Centurion Arrives in BC

[Aide Memoire]

Originally Posted by rob love

Or could it have been a British used Centurion rescued from being a target in Wainwright or Suffield. Did the British operate in those two locations in the 70s (certainly they did in Suffield)? We certainly did see British supplied armour on the ranges throughout the 80s and onwards. And we have seen some of that make it's way out as monuments, often set up to represent Canadian service.

Something just came up on the 'Canadian Military Vehicles' Facebook group which made this worth revisiting. The Centurion that was owned by Crown Surplus made its way into the Jacques Littlefield collection, got auctioned a few years ago, and is now on its way to the Pima Air and Space Collection where they're apparently starting a ground combat vehicle grouping.

Paraphrasing Ken Raychert, the Crown Surplus Centurion was apparently an ex-Fort Garry Horse tank which wound up in a group of 16 ex-CDN Centurions at Levy Auto Parts, which were then sold to the Brits to use as hard targets at Suffield. The Crown Surplus tank, supposedly 53-81228, was the only one sold privately by Levy - with the rest off to the ranges.

If that's all true - Canadian tanks were on the ranges at Suffield - where the one we have here in Aldergrove is supposed to have come from - so it might be one of the 16 that Levy had.

** I say 'supposedly 53-81228' because that CAR is duplicated on a Centurion displayed at CFB Kingston for some reason.