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Australian Mk5/1 Centurion in Vietnam

Introduction

The British Centurion is acknowledged as one of the best tank designs since the tracked beasts first took to the battlefield almost a century ago ... the “Cent” may have just missed World War II, but for the following 50 years it saw plenty of action in all parts of the world.

For decades this significant tank design was all but ignored by the major model manufacturers and us modellers had to make do with the Tamiya Mk 3, which was essentially a motorised toy with all its hatches moulded shut. The kit’s dimensions were impossible to correct, the track had no detail on the inner surface, and after a lot of work the best you could ever hope to end up with was a representation, but by no means a replica.

Then in 2006 came a bolt from the blue – especially for us Australian modellers! Taiwanese manufacturer AFV Club released their epoch making Centurion Royal Australian Armoured Corps Mk 5/1 Vietnam version. Not only was this kit dimensionally accurate with a host of useful spares, but AFV announced that more variants were on the way! I had built, or should I say wrestled with, some Aussie Cents using the Tamiya kit, so I naturally raced out and bought the new AFV offering, and then a few more for good measure! The wait had been long, but well worth it ... accuracy was spot one, the moulding superb, and it was an Australian subject!

THE VERY DIABOLICAL

Over the years I had amassed a huge reference file on Australian Centurions waiting for the day a decent kit would finally come on to the market. I had climbed over and photographed dozens of the real vehicles, but it was a Kodachrome slide shown to me by a Lieutenant Colonel who had served in Vietnam which I copied when I was a young(er) infantry soldier in 1991 that sowed a seed for a future modelling project. The picture was of “The Very Diabolical” – which was Digger slang for the dreaded venereal disease (VD) – and in the ensuing years more pictures of the tank found me. I subsequently verified The Very Diabolical was callsign 4 Charlie (4C) serving with 4 Troop of C Squadron of the 1st Armoured Regiment in Vietnam 1970-71. Apart from the nickname on the side of the barrel, what set the tank apart – and gave clues to its identity in photographs from other angles – was the apparently unique and distinctive camouflage pattern on the turret bins. I was later to discover the tank had a square Troop logo of a red and white Centurion helmet and a cartoon cockatoo painted on the rear of the long range fuel tank.

THE PROJECT KICKS OFF

If I had any sense, I would have just built the AFV Club Cent from the box and just enjoyed it ... but I don’t have much sense, and I just had to model The Very Diabolical. The AFV Club kit very accurately depicts a “factory fresh” Australian Centurion Mk 5/1 and other variants can be built from parts in the box. AFV Club obviously had other Centurions on the drawing board when the Australian version was released and hence the design is very modular. But in reality, only one set of markings – callsign Three One Bravo (31B) in 1968, number 169066 – can be applied to the kit if it is built out of the box, and all of the markings lack the red over yellow 1st Armoured Regiment tactical sign to be applied to the front and rear of the vehicle and a second Army Registered Number (ARN) for the long range fuel tank. The aftermarket companies here in Australia were quick to offer updates for the kit, and supplementary decals sheets were produced by Mousehouse and Firestorm almost within days of it becoming available.

AUSSIE EVOLUTION

Just as few battle plans survive contact with the enemy, so it is that most military vehicles end up serving in scenarios they were never designed for and inevitably require modification. The Australian tanks that were landed near Baria in March 1968 were essentially the same as those serving NATO in West Berlin – complete with smoke dischargers, headlights and skirt armour. The side skirts were removed after only a few outings because they compacted mud and vegetation around the suspension, causing idler wheels to shatter and distorting the fluted sheet metal guards ... often causing the hull bins to break open and spill out their contents. Nature also took its course with the headlights and smoke dischargers, which were regularly ripped off by jungle vegetation and repair crews worked overtime while fighting a losing battle to re-fit the components. By the time The Very Diabolical was landed in Vietnam in 1970, the tanks had essentially evolved into a uniquely Australian variant of the Centurion – the track guards had been replaced with stout sheets of 5/16 steel plate held in place with hefty brackets, the sides of the hull bins were reinforced with sections of American “U” picket or angle iron to make them resistant to distortion, an PRC 25 backpack radio was installed in the turret’s .30 calibre ammunition rack for communicating with the infantry, the smoke projectors were no longer fitted, clusters of cut down star pickets were welded to the front guards and exhaust shrouds as mud scrapers for the crews’ boots and plastic water jerries were carried on the rear deck to replenish the coolant system in the event of an engine change in the field. Such was the demand for spare parts that they were flown in direct from Britain and they were often fitted still painted in the NATO standard gloss deep bronze green. By 1970 unofficial insignia and often risqué names on the side of the gun and the rear of the long range fuel tank were commonly seen.