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Centurion tank9/27/2023 ![]() By the late 40s a new gun emerged, the 84mm “20 pounder”. However, the appearance of the IS3 at the Berlin Victory Parade signalled that the 17pdr was not going to be suitable as WW2 gave way to the cold war. The few Mk.1 were quickly supplanted by a Mk.2 design that increased the armour thickness and dropped the 20mm in favour of a conventional BESA 7.92mm MG and would serve as the initial type adopted formerly by the British Army. With the end of WW2, there was some breathing space to refine the design. Battlefront have talked about a Late war Levitations/Operation Unspeakable book to bring these into flames of war so I wouldn’t rule out an appearance on the tabletop quite yet. This late arrival to the front means the Centurion misses the established Flames of War books but is supported by parts on the new plastic sprue as we can see with the upcoming World of Tanks starter set. The first prototypes were rushed to the front but arrived with the Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in May 1945, too late to see action. The deletion of the hull gunner allowed the glacis late to well sloped, increasing the effectiveness of the front armour to exceed that of the late pattern Churchills. Due to the perceived issues with the 17pdr HE round, this was backed up by a 20mm Polsten cannon to engage soft targets, the cannon be able to elevate separately to the main armament. Mk.1īy the start of 1945 what emerged was a well-protected tank, powered by the same Meteor petrol engine as the late Cruiser tanks but equipped with Horstmann suspension to increase internal space compared to Christie suspension, and armed with a 17pdr main gun. ![]() It would be as agile as the Comet tank, though top speed could be sacrificed to meet the survivability goals. ![]() It would have sufficient armour to withstand fire from the dreaded 88mm whilst being able to both support the infantry and maintain a breakout. ![]() The answer to this was initially treated as a heavy cruiser tank but would become to be known as a universal tank, the precursor to the modern main battle tank. However, it was clear that the Cruisers still couldn’t withstand the high end German anti-tank guns and the Infantry tank couldn’t knock out the top-end enemy armour. By 1943 both fleets had overcome these challenges with the Cromwell being as good as the Sherman as an all-rounder and the Churchill, whilst slow, was a tough tank able to support the infantry and lay down useful HE and smoke fire whilst engaging enemy light and medium armour. British tank doctrine of the inter-war years had led to a bifurcated fleet of Cruiser and Infantry tanks but the folly of this thinking was quickly shown as cruiser tanks were shown to be too lightly armoured to fight their peers and infantry tanks were too lightly armed to even fire HE in support of the infantry. The Centurion started its development mid-way through WW2. In this article we’ll take a look at this stalwart of mid-late 20 th century warfare and how that fits into the Battlefront range of games. The Centurion has made its TY and plastic kit debut, but not its debut to the battlefront family of wargames.
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