[Paladin2]

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

[meatloaf]

Too slow.

[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.

[Nebr FAL owner]

tanks are tracked vehicles that makes them maintenance intensive . Driving your tank hundreds/thousand plus miles non stop wold leave it in condition for being nothing more than a gunnery target . You would literally have burned out the transmission the engine & the tracks before you got to your destination