Centurion vs T-55: Yom Kippur War 1973: No. 21 (Duel)

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Pacepa, Ion Mihai (15 April 1990). Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. p.371. ISBN 0895267462. The Centurion was used as the basis for a range of specialist equipment, including combat engineering variants with a 165mm demolition gun Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE). [28] It is one of the longest-serving designs of all time, serving as a battle tank for the British and Australian armies from the Korean War (1950–1953) to the Vietnam War (1961–1972), and as an AVRE during Operation Desert Storm in January–February 1991. [28] Production [ edit ] quotas until the German invasion was fully contained. Accordingly, the T-34 did not see any radical improvements until after 1943 when the battle of Kursk revealed the urgent need for a more heavily armed version of the tank to counter the much feared Tiger and Panther tanks. An improved model of the T-34 armed with a 85mm D-5 gun was accepted for production on 15 December 1943 and the first T-34/85 entered service with the Red Army in March 1944. Production of the T-34/85 was soon running at 1,200 per month at a time when there were only 304 Panthers on the whole Eastern Front. The T-34/85 was at the forefront of the climactic battles of Operation Bagration in the a b c Rashba, Gary (October 1998, online June 12, 2006) (12 June 2006). "Yom Kippur War: Sacrificial Stand in the Golan Heights". Military History magazine via HISTORYnet. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link)

The highest level of the military collaboration was reached between 1956 and 1966. [70] At this time France provided almost all the tanks along with aircraft and military ships. In 1969 the French president Charles de Gaulle limited the export of weapons to Israel. This was the end of the "golden age" 20 years of relations between Israel and France.

After the Battle of Coral-Balmoral, a third Centurion troop, which included two tankdozers, was formed. By September 1968, 'C' Squadron was brought to its full strength of four troops, each equipped with four Centurion tanks. By 1969, 'B' Squadron, 3rd Cavalry; 'A' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment; 'B' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment; and 'C' Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment, had all made rotations through South Vietnam. Originally deployed as 26 Centurion tanks, after three and a half years of combat operations, 58 Centurions had served in country; 42 had suffered battle damage with six beyond repair and two crewmen had been killed in action. [48] The Centurion sees combat during the Indo-Pakistan War as do the T-54/55/59 on both sides, although there are no encounters with the Centurion. The T-54/59 sees extensive combat in South East Asia in Laos, South Vietnam, Cambodia and during the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.

The Israeli tank force included a small number of Sherman and Cromwell tanks, as well as ten Hotchkiss H-39 light tanks. Egypt used Shermans, Crusaders and Matildas, as well as Light Tank Mark VI and M22 Locust light tanks. They may have used some Valentines, as well. The Syrians had Renault R35s and R39s (an improved R35). The Lebanese used Renault FTs. [ citation needed] A Hotchkiss H35 tank. Char léger modèle 1935 H modifié 39 in Latrun, West BankDunstan, Simon (1980). Centurion (Modern Combat Vehicles: 2). Ian Allan Publishing. p.19. ISBN 978-0711010635. After its unhappy debut, and once the problems with the transmission were resolved, the T-54 proved to be a worthy successor to the T-34 series that had been largely instrumental in achieving victory on the Eastern Front and the eventual triumph over the remaining forces of the Third Reich in the battle of Berlin. Starting in 1949, the T54/55 series was built in greater numbers than any other post-war battle tank with over 50,000 rolling off the production lines. The T-54 entered series production in 1953 and the T-54A was introduced in 1955. The T-54A had a revised D-10TG 100mm main armament that featured stabilization in the vertical axis with the STP-1 Gorizont or Horizon system. The D-10TG also had a fume extractor near the muzzle fume, based on the bore evacuator design of captured US M-26 and M-46 Medium Tanks from the Korean War. This model was also manufactured in Czechoslovakia, Poland and in China as the T-59. Two years later, the T-54B appeared with full stabilization for the main armament that was now designated D-10T2S. The system was known as the STP-2 Tsiklon or Cyclone. In April 1959, infrared (IR) night vision and fighting equipment was introduced for the commander, gunner and driver. Intriguingly, the Centurion featured full stabilization from its earliest models in 1947 whereas the T-54/55 series achieved it only in 1957. Conversely, Soviet tanks were fitted with IR night-fighting equipment several years before their NATO counterparts. Total production of the T-54 series was approximately 24,750 in the Soviet Union with 5,465 in Warsaw Pact countries and a further 9,000 in China under the designation T-59. The Israelis broke through with tank-led assaults against the Egyptian army in Sinai. In the Battle of Abu-Ageila, the Israeli 38th Armored Division under Major-General Ariel Sharon assaulted Um-Katef a heavily fortified area defended by the Egyptian 2nd Infantry Division where the Egyptians also had a battalion of tank destroyers and a tank regiment, formed of Soviet World War II armour, which included 90 T-34-85 tanks, 22 SU-100 tank destroyers, and about 16,000 men. The Israelis had about 14,000 men and 150 post-World War II tanks including the AMX-13, Centurions, and M50 Super Shermans (modified M-4 Sherman tanks). Israeli tanks managed to penetrate the northern flank of Abu Ageila, and by dusk, all units were in position. The Israelis then brought up 90 105mm and 155mm artillery guns for a preparatory barrage, and Israeli tanks assaulted the northernmost Egyptian defenses and were largely successful, though an entire armoured brigade was stalled by mines, and had only one mine-clearance tank. The battle ended in an Israeli victory, with 40 Egyptian and 19 Israeli tanks destroyed.

Big British Tank Aims on the Run". Popular Science: 142–143. April 1952. ISSN 0161-7370. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. H. Gerrard 11 Oaks Road Tenterden Kent TN30 6RD The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.

FV4004, 120mm Conway and FV4005, 183mm gun tank". Archived from the original on 13 December 2009 . Retrieved 15 November 2014. Dunstan, Simon; Sarson, Peter (2003). Centurion Universal Tank 1943–2003. Osprey. p.13. ISBN 978-1-84176-387-3. Fletcher, David (1989). Universal Tank: British Armour in the Second World War – Part 2. HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-290534-9.