Quote:
Originally Posted by JTullman
One of my favorite aspects of playing SP is researching battles and equipment before and after I play a scenario; however, one has me stumped.
Is there an 'expert' in Israeli tanks ranging from aprox. 1960-1970 that could give me a rundown of the Sh'ot tank, in particular the Sh'ot Meteor? According to the convoluted info that I've read it is a heavily modified Centurion (which flavor of the Centurion I have not been able to determine).
I'm confused as to what makes this tank so incredible. According to Wikipedia (a source I hate to use):
"Less than 100 Centurion tanks of the 7th Armor Brigade defeated the advance of some 500 Syrian T-55s and T-62s. The Sho't became emblematic of Israeli armour prowess."
I believe this is represented in the Egyptian armor scenario #4.
I use Avalon Hill games as research tools sometimes, the only reference to this tank in a game I have is in "IDF" a tank called the "Super Centurion" is depicted but its stats are not dramatically better then the T-54/55 so despite having similar weapons (main gun) I'm not entirely convinced that the Super Centurion is the same as the Sh'ot.
Specifically what characteristics make the Sh'ot Meteor different from the Sh'ot? Also, this tank seems to have incredible accuracy, what technology made this possible? Any other info would be useful.
Thanks for the input.
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I am not an expert on british and israeli tanks but I will note that the T-55 had a problem: the primary antitank ammunition was still the full bore AP rounds of the BR-412 series. These were simply not upt to the task of dealing effectively with the increasingly more armored western cold war tanks and I imagine that the Centurion, constantly up armored at almost each of the early version, was no exception. There was also an HEAT round of course wich could penetrate nearly everything but it was less accurate and available only in limited numbers for export: practically speaking an arab T-55 would carry maybe 4-5 of them, if that, the rest would still be BR-412B or such.
This however is just a technical issue: while I do not know the specifics a smaller, better trained/organized force beating off a much bigger one is hardly unheard off. Terrain, luck, circumstances etc can play big roles in the outcome.