I read the Osprey book on the Centurion tank, and it mentioned ho British Centurion tanks from the Berlin Brigade were painted the same olive drab color as American tanks of the time. Not an error?

Also, which Centurion types were in the BB at the time?

IIRC, they were still painted the standard bronze green/black paint scheme before the officer commanding the 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards tank squadron in Berlin decided in 1982 that it made the tanks stand out too much and took a page from the naval 'dazzle' camouflage to create the urban camo the Berlin Brigade became known for, so they wouldn't have been OD, although given dust and other material on the vehicles from exercises, it might have been hard to tell in photos.

Thanks for the heads up. When you think about it, I couldn't imagine why British tanks would be given American colors, so I had to be sure.

Is that Dunstan's book? Simon is a big Cent enthusiast so I'd imagine that if he made such a statement, it is supported by some evidence. Of course even if it was done once (parade?), that doesn't mean it was continued for a prolonged period.

Does the book state the period in which this applied? If you can provide s bit more info (my copy is in storage), I can try asking him.

Tom,

British Army vehicles were painted in Deep Bronze Green from around 1955 onwards; this was a high gloss colour. Of course repainting a whole army would take some time and it is possible that some vehicles laboured on (in the British Army as a whole) in the previous SCC colour of a matt green. I am pretty sure that BAOR vehicles would take priority delivery of the new paint due to that theatre being deemed of high importance, and by the early 60s - the period depicted in the illustration in the Osprey book - Centurions would, or should, be in Bronze Green. However, technically the Berlin Brigade and its Armoured Squadron are not part of BAOR, although the Squadrons often rotated through from their parent regiments in BAOR.

The Berlin Brigade was able to equip itself with a variety of vehicles not normally seen in British Army service (not least as it had its own budget)such as Unimogs used by the Infantry battalions, seen in Bronze Green, VW minibuses, VW Beetles and even the Munga field cars, used by, amongst others the Royal Military police and finished in gloss black.

What I'm getting at is, it's not inconceivable that the Squadron Commander, in the interests of presenting a common finish, and more than aware of the military/political requirement to present a united front, would consider that he could achieve this by adopting a US Olive Drab finish; such a matt finish wouldn't, I'd have thought, be that different either from the paint scheme used on French vehicles, hence the 3 Allied contributing nations would all look similar and of course, much smarter.

It may be of course, that the Osprey book is merely reiterating the information in the earlier publication of Armour in Profile No 23 "Centurion 5", which almost uses the same wording in its centrefold colour-spread: "The American olive drab finish is peculiar to British tanks serving in Berlin".

The Osprey book also emphasises the immaculate finish and the extra bullsh*t (in British Army terms)of red and white painted antennae, and the mantlet covers painted black; I suspect the latter finish was very much a Royal Tank Regiment initiative as it corresponded (at the time) to their custom of polishing their personal equipment black, and of course, the black beret and other uniform distinctions.

Such efforts at smartness were all typical of the Berlin Brigade's representational requirement to impress the Soviets.

Both publications illustrate tanks in August 1961 when the Berlin Wall was erected and the Allied forces were placed on high alert, including of course the much publicised confrontation with US and Soviet forces at Checkpoint Charlie.

So, it follows that the Centurions back then of the Armoured Squadron in Berlin were conceivably painted in a US paint finish; it must be noted that the Squadron Commander would have had to obtain the endorsement of Brigade HQ to achieve this, as indeed, did the then Major (later Brigadier) Daukes when he devised the famous camouflage scheme later in the 80s.

I'm well aware that this is all a bit long-winded and still does not provide definite proof, and that you may already know a lot of this.

It's also worth bearing in mind that with a change of Commander, one unit's ideas could be very quickly dismissed by the replacement unit and a reversion to Bronze Green would have occurred in very short order!

Lastly, at that time I suspect that the Centurion tank types were those equipped with the 20 Pounder, with and without fume extractors, but I'm not enough of a Centurion expert to confirm that. I can't quite remember when Centurions were upgraded to the 105mm gun, but priority for that would have been given to the tanks in the BAOR-based regiments in West Germany, not those based in Berlin.

Assuming you've managed to wade through all this, I hope it helps!

Brian