It became one of the most widely used tank designs, equipping armies around the world, with some still in service until the 1990s. With United Kingdom during the Korean War and the 1955 Suez Crisis, with Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 19 invasions of Lebanon, with Jordania in 1970 to fend off a Syrian incursion within its borders during the Black September events and later in the Golan Heights in 1973, with India during Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, with Australia during Vietnam War and with South Africa during the 1966 Border War.
While it didn't fight during WW2 it saw combat in further conflicts with various countries. The Centurion would enter British service in 1950. Six prototypes of the the Centurion Mk.I were produced in January 1945, but they arrived in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945. Initiated in September 1943, the prototype would greatly evolve until reaching a phase close of its final design in October 1943, a welded hull with sloped armor and a partially cast turret with the highly regarded 17-pdr as the main gun and a coaxial 20 mm Polsten cannon (later switched with a 7.7 mm BESA machine-gun, a Rolls-Royce Meteor and a Horstmann suspension.ĭesign mock-ups were built by AEC Ltd in May 1944, 20 pilot models were ordered with various armament combinations: ten with a 17-pdr and a 20 mm Polsten gun (of which half had a Besa machine gun in the turret rear and half an escape door), five with a 17-pdr, a forward Besa and an escape door, and five with a QF 77 mm gun and a driver-operated hull machine gun.
#CENTURION TANK SERIES#
After a series of fairly mediocre designs in the A series in the past, and bearing in mind the threat posed by the German 88mm 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 88mm gun and providing greater protection against mines. In 1943, the Directorate of Tank Design, under Sir Claude Gibb, Fellow of the Royal Society and the Commander of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was asked to produce a new design for a heavy cruiser tank under the General Staff designation A41.
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