MacCaulay
Banned
...I was reading up on the Yom Kippur War for a wargame I'm doing on New Year's Day, and I was able to glean some further information concerning a POD I pitched about a year ago.
Here's a passage from Chieftain Main Battle Tank: 1965-2003 by Simon Dunstan:
As I was reading The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich, I was able to glean some more information on where precisely these IDF Chieftain tanks would probably have been employed and how an alternate Israeli force structure would look with them in it:
Between the first prototypes of the Merkava in 1974 and the 1982 Lebanon War, the Israelis were able to field 180 tanks. So we can safely estimate a possible production time of 5 years starting in 1968 or so for the Israeli Chieftains. That gives us 60, or somewhere in the ballpark of 2 or possibly three battalions.
The tanks themselves had been tested and found to be like their British successors: more suited to the terrain in the Golan, which would mean that Centurions from the Barak Brigade, or perhaps the 82nd would be transferred into reserve and take the place of some of the Super Shermans that would engage Iraqi forces later in the war.
I've got more that I'm thinking of, but that's the bare bones right now.
Here's a passage from Chieftain Main Battle Tank: 1965-2003 by Simon Dunstan:
What struck me about this at first was the fact that the IDF would have had an indigenous tank production capability nearly 30 years before it did in OTL. It also would've propelled it a good generation ahead in tank design.In the same month [April 1966], a delegation from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrived in Britain to study the Chieftain. For years the IDF had been forced to acquire tanks from a wide variety of sources, be they East or West. As a result, the Israeli Armoured Corps was determined to produce its own battle tank, following a decision in February 1964, so as to ensure a continuity of supply. At first the Israelis wished to assemble the French AMX-30 tank in Israel as, hitherto, the French had been the most reliable supplier of weapons to Israel from the West. The intention was for Israelis to assemble the chassis locally with the turrets being imported from France. By this time the Centurion was in widespread service with the IDF and the Israeli Armoured Corps, under the dynamic leadership of Major General Israel Tal, was more inclined to the British school of tank design rather than the French belief in high mobility at the expense of armour protection. After protracted discussions, while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dithered for fear of offending Arab opinion, the British agreed to sell Chieftain to the IDF including setting up a production line in Israel. Initially, the the tanks would be assembled in Israel from kits supplied from Britain before full production was undertaken in the country. In return, the Israelis agreed to share development costs and provide their particular expertise in operating tanks in desert conditions.
As I was reading The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich, I was able to glean some more information on where precisely these IDF Chieftain tanks would probably have been employed and how an alternate Israeli force structure would look with them in it:
Between the first prototypes of the Merkava in 1974 and the 1982 Lebanon War, the Israelis were able to field 180 tanks. So we can safely estimate a possible production time of 5 years starting in 1968 or so for the Israeli Chieftains. That gives us 60, or somewhere in the ballpark of 2 or possibly three battalions.
The tanks themselves had been tested and found to be like their British successors: more suited to the terrain in the Golan, which would mean that Centurions from the Barak Brigade, or perhaps the 82nd would be transferred into reserve and take the place of some of the Super Shermans that would engage Iraqi forces later in the war.
I've got more that I'm thinking of, but that's the bare bones right now.