Didn't see this posted. Pretty cool.
Didn't see this posted. Pretty cool.
It is. I believe they should be allowed to remain on the bottom unless it can be proved that the crews got out.
Centaur C.S. MK.IV, British Cruiser Tank MK.VIII A27L 95mm Howitzer The Rolls Royce Meteor engine that the Cromwell was designed around wasn’t yet available so Liberty engines were installed and the tank became a Centaur. This engine was so poorly made that with any speed it shook itself apart so it was kept for training. Still not a Meteor but upgraded engines were placed in about 80 Centaurs and used very successfully by the Royal Marines Armored Support Group on D-Day. Their 95mm Howitzer was used to destroy beach obstacles and pillboxes.
Centaur C.S. MK.IV, British Cruiser Tank MK.VIII, A27L 95mm Howitzer On D-day while in landing craft the Royal Marines Armored Support Group 1st Armored Support Regiment, 2nd Battery, H Troop Centaurs fired at beach obstacles and bunkers and ashore provided infantry fire support. The white degree markings around the turret made it possible for shipboard spotters using binoculars to align the 95mm Howitzer with a target even if it was obscured by dense smoke. Disregarding orders to remain on the beaches the RMASG moved inland to support troops. Several weeks later with beaches secured the Centaurs were withdrawn to England.
Specifications
Vehicle Type: Centaur C.S. (Close Support) MK.IV, British Cruiser Tank MK.VIII, A27L 95mm Howitzer WD # T185363
Manufacturer: WD # : T185363 – T186510 Centaur C.S. MK.IV (CS tanks by John Fowler & Co.)
Production: English-Electric – 156 Harland & Wolff - 125 John Fowler & Co. – 529 with 80 being 95mm Leyland Motors – 643 LMS Railway Co. – 45 Morris Motors – 138 Nuffield M&A – 150 Ruston-Bucyrus – 35 Total 1821
Crew: 5
Weight: 28 tons
Length: 6.4 m / 21 ft
Width: 2.91 m / 9 ft 6 in
Height: 2.44 m / 8 ft
Armor: Turret – front 15 cm / 5.9 in, side 12 cm / 4.7 in, rear 12 cm / 4.7 in Hull – front 18 cm / 7 in, side 8 cm / 3.1 in, rear 6 cm / 2.36 in
Armament: 1 x 95mm Mark I Howitzer (51 rounds) 1 x 7.92mm Besa Mk.II Machine Guns (Besa Mk 2 coaxial) - 4,950 rounds
Powerplant: Nuffield Liberty 395 hp
Fuel: Gasoline – 530 liters / 140 US gal
Cool story. My dad commanded an LCT (Landing Craft, Tank) on Utah Beach. He had bulldozers and TNT on his boat.
I never knew WWII landing craft were large enough to carry tanks.
Couldn't have been THAT hard to figure out.
No telling how many thousands of tons of armaments went to the bottom of the ocean during WWII.
Cool stuff!
If the crews went down with their tanks that is one crappy way to die though.
Has anybody considered the possibility that these tanks were deliberately dumped over the side AFTER the war? The dive location is listed as West Sussex — which is probably where the divers are staging from. The actual location of the tanks is only given as ‘The Channel’. They could be anywhere.
The Brits dumped a lot of war material in the ocean afterwards. Since these tanks were basically obsolete DURING the war, I expect these would have been the first to go.
As for this line, “Historians discovered the tanks fell overboard when a landing craft capsized on its way to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.” — I’d like to know more about the ‘Historian’ and his/her methodology. Normally you’d start with serial numbers & try to trace the tank from manufacture to its delivery to a specific unit. Then you move to which landing craft it was loaded onto, etc.
This looks like an ‘educated guess’ to me. Probably correct, but you never know.
BTW, that’s pretty good Viz for the channel. Makes for pretty good pix.
“They discovered that the tanks were specially adapted for exclusive use by the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group in Operation Overlord.
Mrs Mayor then trawled through the National Archives and discovered that a landing craft carrying two Centaur tanks capsized in bad weather on June 6, 1944 on its way to battle.
All the Royal Marines and crew aboard were rescued but the tanks, along with two armoured bulldozers and a field gun plunged to the sea floor.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2504563/D-Day-tanks-found-on-seabed.html
Read about swimming Shermans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman
At first I thought this was one of those tanks that had a skirt and was supposed to float (it also had a propeller and a tall exhaust and inlet stack). The problem was they were overwhelmed by the waves and a lot sunk. I don’t remember how far they were from the beach when they were put in the water.
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Note to Ike:
Tanks don’t float.
Panzer food. I know it wasn't supposed to go toe-to-toe with a mk V Panther but even so it wasn't always a bad thing to be an infantryman.
There was a show on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel or maybe TLC a few years ago about US duplex drive Sherman tanks outfitted to float and motor up to the beaches. Most capsized and sank in the rough seas.
