Customer Reviews

Centurion Universal Tank 1943-2003 (New Vanguard)

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The British Centurion tank is one of the most important and remarkable AFVs in history. It was developed way back in 1943 but emerged too late to fight in WWII. However, since its combat debut in the Korean War, the Centurion tank has fought with great distinction in numerous conflicts (esp. the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967, 1973, and the Indo/Pakistani War of 1965). Simon Dunstan does a good job of describing the evolution and development of the Centurion from the Korean War and onwards. He describes the different marks (e.g. Mark 3, Mark 5, Mark 7, Mark 13, the Israeli Sh'ot, and the recent Oliphant upgrade by the South African army). Dunstan does provide some combat information, such as the 8th Hussars performance in the Korean War, a brief assessment of the 1967 war, and the amazing defensive stand by Israeli Centurions along the Golan Heights in the 1973 War. I wished the author would have described more of the combat performance of the Centurion, especially during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, where the Centurions dominated the battlefield against the T54/55, the T34/85, and the JS3s of the enemy Egyptian and Syrian forces. I have an older edition of Osprey, "The Centurion Tank in Battle" (written by Simon Dunstan) which does a great job of chronicling all this combat information. Also, Dunstan could have provided a table which describes a comparison of the armor penetration of guns such as the 17 pounder, 83 mm, and 105 mm, and the armor thickness of the various marks. It would be great if Osprey publishing could come out with a revised edition of "The Centurion in Battle" which would include all of this information. As usual, the colored plates and illustrations are great.

The Centurion is one of the most important and successful tanks ever, and this is a good book on it. It covers the development of this tank well. It makes a good companion to the author's earlier "The Centurion Tank in Battle", which covers better the combat career of the "Cent". The Osprey books pack a lot in a thin volume, and this one is no exception, though sometimes one wishes for a bit more. Another book on the Centurion which is probably worth checking out is "The Centurion Tank" by Bill Munro.