Here is a question that has always puzzled me. Why have British Tanks during and after WW2 begun with the letter C. Apart from the Matilda and Valentine tanks, the rest have begun with the letter C.
Scott

Intresting theory Scott - But there was the Tetrach tank. Maybe you might be onto something. So using this what do we make of Lend lease equipment with 's'........ Staghound, Stuart, Sherman, but what about the Grant?
SPs we have Archer, Achilles, Wolverine, - oh well......

I guess it was just a coincidence

Chris

The British entered WW2 with two types of tank, the Infantry Tank such as Valentine & matilda. They also had the Cruiser tanks such as the A9-13, Crusader , Covenanter etc. The Infantry tanks did not seem to have a convention but the last Infantry tank was the Churchill.
The Cruisers were named with letters starting with C culminating in the Comet & Centurion. The Brits adopted the Universal/MBT from ww2 and kept with the naming convention.
Interestingly the US continued with the British practice of naming its own MBTs after famous generals, remembering the Brits gave the ww2 US tanks their names that we know them as.
Cheers
Al

There is a similar pattern with British light armoured vehicles and APC's having names starting with "S" (with a notable recent exception being the Warrior) eg. Saracen, Saladin, Scimitar, Scorpion, Spartan and so on.

The answer is buried in the mists of time, but here's my take.

Generally British equipment names have been allocated under some sort of system, which might change from time to time.

Naming *individual* machines is a long-standing tradition - ships, mail coaches, railway locomaotives and even some railway passenger cars were given individual names usually following a system of some sort . For example locomotives might be name after Kings or Duchesses or race horses or Stars (usually the sort you see on a clear night not the ones on on MTV, though maybe there was a loco called Sarah Siddons and also a Jenny Lind)

The Royal Navy named the ships rather than the design and just used names they had always used usually following sone sort of system (e.g Leander, Ajax and Achilles were all of the same class) and then came up with new systems when they found they had run out of names (Flower Class corvettes, Hunt Class destroyers and so on)

Aircraft types also followed a general system but the system used changed from time to time - fighters used names of birds names in the twenties, ones beginning with "F" (like Fury) for a brief time in the thirties which gave way to alliteration with the makers name - Gauntlet, Gladiator Hurricane and Spitfire.

When tank designs began to be named rather than just have numbers like Medium Mark II** or A-13, Cruiser Tanks were given names beginning with "C" (Covenanter, Crusader, Centaur, Cromwell, Comet.) -American built tanks got names for US Generals (Stuart, Grant, Lee and of course Sherman).

By the time the Centurion came along the Cruiser idea had really given way to the MBT, but by that time the current infantry tank design to also had a "C" name. - Churchill.

They haven't yet run out of suitable names beginning with C so the 1940s naming system is still in use. I would imagine when they decide it's time for a change or just run out of suitable names beginning with C the system will change again (Would you call your new design of MBT "Colander"?)

Aidrian

Peter Brown's articles on early war British tanks in MM revealed that some of the cruisers (A10 and A13) were going to be issued with snake's names when it was decided to use names instead of the number system then in use.

David

Don't forget, these tanks were American named after Civil War Generals, except the Pershing.
But its a mystery about the Abrhams, I've never heard of a General Abrhams.
Scott

Scott, if it's Abrams your thinking of he was a tank commander during WWII and commanded armor units after the war.

Creighton Abrams to be exact. more info here

The Brits have it all over us in naming weapons. What would you rather sail on, the Audacious or the Pennsylvania? Then you've got the American tanks getting Civil War American generals names, and SP guns with pulpits getting ecclesiastical ones (Bishop, Priest, Sexton.) Pop the top off a Ram tank, make it a troop carrier, and call it a "Kangaroo." Cheeky monkeys.

That's a lot better than M3, M4, M-36... yawn. Of course, now we've overcompensated with the ridiculously named "Stryker." It sounds like a satire. That would have been a good name for the assault RV in "Meatballs."

And yes, the Brits tend towards alliteration. The Cruiser tanks got "C" names, and I suspect the Archer and Achilles were for "anti-tank."