Canadian Centurion tanks question

[Dan Martel]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Was it really that long ago?

Yes, it was.

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

...not so much knowledge on the Canadian Centurion, but there is much that is common across all the Centurion users.

Your technical knowledge of the tank crosses country lines. Seeing as how the Canadians bought their Centurion tanks from the British Army, what was standard for the Brits was just as applicable to the Canadians.

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

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.

Again, I will defer to the Master. I just remembered the term "TP-T" from the Carl Gustav ranges. There was nothing like watching the tracer round travel a mile and a half in a second or less, than ricochet off the target into oblivion. I was always glad I wasn't on the receiving end.

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

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.

Right again. Mk 11's in Europe (and one in Ottawa), the remaining tanks in Canada with 20-pdrs, although one always hears stories of some L7 equipped tanks in Canada, somewhere. Probably at the RCEME School.

Thanks again, Mike. I could talk Centurions all day.

Cheers,
Dan.