damage to the tanks and no injuries to the crews … there is a
story of two Centurions that had to be abandoned in Korea, with unsuccessful
attempts being made to destroy them using 20-pounder armour-piercing shot to
prevent them falling into enemy hands; undestroyed, they were eventually
recovered, more or less intact. Another story described a Centurion in the 29th
Brigade’s sector during March 1952, sliding sideways from the top of a razor-edged
ridge, gathering speed down the slope as the tracks failed to grip the frozen
ground. Eventually the tank somersaulted three times, landing in a minefield,
in which it caused considerable mayhem, before arriving at the bottom, on its
tracks, but with the gun barrel severely bent and the turret off its ring –
indeed, as the contemporary report put it, the ‘tank generally was in
considerable confusion’. All of this happened in full view of the enemy! The
crew was shaken and embarrassed but generally uninjured and the tank was
abandoned. However this wasn’t the end of the sorry saga and it was decided
that recovery was impractical since it would require two ARVs, one of which
would have to be lowered down by the other The Royal Engineers were asked to destroy
the gun-stabiliser equipment to prevent it falling into enemy hands but,
overestimating the size of charge required, managed to ‘set everything off’.
The report of the incident ended by stating that the ‘tank will be of no value
to the enemy’!
Hostilities in Korea came to an end on 27 July 1953 with no
proper resolution of the conflict. All things considered, the Centurion was an
extremely capable machine, able to fire accurately even at its maximum range,
and able to traverse the most rugged and challenging terrain … even in the
stickiest mud, the tracks never sank more than 12in into the ground and
cross-country performance was always considered to be excellent. The extreme
cold of the Korean winter sometimes caused problems with tracks failing to gain
traction on the frozen ground and, on occasions, the track brakes, which were
entirely mechanical, became inoperative due to icing leading to at least one
runaway. However, the Centurions had proved themselves to be worthy opponents.
Little more than three years later, British Army Centurions
of the 1st and 6th Royal Tank Regiments were deployed to Egypt in November
1956, as part of the joint Anglo-French-Israeli operation intended to wrest
back control of the Suez Canal Zone out of the hands of President Nasser.
Despite a shortage of landing craft, which restricted the number of vehicles
available to ninety-three, Centurions were successfully landed and fought
alongside the French AMX-13 light tanks, capturing Port Said in November,
before the governments involved finally bowed to UN pressure and withdrew the
troops on 23 December.
In September 1960, along with 80,000 soldiers from four
nations, Centurions took part in the largest land, sea and air exercise staged
in the northern Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) during the Cold War
era. Dubbed Operation Holdfast, the exercise was designed to test the
effectiveness of NATO defences in the Jutland peninsula. Tanks of the 5th Royal
Inniskilling Dragoon Guards were put ashore from German and British landing
craft in Eckenforde Bay in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, while others were
brought up by transporter to a holding area south of the Hamburg Lubbeck
autobahn. The defenders made mock nuclear strikes against the attacking troops
but British armour, forming part of the attacking force, pushed inland to reach
within 2 miles of the crucial Kiel Canal. At the end of the nine-day exercise
the conclusion was that NATO was well prepared to withstand such an assault
from the joint forces of the Warsaw Pact … and the Centurion was seen as a
valuable element of the exercise.
Centurions of the Royal Scots Greys were also deployed in
Aden (Radfan) during the 1963/64 uprising against British control.
Although most of the Centurion gun tanks had been replaced
within twenty years, it was not quite the same for the engineer variants and
both ARVs and BARVs, as well as ‘dozer tanks, AVREs, bridgelayers and ARKs,
remained in service into the 1970s and beyond. In July 1972 four Centurion
AVREs of 26 Armoured Engineer Regiment were deployed to Northern Ireland aboard
HMS Fearless and were used to clear Republican roadblocks that had been erected
around the Rossville Flats on the Creggan Estate in Derry-Londonderry. The
roadblocks were believed to be booby-trapped. Described as Operation Motorman,
the exercise was considered to be extremely sensitive for obvious reasons and
was conducted during the early hours of the morning; in order to minimise the
danger of sensationalist headlines, the tanks were operated with the guns covered
and traversed to the rear.
In 1982 a pair of surviving Centurion BARVs were operated
from the two LPD (‘landing platform, dock’) vessels HMS Fearless and HMS
Intrepid during the Falklands War. One broke a drive chain and remained unused
for most of the conflict. More recently, both of these BARVs were also deployed
to Iraq, fighting in both Gulf Wars before being retired from service in 2002;
at least one has survived in private hands.
Astonishingly, a small number of ARVs and AVREs, fitted with
additional passive and explosive reactive armour (ERA), saw active service
during Operation Granby, the British contribution to the liberation of Kuwait
during 1990/91. Despite the Ministry of Defence (MoD) having lost a large
percentage of the remaining Centurion spares in a fire at the Donnington stores
in 1988, AVREs of 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment played their part in helping to
move some 850,000 tons of earth, and in blasting through Iraqi defences. Some
spares support was drawn from Aviation Jersey Ltd, who had acquired the entire
stock of Centurion parts from the Netherlands in 1990.
In 1968 and 1969 Royal Australian Armoured Corps Centurions,
including tank ‘dozer variants, saw action in Vietnam, where most were equipped
with 100-gallon auxiliary fuel tanks attached to the rear of the hull, giving
the designation Centurion Mk 5/1 (Aust). The decision to send Australian
Centurions, consisting of more than twenty gun tanks, two bridgelayers, two
‘dozers and two armoured recovery vehicles, had been taken in October 1967 as
part of Australia’s increasing involvement in this ugly conflict. Operating
under US command, the Centurions were involved in the Tet Offensive in January
1968, and during their service in south-east Asia they acquitted themselves
well in the difficult terrain, including rice paddy and jungle. The Centurions
were returned to Australia at the end of 1971.
Australian Centurions were never involved in combat
elsewhere. However; back in October 1953 the British and Australian armies had
exposed what has been described as a ‘near brand-new’ Leeds-built Centurion Mk
3 of the Australian 1st Armoured Regiment (06BA16, Australian Army number
169041) to a nuclear blast test at Emu Field as part of Operation Totem One.
The tank was parked less than 500 yards from the epicentre of the blast, with
its engine running. Although it had run out of fuel by the time the test was
concluded, and had sustained minor damage, for example to antenna and stowage
bins, once it had been decontaminated it was capable of being driven from the
site. The tank was subsequently repaired and used in the Vietnam War; in May
1969, during a fierce engagement with the enemy, it was penetrated by a
rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that wounded all of the crew in the turret. The
RPG entered the lower left side of the fighting compartment, travelled diagonally
across the floor and came to rest in the rear right corner. 169041 was given
its third base overhaul in 1970, spending some time in storage before being
reissued to the 1st Armoured Regiment. By 1976 Centurions had been phased out
of Australian service, having been replaced by the West German Leopard, but
169041 survived and is currently located at Robertson Barracks in Australia’s
Northern Territory, where it has been restored to running condition. Nicknamed
‘the atomic tank’, it is occasionally brought out for ceremonial duties.
Three more Centurions were involved in nuclear testing in
Australia during the British government’s Operation Buffalo tests held at
Maralinga in September/October 1956. The operation involved the detonation of
four separate nuclear devices, code-named One Tree, Marcoo, Kite and Breakaway
two of which (One Tree, with a yield of 12.9 kilotons, and Breakaway at 10.8
kilotons) were Red Beard tactical bombs exploded from towers, while Marcoo (1.4
kilotons) and Kite (2.9 kilotons) were Blue Danube bombs, the first exploded at
ground level, and the second released by an RAF Valiant bomber from a height of
35,000ft. This was the first aircraft launching of a British atomic weapon.
During one of these trials the three Centurion Mk 3s were placed at roughly 440
yards, 880 yards and 1760 yards from ground zero. Even at 440 yards the blast
damage was only superficial, being largely confined to the external sheet
metal, and was not sufficiently serious to have prevented the vehicles fighting
again. The report of the trial stated that the Centurion ‘was capable of taking
heavy punishment at the range, and with the weight of bomb used, without being
disabled to a non-fighting state’. One vehicle (05BA60) was quickly made
serviceable and drove some 80 miles after the blast; the gun was also test
fired with no recorded loss of accuracy. The fate that might have befallen the
luckless crew had this not been an exercise was not recorded.
Egyptian Centurions saw action during the Six Day War with Israel
in 1967, with most being captured by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
Ironically, the Egyptian Army captured a similar number of 105mm-equipped
Centurions from the IDF during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, although by
this time Egypt was operating predominantly with Soviet tanks and equipment.
In India Centurions were deployed during both of the border
wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. The 1965 war lasted five weeks and is
considered by many to include the largest tank battle in military history since
the Second World War. A total of 186 Indian Centurions fought alongside some
340 ageing M4 Sherman tanks of the Indian Army, with both Shermans and M47 and
M48 Patton tanks of American origin opposing them on the Pakistani side. The
Centurions proved themselves to be superior in most respects to the more modern
(and more complex) American tanks, and were able to withstand 90mm
armour-piercing shells fired from the powerful M63 guns of the Pattons.
Jordanian Centurions went into action in 1970 to counter
Syrian border incursions during the conflict with the Palestinian guerrilla
organization Black September that ended in July 1971 with the expulsion of the
PLO to Lebanon. In 1973 Jordanian Centurions were in action again in the Golan
Heights.
South African Centurion-based Semel tanks were deployed in
Namibia (South West Africa) against the military wing of SWAPO (South-West
Africa Peoples Organisation) during the fight for independence that endured
between 1966 and 1988. The more heavily modified Olifants were deployed against
Angolan forces during the Angolan civil war in 1987, where they were fighting
against Soviet-built T-34/85s and T-55s.
Outside of Britain, Israel was not only the largest user of
Centurions, but was also the nation with the most experience of using the tank
in combat. Although only around 250 Centurions were supplied new to Israel,
many more were acquired as surplus or were captured during various campaigns
with Israel’s neighbours: during the 1967 Six Day War, for example, Israel
captured thirty Centurion tanks from Jordan. At one time the IDF was able to
deploy a total of around 1,000 Centurions, some 25 per cent of the total
production figure, all of which were eventually equipped with the 105mm L7 gun.
Poor maintenance and abuse of the tanks in the Israeli deserts by the largely
conscripted crews initially gave the Centurion a poor reputation. A company of
Israeli Centurions was fired on by Syrian T-55 and T-62 tanks at Nukheila in
1964; despite firing some eighty-nine rounds of 105mm ammunition in an exchange
that lasted ninety minutes, not one Syrian tank was hit. Things began to
improve when General Israel Tal took command of the Israeli armoured corps
towards the end of 1964, and standards of training, maintenance and discipline
rose significantly. In a second border incident at Nukheila one Israeli
Centurion destroyed two Syrian Panzer IVs. A year later Israeli Centurions
destroyed Syrian earth-moving equipment that was being used to divert the
Jordan River. Centurions were among some 800 Israeli tanks successfully
deployed against assembled Arab forces in the Six Day War of 1967, the tanks
being called upon to fight again in the 1973 Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, where
they were exploited to advantage in a hull-down position against the largely
Soviet tanks of the opposing Arab forces. Although no longer deployed as gun
tanks, small numbers of Israeli Centurions continue to survive, re-equipped as
heavily armoured armoured engineers’ vehicles, designated Puma, NagmaSho’t, Nakpadon
and Nagmachon.
Many of the Centurions sold to customers around the world
saw no active service with their original owners, including those vehicles
supplied to the Danish, Netherlands, Swedish and Swiss Armies. However, a few
Centurions certainly remained in service into the 1990s, and many, including some
British AVREs, were able to be maintained by virtue of the large strategic
reserve of parts that had been purchased from the Netherlands government by
Aviation Jersey Ltd on behalf of the NATO powers. In a huge operation, every
case of parts was opened, quickly examined and then marked as fit for keeping
or to be scrapped before being moved to the island of Jersey, where they were
held for redistribution within NATO as required.
However, it is impossible to hold back the march of time
indefinitely, and improvements in automotive performance, tank guns, and target
acquisition and sighting equipment inevitably meant that the Centurion was
effectively obsolete. No longer suitable for front-line service, those British
Army Centurions that were not scrapped would have certainly suffered the
ignominious fate of being used as range hard targets or being sold to more
impecunious nations. It was the same story elsewhere, with many similarly
superseded by more modern equipment and surplus vehicles sold to other nations.
The situation in Denmark was typical. Many of the nation’s 216 Centurions
remained in service into the 1990s, serving alongside 120 Leopard IA3 main
battle tanks that had started to enter service in February 1976, but the Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed in 1990 by NATO members
and the Warsaw Pact nations, restricted Denmark to 300 main battle tanks and
some 146 remaining Centurions were destroyed or taken out of commission between
1993 and 1995.
However, a handful of Centurions have survived in museums
around the world, and the relatively low cost of surplus Centurions in the
1990s means that there are also more than a few in private hands.
