Recently discovered documents shed new light on the FV4005 Centaur tank,
Ihad the privilege of meeting Chris Price in January, the new director of The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset. I showed him the very large drawings of the FV4005 I had found.
On September 7, 1945, Soviet IS-3 tanks were seen for the first time at the Berlin victory parade. This was a big shock for the Allies. The anti-tank guns of the thencurrent fleet of Allied tanks could not penetrate the IS-3 tank’s thick armour plate at long range. The Fighting Vehicle 4005 Heavy Anti-tank S.P. (FV4005) was one of many projects under development to deal with the new Soviet threat. It was armed with a 183mm gun that could fire powerful HESH rounds that could knock out these new tanks.
During a visit to The Tank Museum’s archives, I asked to see documents they had on the FV4005. I was shocked to find they only had one sheet of paper with information on the vehicle in a box marked FV4005. There were some photographs in an album.
I also asked to see the boxes on other vehicles involved in the same project.
