Centurion Main Battle Tank - British Tank Legacy

[Music] you [Music] [Music] hello everyone its Maximus here thank you so much for joining me on today's video so we are going back to the review of main battle tanks and yes what an absolute classic this one is the Centurion main battle tank and I know I'm a little bit biased because I'm British but let's be honest here guys if you know anything about tanks you know that this vehicle has served very very well during its career and continues to serve to this day so as always I talked a little bit about the vehicle itself its specification some of its history and then I'll just pop my own personal opinion on whatever you think about this vehicle at the very end guys I would really appreciate if you could leave me a comment and a like if you enjoyed today's video and if you do enjoy my content feel free to come check out my patreon page for donation for any support you want to give it's much appreciated so let's talk about this wonderful tank then the development of the Centurion main battle tank began in 1943 when the British Army asked for a new cruiser tank equipped with at least a 17 pounder gun they wanted a fast tank that even though heavily armoured would perform very well in a cross-country travel situation prototypes of this new tank known as the a41 were built and since Germany in 1945 but the war ended before they actually saw any combat at first the Centurion as the new tank was named it did not represent much if any improvement over a medium tank then available and Centurion weighed an incredible 42.5 tons whereas the panther model d back in its day actually weighed 43 tons it was equipped with a 17 pounder seventy six point five millimeter gun that had a muzzle velocity of an extremely impressive 2,900 feet per second the panther de its rival was armed with a 75 millimeter gun with a muzzle velocity of 3,000 70p per second the vehicle was powered by a beautiful 600 horsepower rolls-royce Merlin meteo v12 engine the Panther D used a 642 horsepower v12 Maybach engine even the next generation centurion seemed a shadow of the panther when the Centurion mark 3 was developed Equipe than eighty three point four millimeter or 20 pounder gun the uprated panther which had the design work completed but never entered production this v equipped with the 88 millimeter gun used on the tiger tube both guns had muzzle velocities very close to three thousand three hundred and forty feet per second even so the Centurion three main battle tank was one of the most heavily armed tanks of its category in the immediate post-war years but strangely enough neither tanks design nor even its gun design was responsible for this the Centurion tree fired a new round that we used a narrow diameter thinned solid steel spike or arrow that was wrapped in a light Metal Jacket to give it the same diameter as the bore this round was called an armor-piercing discarding Sabre or a PDS round and it left the model of the 20 pound of 4,800 feet per second it could penetrate twice as much armor as the 88 millimeter gun the Centurion three tank was commercial as well as military success it was adopted by Australia Canada India South Africa Sweden Switzerland and many other nations the Centurion was perhaps the first tank to face itself in a shooting gun Iraq Egypt and Israel brought Centurions and used them against one another in the 1967 and 1973 arab-israeli Wars the United States purchased Centurions and gave them to Denmark and the Netherlands under the military aid program the Centurion main battle tank five six seven and eight models were successfully up armored and up gun would be 105 millimeter l7 series of guns one of the most famous British guns ever produced in fact the final version the Centurion 13 was equipped with a 105 millimeter l7 a2 gun the same one used on the west german leopard 1 series tank also the israeli merkava and the american m48 a 5 and 60 and m1 abrams and so the Japanese type 74 and many other main gun fires the tanks hull was divided into the usual three compartments the driver arm was in the front of the fighting compartment in the centre the NGO partners of the red separate from either two compartments buy a fireproof wall the engine and transmission drove the rear sprocket Forster and Cape suspension system was used in which three units on a side of each hold two road wheels on one set of concentric Springs six return rollers were employed these were hard to see on the later model tanks since the skirt armor for protection against high-explosive anti-tank projectiles covered most the treads the commander and gunner was seated on the right hand side of the turret the loader on the left the commander had a controller that could be turned into a complete circle independently of the turret infrared searchlight the driving lights are installed on later variations and the maximum armor thickness was six inches in the turret front and four point six inches on the whole glasses plate the l7 aid to main gun had an effective range of 1968 yards when using armor-piercing discarding Sabre rounds and four thousand three hundred and seventy-four yards when using high-explosive rounds trained crews could fire up to eight rounds per minute the main gun was aimed using a coaxial e mounted 50 caliber machine gun that five traces and three round bursts up to range around 1968 yards they're gonna watch the tracer rounds through the periscope gun sight and set the range on the drum device linked to the main gun to seven point six millimeters that NATO machine guns were also carried one mounted on the commander's Coppola and the other coaxial II to the left hand side of the main gun fused against armored vehicles and enemy personnel later variations that said Tyrian also had 12 smoke discharges six mounted on each side of the turret to allow it to pull out of dangerous situations the 13 models 15 models of the Centurion were built by for manufacturers Leyland Motors the royal ordnance factory at leeds the royal ordnance factory at Woollett and vickers limited five other vehicles based on the Centurion have also been built these include two centurion mark v bridge layers the centurion mark - and mark v armoured recovery vehicles and the centurion beech armoured recovery vehicle although centurion went out of service with the British Army it continued to be extremely potent country in the arsenal of Denmark Israel Jordan allons South Africa Somalia Sweden and Switzerland Centurion currently holds the record of being the longest-serving tank in British history which puts among the longest-serving tanks ever the tankers seen action all over the globe whether it's for the British Army or among many other armoured units of the Allies the Centurion really did live up to its reputation in Korea the 8th King's Royal Irish asal successfully covered the retreat and British troops during the Battle of Indian River in 1951 the performance of the tank during this battle confirm the status of the Centurion within the British Army US General John O'Daniel famously stated regarding the tank of the 8th the Czar's regiment that they are able to dominate the battleground completely including rough mountain terrain sadly the Centurion never did develop a nuclear biological and chemical defense system for the vehicle it also did not have amphibious capabilities and to be honest with you I would never want to try and get any type of water with this thing however a deep folding kit was developed as well as a frontal dozer blade so it could dig into firing positions very key for defence it's only real weakness guys with its operational range which the mark-5 tried to solve by providing a very small trailer of fuel which to be honest not a good idea there are many different mark versions of the Centurion tank they range from the mark 1 all the way to the mark 13 and some of the variations are between the guns the ranging machine guns that they use the infrared night-vision equipment fume extractors multiple storage areas and different types of Coppola's on the vehicle itself obviously other vehicles were a farmer with different armor packages and different main gun Mantle's and canvas covers were placed onto the vehicle mainly though we're talking about the fire pound up armoring the vehicle and overall they're very similar in terms of the chassis setup of the vehicle production of the Centurion ended in 1962 by which stage the massive 4,000 423 lump load of vehicles had been produced and manufactured by rof Leeds Vickers and Leyland of which 2,500 were exported that is a huge amount of tanks to send abroad guys however most were pretty much replaced by the corm operators with German one's operators have included Australia Austria Canada Denmark Egypt India Iraq Israel Kuwait Lebanon Jordan Netherlands New Zealand Singapore South Africa Sweden Switzerland as it stands the Centurion still remains a quite a pertinent presence Albert limited in the modern world a derivatives are still in play which promote the original Centurion hull as a superior and successful design the service of all these systems being used in the Centurion essentially round from 1945 to about the 1990s covering over 60 years a very faithful service and clearly making her one of the best tanks of all time so time to put my spin on this tank on what I actually think of it now as I mentioned before I am a little biased and that's ok sometimes it's ok to be biased because you know you're a patriot we love your country and you know something is performed well both statistically and historically you're going to side towards you I'm not going to not like a tank because it's from my own country it's just factual information that this tank was produced very very well whether it be from the l7 rifle gun the tank used the innovative new armored piercing discarding Sabre round that these vehicles used it did very very well worldwide not speaks for itself guides if countries worldwide thought this was a good vehicle it clearly has done itself very very well in serving in multiple environments whether it be the desert you know Israelis remove the turret from the shop and took the tanks all and used it for other vehicles it just it's a multitude of uses as well I mean the vehicles chassis and platform was very good for other vehicles that could have been used for whether it be armoured repair engineering and a lack of stuff it just had a multitude of uses the rolls-royce engine again clearly a very reliable very powerful engine and for its day of course we're talking about a tank that was designed you know almost 70 years ago more which is incredible to me that a tank like this is still rolling and looking at this track not being live and spring-loaded is kind of cringe though I must admit I can't imagine having a track like that driving with you know non-live loaded tracks but this again tells the tale of how reliable these vehicles would have been and they're still using them you know live track is a very standard now and these vehicles still don't use live track still rolling guys they're still moving to this day working very very hard I love this tank I love it not because it's British not because of how well it's performed in war fairs because it still lives on today it's not bad for a tank that that's all you've got to admit it though I mean it's still rolling to this day in some forces around the world should it be probably not but the fact that it still isn't still able to perform quite well is incredible to me this is one of those vehicles I look at that seems like it could be very easily upgraded with some slap on packages maybe a bigger engine and still perform incredibly well for its day it's not a modern type vehicle it's not going to be able to take on modern type armored vehicles but it would be very good being in to support within an insurgent role or you know being able to provide overwatch for troops on the ground or even taking out small monolith personnel carriers and such never really designed for the modern conflicts which is why a lot of people give this vehicle a hard time when they see on the TV or they seeing you know on footage and stuff they're like what the hell's our centurions doing news today for because it still works it still does the job it's the same question can be asked for many tanks out there why are we still using the D you know 262 why we still using the 272 these are all tanks maybe not as old as this one but the fact that this vehicle is still rolling and still putting rounds downrange out there baffles me but also makes me extremely proud to know that this tank is from both the UK and serving very very well around the world so for me guys this vehicle is a classic its time kind of like a classic car you know it gets better with age and I look at this tank and that's what I think it's like a fine wine it just gets better with age it's a tank that defies history should it be defying history maybe not but it is and that makes me very very happy so I love the centurion tank guys I would really appreciate if you could leave me a comment let me know what you think of this tank do you think it's a vehicle that should still be serving today do you think it's a classic you think it's a good tank and let me know your reasons why I appreciate you stopping by today and as always I would love it if you could leave them and check out my patreon if you do wish to support my channel as always you can also go to Facebook and add me as a friend on there and get updated bringing new videos coming out with that being said to hit that little bell too and you'll be able to be notified of any more military or gaming videos that come up in the future thanks again for watching guys have a great day and bye bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 135,881

Keywords: Centurion Main Battle Tank, Centurion tank, british Centurion tank, British main battle tank, post-Second World War, centurion tank review, Centurion Mk 1, Centurion Mk 13, Centurion Mk 5 NL, Stridsvagn 102, A41 Tank, 17-pounder, Centurion Mk 2, 20pdr, 105mm L7A1 gun, Ordnance 105mm L7A1 gun, Rolls Royce Mk 4B, 17-pdr main gun, CS 95mm gun, Centurion Mk 6, FV4017, FV4015, Rolls Royce Meteor, CENTURION MK 13 FV4017, British Centurion Tank FV 4007, Chieftain Main Battle Tank

Id: zsdJZ2IW_kQ

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2017