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Centaur Dozer

The Royal Engineers and their Canadian counterparts had used armoured bulldozers (ordinary commercial machines covered in armour plate) since D-Day. These did a satisfactory job but were too slow and vulnerable to work with tanks. Thus it was agreed to convert some redundant Centaur Cruiser tanks into armoured bulldozers since they would be able to keep up with tanks during an advance.

The Centaur was a predecessor of the Cromwell with similar characteristics but a different engine (a Nuffield Liberty V12 instead of a Rolls Royce meteor). The conversion was carried out by the MG car company of Abingdon. It involved removing the turret, installing a winch in the fighting compartment, and plating over the turret aperture. An armoured lookout was created for the tank commander alongside the driver, and the bulldozer blade was fitted to a frame attached to the sides of the tank. The blade was raised and lowered by the winch via a small tripod jib.

Centaur Dozers entered service in the last months of World War 2. They were operated by the 87th Assault Dozer Squadron in the 6th Assault Regiment, Royal Engineers as part of the 79th Armoured Division. They were employed to clear paths for tanks through the rubble of bombed German cities. They were later used by the British Army during the Korean War and the Suez Crises of 1956.

Text from the information board at Bovington Tank Museum