Canadian Centurion tanks question

[Ed Storey]

Here is a 1973 image of a Canadian Centurion Mk 11 in Germany. The CWM example was from LETE and therefore had been equipped to the latest Mk 11 modifications and this photograph shows it when it was still on outdoor display.

41-12 FV 4017 Centurion Mk 12 - left hand view, CWM Vehicle, Ottawa - 1981 copy.jpg

Centurion.jpg

[jdmcm]

Very cool, thanks Ed. Did we upgrade the tanks in Canada to the L7 105mm or did they all remain 20lbrs until retirement?

[Dan Martel]

Not wanting to steal Ed's thunder, but I thought that a picture is worth a thousand words. During the summer of 1978, a young 2nd Lieutenant of The RCR was going through Phase III infantry officer training at CFB Gagetown, part of which involved directing tank fire. Each candidate was given one 20-lbr round to give to the crew, after which the round would be fired at a target, selected by the candidate, about a mile and a half away. There was lots of 20-lbr TP-T or training purpose-tracer available to fire. So, in 1978, it was 20-lbr's for Gagetown.

The first photo shows our hero with his very own tank round.

The second shows skid loads of 20-lbr TP-T.

[jdmcm]

Wow, that is awesome Dan, what great memory that must have been, something I can only dream about, thanks so much for sharing that

Regards
John

[Dan Martel]

John,

I forgot to cite the most knowledgeable person I know about Centurions, who is also a member of this forum. Mike Cecil and I carried on a very informative thread about the tank, five years ago this month.

If you have any technical questions about the tank, send Mike a PM and he'd be glad to answer them. He was, and still is, very forthcoming to anyone on the forum with a question.

Cheers,
Dan.

[Richard Whelan]

I served in Germany on Centurions from 1976 until we changed to rented Leopard and yes we love-ling filled those 100 gallon tanks everyday while on exercise. In fact I may still have the last time centurions were on parade. It was taken with a super 8 camera and really bad but I will look for it.

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your comments. Was it really that long ago? Still, to place things in perspective: not so much knowledge on the Canadian Centurion, but there is much that is common across all the Centurion users.

Great images of yourself & live round. Rather than TP/T, I think these are 20 pdr (84 x 617R) HE/T rounds - indicated by the buff colour and thin red stripe. There were several marks of HE/T, along with a few different fuzes. Being late in the Centurion story (1978), the fuze is almost certainly the L17A4 - a point detonating (PD) fuze which evolved from a fuze originally developed for the Royal Navy, and adapted for use on 20-pdr when the Fuze 410 proved so problematic.

I seem to remember that Canadian Cents in Europe were Mk11 with 105mm L7 guns, while those in Canada remained as training vehicles with 20-pdr. The reference was, I think, Don Dingwall's Service Publications book on Canadian Cents, but I can't seem to locate it just now.

Mike