Regards Peter cadge

The Lancer’s Museum website no longer refers to ARN 169026 and a photo of its Centurion shows that it is ARN 169126 (as Col said was the case, above). Sorry about the confusion.

Regards, Bruce

On 13 Nov 09, the gunner from the tank at the time, the then Trooper Kim Bayly, completed a lengthly interview at the AWM. He comments graphically about the impact he felt through the traverse handwheel when the RPG round exploded against the barrel. The tank was between two trees when this happened and the driver was wounded, this meant the tank gun couldn’t be traversed, either to engage the enemy bunker or to allow access to the driver from inside the tank. Being very tall made it ever more difficult for Kim to reach him…but he tried frantically.

The driver, the then Trooper Peter Cadge, was Mentioned in Dispatches for his bravery and selflessness. When help got to him from outside, he was endeavouring, despite his very bad wounds and enemy fire, to get up onto the turret to rescue the other crew members. (With the canvas mantlet cover above him alight, he thought that the tank was on fire and the crew trapped.)

When the enemy fired an RPG at Peter and those helping him down from the tank, the round struck the muzzle of the tank alongside (luckily for those on the ground). The impact bent the end of the tank barrel to the side, blocking the bore. The quick thinking crew commander loaded a solid shot round and blasted off the end of his barrel…he was then able to continue to engage the enemy. This barrel is displayed in the Vietnam Gallery at the AWM.

Bruce

Thanks for taking on the corrections. In terms of ‘value-adding’ re the subject, blog readers may be interested to know that the RPG round which struck the barrel penetrated about 80mm into the metal. It would have ‘holed’ the bore if the jet had travelled in a straight line. The fact that it took circular path meant that the tank gun was still able to be used. (The strike was directly above the driver’s compartment, so the replacement driver was ‘closed down’ in case the forces in the barrel caused it to rupture when fired.) The section of the barrel which was hit is now mounted on a stand at 1st Armoured Regiment’s barracks in Darwin.

Interestingly, one of the captions in the Vietnam Gallery states that Centurions were “nearly impervious to most enemy weapons”. This is very misleading, because the only weapons the Centurion’s armour was impervious to were small arms (and a Centurion wouldn’t be a tank if this wasn’t the case). In terms of RPGs…the RPG 2 can penetrate 180mm of armour and the RPG 7, 320mm. The front of the Centurion turret is 152mm thick and the sides of the turret, 89mm. Of course, given that the hull floor is only 17mm thick, it is easy to see why the enemy were able to employ mines so effectively…Centurions were certainly not impervious to them.

Cheers, Bruce