Centurion - Tiger Tank's Nemesis

I befriended an old bloke aged 89 a few years ago. He was a "proper" time served Engineer of the old school type. It turns out he was part of the design team for the Centurion. He was involved in the design and making of the turret. In his National Service he was REME and post war he was seconded to the German army and was involved in their post war development of German AFV`s working extensively on the HS30. I found out that there was "Gate Guardian" type Centurion still in good nick nr Leyland. I took him for a ride not letting him know where we were going and he was gobsmacked when I parked up next to a Centurion. He only lived a few miles away in Wigan but was unaware of its existence. It was great to see him poring over it and pointing out relative pieces that were his forte all those years ago. Unsung hero.

The OLD joke in the Army is of course..... "He was in the Army when a Centurion was a RANK, not a TANK........"

As a 10 year old boy in 1957 I lived in Bovington Camp. My friends and I played cowboys and indians on the tank ranges behind our quarter. Sometines we joined forces and hid in the heather waiting to ambush passing centurion tanks. I remember one occaision when an approaching tank crew must have spotted us and turned the gun in our direction. We stood up and fired our arrows and toy guns at it as it passed by with its turret rotating to keep its gun trained on us. Those were the days.....

Crazy how "modern" the centurion looked compared to other ww2 tanks

I was given a "Dinky Toy" Centurion of wonderful cast metal quality when I was a kid in the 1950s. 65 years later, it is still "in service", sitting on my bookshelf guarding my treasure of story and knowledge. Thanks for this history.

I am an ex Merkava 2 commander, when I joined the IDF in 1989 we still had a whole division of Centurions in operation (Shot D). These marvellous machines carried more shells then our tanks and had higher degree of accuracy hitting the targets with their 105mm main gun. Every year the IDF carried a tank sniper competition, and every year the centurions won.

9:17 Minor point: the M24 was the Chaffee, the M26 was the Pershing. Absolutely love your content. The best ww2 history channel, period.

I had the honour of driving one of these in 1966 in Hohne Germany. It was a true driver's tank, complete with crash (double declutch) gearbox, which soon developed the muscles in the left leg.

Dr. Felton has single handedly replaced the History Channel.

Actually, "Centurion versus Tiger" sounds like something from Roman games. TODAY AT THE COLOSSEUM, CENTURION VERSUS TIGER, WINNER EATS LOSER

My Dad was in REME in the 1950s for his national service and he drove and repaired Centurions amongst other large vehicles. He later joined the MoD as a draughtsman and worked on designing new components and armaments for tanks such as this.

Upgraded Centurions ("Olifants') did a great job in Angola, though committed too late and in too small numbers (fortunately for the Cubans, Soviets and Angolans). 3 were lost, but not due to enemy fire. They were disabled in minefields and could not be recovered under fire. Two are still sitting there, east of Cuito.

Another tale of Tigers and a celebration of Centurions. Who better to tell us than Mark Felton.

Hold on! Are you telling me that a newly designed and built tank got off a ship and drove 400 miles!.... That's not fantastic that's unprecedented. No wonder it's still in use to this day.

This is fantastic. I’ve been flat on my back due to a work place injury, and getting quite bored of my regular YouTube channels. I love the quality of these and how most of these stories I’ve not heard before, much less in this detail. Thanks for your efforts in digging up these gems. Fills in a lot of gaps in my amateur WW2 knowledge.

I remember the Australian Centurion Tanks from when I was a young Soldier in the 70-80's, 1st Royal Australian Armoured Regiment continued to use them up until the mid 1980's, and they were deployed in Squadron strength in Phuoc Tuy province South Vietnam, during the Australian deployment there prior to 1973.

Mark’s tales never cease to amaze & captivate. Thank you.

For the Australians, 58 Centurions had served in Vietnam; 42 had suffered battle damage, of which six were beyond repair, while two crewmen had been killed in action. 2 Centurions from C squadron 1st Armoured regiment, during the battle for Coral Balmoral FSPB; road rambled 160 kms in 2 days to respond to the unfolding action. Nui Dat to Lai Khe is it a record?

Fascinating! That the Centurion's first combat kill was a Cromwell has got to be one of those cosmic jokes the god's of war play at.

John O'Daniel, commanding the US 1st Corps, stated: "In their Centurions, the 8th Hussars have evolved a new type of tank warfare. They taught us that anywhere a tank can go, is tank country: even the tops of mountains."