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

[Paladin2]

Well, if they can go 60 mph, just run them flat out and then put the maintenance in when you get there. (assuming that op time per work hour is independent of speed)

[Paladin2]

"wold leave it in condition for being nothing more than a gunnery target"

That sounds just like the initial case here.

[naturalman1975]

I would not be wanting to try and do a lot of maintenance on a clapped out tank that had just been driven hundreds of miles to Emu Field - there’s a reason they set off nuclear bombs there - because it was in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing of value to be damaged. The nearest road (and that is an unmade dirt road) is 120 miles away. The nearest human settlement (a town of 2000 people, most of whom live underground because of the heat) is 150 miles away. And that town is 500 miles away from the nearest city.

Just for fun, I’ve just used my navigation software to tell me how I should drive from where this tank was (Puckapunyal Army Base in Victoria) to that nearest town to the nuclear test. It’s about a 1000 mile drive, and could be done nowadays - nearly 50 years later when we have much better roads - in about 18 hours in a car. Even if the tank could match that all the way without breaking down, figure at least 21 hours to get to the test site, and if you need four hours of maintenance for every hour you drove - 84 hours maintenance. I’d say it was just a lot easier to transport it the way they did it, and a lot less labor intensive in the end.

[Paladin2]

Train shipment makes sense and sounds fine. I had to laugh about the stretches where the tank had to be unloaded and used to pull the transport. Since that tank was set to be scrap, I’d driven it in by itself (as a durability test).

[Squantos]

Big ole arroyo just east of elephant butt..e.

Start in Socorro at the owl cafe an walk east till ya smell it then go south till ya step in it....watch out for Victorios ghost ....

But you knew this....

[patton]

Little elephant mountain caught fire this morning - I swear that fire was racing 100 mph toward El Paso.

An amazing thing to see. I stopped on Nike Road just to watch it progress - If I had a transit, I could have neasured the speed...

[patton]

Little elephant mountain caught fire this morning - I swear that fire was racing 100 mph toward El Paso.

An amazing thing to see. I stopped on Nike Road just to watch it progress - If I had a transit, I could have neasured the speed...

[naturalman1975]

Yes, but if they’d done that, they might not have discovered what they did - that a Centurion tank actually was able to endure a nuclear blast much better than they had expected it to. They were using an almost new, top of the range tank, deliberately to try and find out what it’s limits were in that regard - that meant you wanted it in as good condition as was practical to have it.

[patton]

Make a side trip over to WSMR, to the Frontier Cafe. At about 0930, stare southwest at the mountains.

As the sun clears the bowl, you will see a 200’ pine tree appear out of nowhere.

It is an amazing thing.

[Squantos]

We are surrounded with fire damage.... Winds yesterday were near 60 sustained with gust in the oh crap range.

It was kicking up the black burned ash from crp grass fires we had Monday an it was so black it looked like a POL fire....

Folks around here will shoot ya if ya toss a cigarette butt out the window .... No joking around its fugly up here.

Stay safe...

[patton]

No kidding. I keep a fresh butt cup in my POV, half filled with water.

This is not funny.

[Squantos]

Yeah its dead serious business here. Jail if your caught by a cop doing it.

Very very dangerous environment here in the Panhandle.

I’m out of here....oh early thirty wakeup in the morning.

Stay safe...

[archy]

How did the T55 compare to the venerable T34? Have you been in the gas-lighter (er, Sherman)?

I've been in T-34 *scaup's* only twice, once as a driver, once in the turret. Crowded. I'm 5'8", and about 4 inches too tall to work in the T55's driver's seat without cramping up after about 4 hours. The Israeli Tiran-5, an upgraded captured T-55 with Israeli-built 105mm L7 main gun, is just as bad.

Yep, I've got extensive time in the M4A1, both in Israel and in one of the three Shermans used as *Illinois National Guard* tanks in the Blues Brothers movie. If you watch the VHS tape [scene was cut on some DVD copies I've seen] you'll note the main gun jerks as the gun is elevated/depressed- one counterbalance weight was missing, and a replacement wasn't immediately available in time for the filming...and my suggestion of four railroad tie plates as a field expedient was rejected. The same tank showed up on the CBS Program “America Tonight” with Debra Norvell in 1996, squashing a Mercedes, but I wasn't driving that time.

[archy]

Well, if they can go 60 mph, just run them flat out and then put the maintenance in when you get there. (assuming that op time per work hour is independent of speed)

You can only keep that kind of speed up so long, then you begin to lose the track's end connectors, which are held on with a threaded wedge and a single 5/8" bolt that are subject to wear and vibration.

One quickie cure if you're around a saltwater beach [ocean or Dead Sea] is to take a mile or so run through the salt water on one side, followed by a return trip with the other track. In a day or so the end connector bolts will rust up pretty good, but vibration and fatigue eventually takes its toll.

The other problem trying to run at that speed is steering, which with a cross-drive transmission, gets pretty antsy in an M48 or M60. I saw an MP Jeep that suffered pretty bad after trying to roadblock an M60 running down a mountain pass road at around 55-60 MPH. If you keep the tank in gear, [automatic transmissions in US tanks since the M47] you chance the possibility of losing braking control. If you drop it into neutral, you lose your engine braking, and can lose a track if you even try to steer in the slightest.

Installing a track end connector

Track end connector wedge and bolt removed.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the ping. Interesting story!