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BY THE TIME THE Allies landed on the D-Day beaches, the main tanks in service with British armoured units were the A27M Cromwell, officially described as ‘tank, cruiser, Mk VIII’, the A22 Churchill, or ‘tank, infantry, Mk IV’, and the M4 Sherman, which was also considered to be a cruiser.

Within weeks of the landings, Field-Marshal Montgomery was openly proposing that the distinction between infantry and cruiser tanks be abandoned.

In the post-war period, some 200 Cromwells were fitted with a new turret and 20-pounder (84mm) anti-tank gun; in this form the tank was renamed Charioteer.

 The vehicles were issued to Royal Armoured Corps units in Germany, but were phased out from 1956, with many subsequently sold to Austria, Finland, Jordan and Lebanon.

However, the emergence of the huge Soviet IS-3 main battle tank in 1944, had led the Allies to re-assess some of the conventional wisdoms regarding levels of firepower and protection, and it wasn’t until the end of the war that British tank designers had the opportunity to take

stock of existing tanks. At the same time, through the work of the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee, they were able to appraise all German technical research into aspects of tank design and technology.

Meanwhile, the A41 Centurion had started to enter service in 1946. It had been designed as a cruiser tank under the old World War 2 doctrine, and, in the light of a document drawn up in 1947, was likely to have a short service life. Drawing on experiences gained by 21 Army Group in 1944/45, the document proposed that, for the future, the British Army would be equipped with three types of tank – the 100-ton FV100 assault tank, the 50-ton FV200 ‘universal’ tank, and the 10-ton FV300 light tank. The Centurion did not feature in this scheme and was viewed as a stopgap measure to be superseded as the new tanks entered service.

 The FV100 and FV300 were soon abandoned, but initial work started on the FV200 ‘universal’ tank, using an enlarged version of the Centurion chassis, with additional road wheels and suspension

units. The original mild-steel Centurion hull, which had been produced by AEC in 1944, was rebuilt and widened for use as a development vehicle, and English Electric was eventually appointed as the main contractor. The first FV200 prototype was completed in 1948 but, within a year, this project, too, had been cancelled, but the shockwaves created by the appearance of the Soviet IS-3, with its 230mm armour and 122mm main gun, continued to

reverberate and there were many in the West who argued that ‘bigger was better’.

It was felt that there was still a need for a new gun tank in the 50-60-ton weight range, and this led to the FV200 chassis being adapted to provide the basis for the FV214 Conqueror heavy gun tank.

However, nothing was straightforward, and delays in finalising the specification for the Conqueror led to the appearance, in 1954, of a test-bed vehicle comprising the hull of the Conqueror, onto which was mounted a Centurion turret. Described as the FV221 Caernarvon, it was planned that once 60 of these had been constructed, production would switch to the Conqueror.

Replacing the A30 Avenger, the post-war Charioteer was a refurbished A27M Cromwell that had been fitted with a new, larger turret and 20-pounder (84mm) anti-tank gun. The gun was traversed to the rear during transport.

THE DESIGN OF BRITISH TANKS FROM 1945 95

In August 1945, with the war in Europe over, contracts were issued for 100 examples of the A41* Centurion Mk I with the 17-pounder (76.2mm) gun in a rolled-steel turret, and 100 examples of the A41A Centurion Mk 2 with a cast turret. The photograph shows the first production A41* at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Woolwich.

 The first Conqueror appeared the following year, in 1955. Designed for a crew of four, it was a huge machine, featuring a welded hull, with a maximum thickness of 178mm, onto which was mounted a massive one-piece cast turret carrying a 120mm rifled gun. Power came from an upgraded and fuel-injected version of the Rolls-Royce V12 Meteor, producing 810bhp, and driving through a Merritt-Brown Z52 or Z52R transmission, both systems offering five forward speeds and two reverse. The Horstman suspension was similar to that used on the Centurion, with horizontal coil-springs acting in opposed pairs.

Production started in 1956 with the total number of vehicles constructed reaching 180-185, including conversions of

Caernarvon.

 The Conqueror was never felt to be satisfactory and, by the late 1960s, both it and the Centurion had been replaced by the Chieftain... which, despite being described as a main battle tank (MBT) followed many of the successful design principles of the Centurion... the last of the old cruisers! _• Recognition data for the Charioteer

taken from the ‘AFV Recognition Handbook’ of 1952.

The Centurion hull, in both Mk 3 and Mk 5 configuration, was also used as the basis of a bridgelayer, mounting a Class 80 ‘bridge, tank, number 6’. Consisting of parallel trackways, the 52ft (15.86m) long bridge was deployed by means of hydraulics driven by an auxiliary engine.

Designed to be able to wade into deep water, the Centurion beach armoured recovery vehicle (BARV) replaced a similar vehicle based on the M4 Sherman, and was intended to keep beaches clear of disabled vehicles during amphibious assaults.

Photographed in 1965, this Centurion Mk 3 is being used as a training vehicle for  junior leaders.

THE DESIGN OF BRITISH TANKS FROM 1945 97

Whilst the details of the Conqueror project were being finalised, the FV221 Caernarvon appeared, using the Conqueror hull onto which was mounted a Centurion turret.

Originally designated A45, and often described as a ‘capital tank’, just one example of the FV200 was constructed before the project was abandoned. The prototype mounted a Centurion turret and 17-pounder (76.2mm) gun on a new, larger hull.

The abandoned FV200 project was used as the basis for the FV214 Conqueror heavy gun tank. Intended as a response to the appearance of the Soviet IS-3 tank, the Conqueror mounted a 120mm gun; the maximum thickness of armour on the welded hull was 178mm.

FV3802 was a self-propelled gun that used a shortened version of the Centurion chassis, mounting a 25-pounder (87.6mm) gun in an armoured box-like superstructure. The vehicle was prototyped, but never put into production.