Atomic Tank: The Unique History of Centurion 169041 (nuked in a test and served another 23 years)

Armour: The Journal of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Association ^ | Mike Cecil

[naturalman1975]

I'm teaching some of my classes about this tank next week as a way of covering part of Australia's Cold-War military history - it's good for putting events like the development of nuclear weapons, Vietnam, etc, into context.

I just thought it's an interesting story that some people here might like to read as well.

The Totem 1 nuclear test that the tank was used in had an explosive yield of 9.1 kilotons - not large by the standards of nuclear explosions (Hiroshima was about 13 kilotons) but this tank was only 500 yards from the centre of the explosion.

[catman67]

Thought this was going to be an article about DARPA inventing a nuclear powered tank!

[Paladin2]

Why did they transport the tank instead of just driving it to where it was supposed to go? Especially over the tough stuff.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Did you notice that the tank - immediately after being blown up by a battlefield-sized nuclear weapon - was filled with diesel, re-crewed, and used to tow its own trailer out of the radioactive zone back towards the depot?

I wonder if the RPG weld repair damage is still visible?

[ASA Vet]

Well worth reading.

[GenXteacher]

Thanks for posting that.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Boy oh boy, did they leave any data out of this article? Compare and contrast with the current level of MSM journalism. Discuss!

[Tallguy]

I wonder if the RPG weld repair damage is still visible?

Looks like this tank has had several turrets throughout its career. I would guess that if the same turret was still on the tank that the scar would have been welded, ground and repainted. Might not very visible from the outside.

[Red6]

Nice article!

THX

[blueunicorn6]

Thanks for the article. I believe I read that Israeli mothers wanted their sons serving in Centurions because they were viewed as being safer than other tanks. There’s a movie called LEBANON that is about an Israeli Centurion tank crew. They have the noises right. Seems to be kind of roomy for a tank. The actors weren’t wearing CVC helmets. I suppose an actor makes his living with his face.

[ryan71]

Thanks, enjoyed it.

[Red6]

In a few months we will go to Trinity (The first nuke was detonated there). We will be there as a family and with friends. I'm sure my son and daughter will learn more there than from the junk they get pumped into their head by all this junk and pop culture garbage that teaches about the “atomic winter, contamination and inhospitable lands for thousands of years, the dangers of chocolate milk and global warming........”

It's science and history, tangible and in context.

PS- My wife's grandfather (Thomas Haley) was one of the electrical engineers working on the bomb/s (including the ones following). lol

[meatloaf]

Too slow.

[GOPJ]

Interesting - thanks for sharing.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Fascinating, it certainly fared better than the HMS Plym.

[Clock King]

The tank must be a Transformer in disguise!

Devastator rolling!

[oyez]

Durable little sucker. Nice article.

[Oztrich Boy]

Why did they transport the tank instead of just driving it to where it was supposed to go? Especially over the tough stuff.

The Centurion was a WWII standard tank, unrefuelled range about 100 miles (the M47 Patton was 80)- back then the use of tank transporters was standard.

The Israeli and South African upgrades to the Centurion have given it the same 300 mile range of modern tanks.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Slow and expensive. The cost per mile of operating a tank is much greater than the cost of transporting it on a truck. I read somewhere that German WW-2 tanks had a mean operating distance between breakdowns of 100 km. Generally, the repairs were simple, tread repairs, that sort of thing. But the time required to repair them slowed up unit march speed, even if they didn't all wait for the disabled units. But when Hitler order the German Army to switch the goal from the oil fields of the Caucus to Moscow, that 1000 km march consumed a huge amount of resources. The German thrust towards the Antwerp through the Ardennes would have been delayed by the necessity of making repairs to disabled tanks. Besides which, the German Army's logistic model (other than for routine spares) was cannibalization, which does not work for an army in retreat. A broken tank, is a lost tank.

The much maligned Sherman tank was admirably reliable and required very little maintenance. It was also comparable to the tanks that Rommel used to overrun France in 1940. The experience in Russia forced the Germans to up-armor. Most of the German tanks in service in the West in 1944 were still 1940-vintage, only a fraction of all German tanks were Panthers and Tigers.

[caver]

Cool story! Thanks for posting.