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Hobby Master 1/72 Centurion Mk5 IDF Shot 10th Armor Brigade Samaria West Bank Israel 1967 Tank Model (HG3507)


It wasn't long after the country of Israel was established in 1948 that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) realized the importance of armored forces. The IDF bought any surplus WWII armor they could acquire and ended up with a very mixed inventory. Israels Arab neighbors were acquiring Soviet made T-54/55s that were superior to anything the IDF had. In 1959 the solution was to obtain the British built Centurion Mk.II that had thicker armor and offered better protection. This also allowed for the upgrade to a larger gun replacing the British 20 Pounder (83.4mm) with the British L7 105mm gun. The IDF also replaced the Commander?s 7.62mm machine gun with the U.S. built 12.7mm M2 machine gun. The Israeli?s named the modified tank the Sh'ot (whip) and when the Six Day War started in June 1967 the IDF had 385 Centurions tanks and 294 of them were the Sh'ot. During the Six Day War the IDF tanks played a major role and coordinating with other units the IDF pushed to the East Bank of the Suez and gained control of the Sinai Peninsula within 3 days. During the war Israel captured 30 of the 44 Centurion tanks owned by Jordan.
The French military established a base at Dien Bien Phu Vietnam to act as an offensive base. From here they could launch attacks on the Viet Minh in neighboring areas or use it as a defensive base that could destroy the attacking enemy using the large amount of firepower they had assembled. As part of the French offensive weaponry they flew 10 M24 tanks to the base. The French didn't possess an aircraft capable of lifting a fully assembled M24 so each tank was disassembled into 180 parts. Each tank required 8 aircraft to transfer it to the front line. On January 15, 1954 all 10 tanks were reassembled and on January 20th they were divided into 3 platoons each with 3 tanks and one HQ tank for Squadron Commander Capitaine Yves Hervou?t. The squadron was named Escadron de Marche du 1er Regiment de Chasseurs a Cheval. Each tank was named after cities, locations or battles and was painted in large white letters on the sides of the turret. These names were used as radio call signs and the crews referred to the M24 as Bison and the Viet Minh called them Oxen. The French had strong points around Dien Bien Phu and each one was named after a woman. From these points they would strike out at enemy placements in the hillside and rout them but on March 13, 1954 the tables began to turn. The Viet Minh launched a massive artillery barrage from the surrounding hills that made the French base an easy target. After several hours of shelling, wave after wave of foot soldiers began swarming the strong points. The first point fell that night with the second falling a day and a half later. The M24's were used extensively to halt the advance but this was only briefly effective. As more and more ground was lost the tanks became more exposed to enemy artillery fire. The tank Douaumont and one other suffered severe hits killing several crew members. The damage left the tanks immobile but they could continue to be used as pillboxes. Through each see-saw battle each tank fired an average of 60 to 100 shells and when the Viet Minh finally succeeded in over running Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954 each tank had fired an average of 1500 shells. The Bison had performed admirably with only 3 breaking down due to problems with the recoil mechanism caused by such heavy and almost continuous use. Before the enemy completed their capture of the base the M24 crews destroyed what was left so they couldn?t be used again. During its time in service with the French Military they had received 1254 M24s, the largest number for any foreign country.
Hobby Master 1/72 Centurion Mk5 IDF Shot 10th Armor Brigade Samaria West Bank Israel 1967 Tank Model (HG3507)
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Price: £16.99
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