Centurions modified as armoured personnel carriers were used in Gaza, the West Bank and on the Lebanese border. Israel used Centurions in the 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and during the 19 invasions of Lebanon. The Centurion later served in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, where it fought against US-supplied M47 and M48 Patton tanks and it served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in Vietnam. It first entered combat with the British Army in the Korean War in 1950, in support of the UN forces. Contentsĭevelopment of the tank began in 1943 and manufacture of the Centurion began in January 1945, six prototypes arriving in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945.

The chassis was also adapted for several other roles, and these have remained in service to this day. It is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat in the front lines into the 1980s. The Centurion, introduced in 1945, was the primary British main battle tank of the post-Second World War period.

Modernized centurion tank