Ever wonder what it looks like inside the Chieftain Tank? 👀 Join Richard for another episode of ‘Inside the Tanks’ as he goes through the inner works of this absolute machine! Which tank position did you find most interesting? Let us know in the comments ⬇
0:00 Intro
1:35 Chieftain Prototype and Tank Parts
4:26 Chieftain Turret
6:51 Commander’s Position
8:40 Gunner’s Position
10:10 Loader’s Position
13:59 Chieftain Engine & Gear Box
15:11 Driver’s Cab Position
16:53 Outro
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Enjoyed this vid. Served for 16years and never had the chance of a "Cabby." The sound is immense and is never forgotten. Beasts they were and remain to this day.
My No.1 Tank, saw alot of them towed by other Chiefs or Centurion ARV or standing around with broken engines on the big Parking lot in front of our house waiting for ANTAR`s. as a kid i was often in Chieftains when they came in our Region during the big autumn manouvres in early 70s One day i came from school and walked thru the narrow inner city back home, a Chieftain Comp. couldnt pass a MLC70 or 80 Bridge in Uslar because they made a new Asphalt/Tar layer so the Tanks had to find another way to the railway Station in Bodenfelde, they drove thru the inner city of Uslar and devastated Headstones, Walkways while i was standing one Meter away, the engine sound and the vibrations WHOW, it was the first time i saw Chieftains instead of Centurions, it ignited my love for this big and Heavy Beast. Then they drove back in the direction the came from, i run home fast as i could jumped on my bicycle and followed the Track marks on the road, in Solingen village they left the Road and drove via dirtways around the City, found a Cent ARV with a broken Chief in tow in a total destroyed narrow 90 degree Tractorway bent, stayed with them until a Stalwart arrived with Jerrycans , they refueld the Cent ARV and moved on i followed them until i found the whole Company at the Heights of the eastern Weser Valley near Wiensen. Spoke with the Crews and played inside the Tanks, one Soldier gave me the his Headset and mic and i spoke from the Turret position with the Driver, he told me they are a Tank unit from Ulster/NI. All Tanks had Names with B on the Side (maybe a B Comp.) even after 50 Years i remember the names of two tanks, BELFAST and BRIGADIER GERARD Then they removed the Searchlight box on all Tanks stored it on the engine Decks and moved to the Railwaystation in Bodenfelde, i stayed until they loaded all tanks on railway Flatcars. The coming years the Cents disappeared ( exception belgium or Dutch?) and during the Manouvres we had more and more Chieftain Units during the Manouvres.
I’m not a tank guy and I don’t really know why I clicked on this video but I have to comment on the PERFECT AUDIO. I only wish you could teach everyone how it’s done.
Being the owner of a Triumph Spitfire I perfectly understand the reliability issues with the British Leyland engine
I know what you mean, my Dad had a Leyland Ital in the early 80s that went through 3 engines in about 2 years!
The first time I wielded a wrench in anger was on the engine of a TR-4 that belonged to a friend of my parents.....LOTS of wrenching required on that little gem.
September, 2023. Several sources say the entire UK military has less then 60 Operational tanks.
and what does that have to do with anything?@@raywhitehead730
LUCAS
1969 I completed a Chieftain drivers course and came top of the course ! Yahoo ... the 69 version I drove was nothing like the one you are showing here. So this was very informative. Thanks. - I do remember making many visits to the museum and fancy taking another look.
It's nice seeing Richard presenting videos again! Nick's stuff is also really good, but both presenters have their unique styles that work really well.
Lol hes awful
@@ganndeber1621How so?
He is a talking cardboard box. He should have stayed in the chuckle brothers. tedious beyond words@@iangascoigne8231
I see my reply to you has been removed. He is a talking cardboard box, tedious and boring@@iangascoigne8231
-Every time I answer you it gets removed@@iangascoigne8231
The brewing facilities 🍵 😂
As an apprentice, I saw the first Chieftain leave our workshops. The reason the engine was unreliable was that BMC built it and not Rolls-Royce. The engines I helped rebuild for the Sha of Iran's tanks were very reliable, one did 2500 miles in the desert and the whole engine bay was solid sand when the louvres were lifted. Later I also ran the CAD section in the Design Office and did the design of the additional armour around the complex curves of the turret front. I hardly ever saw John Brewer, nice chap though. The establishment where all military vehicles were designed has grass growing in its car park. It will always be the F.V.R.D.E. to me. Germany is building the Challenger 3. Bl**dy ell.
Do you happen to remember more exact dates about when first one was taken in service, and each upgrade dates done?
What about the Leyland Red painted blocks ?
It was a Leyland L60 engine. It had nothing to do with RR
@@ganndeber1621 Leyland Bus Engine
"The reason it was unreliable is because BMC built it" sad but true. They couldn't even put a Marina together right. How they were expected to design and manufacture such an ambitious project is beyond me.
Done my gunnery on chieftain. 1986 ... Absolute beast.
Brings back memory's when in the 70s I was a driver in chieftains, it was a great tanks, apart from the engine...
The amount and diversity and range of technology here is amazing. Just a few countries away, some people are struggling to build a mud hut with a grass roof.
As a child of the 70's, word association with "tank" would only have got the reply "Chieftan".
Brilliant video. I did a tank driving day for my 40th Birthday and drove a Chieftain. As a kid my favourite toy was a die cast model of a Chieftain that fired match sticks 😂
The Dinky one?
@@thewomble1509 Yes
@@paulhills1967 Me too.
My dad was reme and he brought me that tank back from a German toy shop, and loads of conkers 😅🇬🇧
I had a saladin which fired matches.....would have preffered a chueftain mind
OMG! What a blast from the past. I served as an electronics technician in the REME and was attached to 2RTR in the 1970s and learned to love these beasts. The power pack certainly was bit of a dog but the electronics were a dream and very reliable - so much so that I spent most of my time with a spanner in my hand helping the overworked VMs :)
Ah a Voom ECE! Yes no matter what rent we were in we all seemed to be Vooms at some point!
15:17 I was on every mark of Chieftain from Mk2 to Mk11 and this is the best video I have seen about the vehicle. I struggled to find fault and to be fair after all these years my memory is probably not perfect! I was a driver during the fanbelt issue and still don't know the why's & where's of it. We did get very good at changing them! It would be good to see an extended version covering different marks because the turret in particular was transformed by the end. Excellent video, more of these please!
Re multifuel engine : _sensibly all nations ignored this .. except Britain_ 😵💫
Woe be the loader who forgot to place the boiling vessel in a safe spot before the main gun fires.
Best thing about FV 4201 ..Its noise.Worked with the RSDG in 86 on ranges, Donkey motors plus big bang that try's to implode your windscreen? 12 sqn RCT suppling those guys with BIG bullets.
Lovely to drive and very fast x REME here
t was "the most powerful tank in the world" for a time. All but the engine was easy to maintain. A near perfect tank, but for Leyland , and the failed British motor works of that era. Well done , and accurate recording.
As a Tiffy with C Squadron of the Blues and Royals and The Lifeguards, I only had to work on Chieftain on pre Canada and BATUS training. Lost a lot of sleep. But on one Med Man I did manage to average 12 out of 14 tanks available for the BATUS exercise, but it wasn't easy. Gearbox L Blocks and brake M type pumps were the main issue for me and my team. Happy days!!!! LOL
Served on both Cents and Chiefs, a Mk 3S. Gun was good, don't ever remember storing ammo lose in the turret though. Do remember on far too many occasions the cry "Still Rammer Out". Loading those bloody vent tubes by hand was a pig as loader I hated that. Also think we still had the ranging .50 rather than the laser range finder, as a gunner I loved that. Give me a Cent any day, complete with aux jenny and a nice petrol engine so one could sleep on the back deck comfortably even when the tank was in deep snow or, get dry sitting on the gear box 🙂
Ammunition was never stored on turret floor apart from under the gun where projectile housing was, remember it was 2 piece ammunition so extra rounds would not be stored as there was no room for extra bag charges.
@@bryancooper953 You have me there I can't recall ammo, I presume you mean HESH and SABOT, ever being stored under the main armament. As I remember the bag charges, both half and full were stored in bins round the turret on the loaders side in a Chief. One the Cent there was a 20 round or so stroage bin low down up by the driver, just by the battery box as well as side storage but certainly nothing stored under the 105, for one thing the 'bread' bin would have been in the way, certainly on a 12.
I really appreciate the close up shots of the control panels etc! I love seeing those.
A tank is not a proper tank unless you can brew a cup of tea in it.
Thank you mr chieftain! I remember meeting you when I was a 21 year old mil sim enthusiast … who didn’t know anything on a wargame event… nowadays I know little I knew… but still you were very nice to us… thank you! Damn I wish I was more knowledgeable back then and could have another talk with you sir!
Amazing. The interior resembles an early space capsule.
It does in a way and it is, albeit in terrestrial form!
Thanks, brought back some memories.
Wonderful stuff. Thanks so much for explaining and sharing your experience and memories. Top stuff!!
Was involved with these at Vickers in mid 60's. Looked amazing and always created a stir when out on the road.
So the engine was your fault! Only kidding, there should have been an alternative diesel engine in parallel development. Capable of being swapped if the multifuel proved unworkable. The Chieftain may then have been a far greater export success and we would likely still have a tank manufacturing plant on Tyneside, to build the Challenger replacement. As it was, we played right into the Germans hands and gifted them zero competition for Leo 2.
@@gusgone4527 it was not only due to the engine that past chieftain the UK didnt export any MBT´s. Chieftains combat performence was.... a bit lacking.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 It's combat performance was hindered by the engine reliability. Other than that, it was as good as anything else and better than the towering M60. In the NATO role which was almost always going to be defensive, trading land for time. It would have smashed Soviet armour at a ratio of 10:1 from hull down positions.
@@gusgone4527 and that is bullshit. as we have seen in iran, the iranians lost about 6 tanks for every destroyed T-55, T-62 or T-72. The iranians lost 700 of 900 chieftains in the war. Both armies were not "NATO Quality" but quite bad in respect to training etc. Both sides were using equipment of about the same time period. Irak was using primarily sovjet equipment, iran NATO equipment. Chieftains armor protection was not resilient enough against sovjet 70´s HEAT and APFSDS ammunition. for 115mm and 125mm guns. Chieftain was extremely unreliable, tactical and strategic top speeds are lower than contemporary equipment like Leopard 1 from NATO and lower than contemporary sovjet equipment. Meaning the handfull of chieftains in the BAOR would have dragged beind the much more mobile german, dutch and danish divisions and gotten slaughtered. *And the Kuwaitis lost tanks in a similar ratio. Irak lost about 120 armored vehicles (including tanks but primarily ifv´s etc) and the kuwaitis 250 tanks (chieftains) and around 800 ifv´s etc. And the kuwaitis also had well trained armed forces
@@zhufortheimpaler4041Like a lot of other stuff that Britain produced it was more than likely no better or worse than the competition…poor marketing 😮
Many thanks Richard especially for your dedication and service !
Great tour of the Chieftain, it awoke many (mainly) happy memories for me. Great stuff!
One of the reasons Chieftain was always so popular was because of the boiling vessel. The main reason was that when the engine broke, the crew could StillBrew.......................I'll get me coat
I see what you did there.........
I see what you did there!
I see what you did there
Love the thorough inside view thanks!
Out-fricken-standing!!! :D
Saw one of these at a firing range in northern Germany in 1977 but i don't remember it having a laser sight I'm sure it still had a ranging gun mounted with the main gun.
You can fell in every word, he loves that tank.
Well filmed and sound recorded. Very informative!
Awsome vid on a tank yes a problamatic engine but fixed later had a good service life. I'm glad the Battle of the Bridges was mentioned not many people know about this battle and proved that the Chiertain could do its job well in the design of being a tank for defence.
on the other hand the battle of the bridges showed the limitations of chieftain. of 80 Chieftains of the brigade, only 35 even managed to leave barracks grounds due to high levels of mechanical failures. Loss ratios of Chieftains in Combat also tell a bitter story. During the Iran-Irak war, Iran lost almost 70% of its chieftains in combat to enemy fire (of almost 900, close to 700 were destroyed/captured). The armore proved to be mostly irrelevant for T-62´s 115mm APFSDS on medium range and basicly non existant for T-72´s 125mm APFSDS on all ranges. Also the armor provided inadequate (none) protection against 100mm, 115mm and 125mm HEAT rounds, wich could penetrate the armor on all combat ranges. Btw in the battle of the bridges the Irakis lost 30 armored vehicles (IFV´s, MBT´s etc) according to kuwaiti claims. In the total invasion of Kuwait, Irak lost a total of 120 armored vehicles, while the kuwaitis lost about 250 MBT´s (almost 95% of the tank force) and another 800 armored vehicles.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041is that correct? They didn’t have crews and we’re not on alert……..
@@robertpatrick3350 they did have crews for every vehicle. yes the failure rate of Chieftain in combat is around 35%.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 I don't really think you can draw anything of meaning for vehicle statistics from Iran-Iraq when Iran had just purged basically everyone who knew how to war from their officer corps. You could put a squadron of M1s into WW2 and it would be lost in a week if crewed and commanded by what they had left.
@@julianturberfield7101 well the same repeated in Kuwait a few years later. And would you say the Kuwaiti army of 1990 was a bunch of incompetent and untrained idiots? No. They were a well trained and led force, even though it was small. They lost more than 90% of their chieftains against iraki forces or due to mechanical breakdowns in the initial phase of the war
Amazing. The interior resembles an early space capsule.. Amazing. The interior resembles an early space capsule..
What an amazing amount of technology from the 1960's in one package.
To be fair to the Chieftan, it was designed for Northern European defence for the BAOR and and as such mobility was its least important feature. It was meant to fight from prepared Hull down fighting positions, to stop an invading Soviet force. And even then due to the sheer size of the Soviet armoured and infantry units it was expected to have been overrun. If I remember correctly if a Soviet invasion could not be stopped within the first 8 hours then NATO was committed to a first strike nuclear use of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons.
Served in R.E.M.E and started working on the Chieftain in 1968 in Bordon. Then went to Fallingbostel in Germany and repaired them for 4 years. Brilliant but dirty work.
The detail in WoT is so good that if the Boiling-Vessel is damaged the entire crew is knocked out of action.
Superb presentation
This guy knows this tank well
Excellent & informative video! I'm amazed at the complexity & "component layout density" of tank turret interiors, as shown with this Cheiftain tank. There appears to be very little unused space in the turret, but the turret interior components (the main components & contols for fire control, at least) had to be designed & optimally placed for convenient use & access by the different crew members. I imagine the turret interior component layout for a tank is an evolutionary process, & rather a nightmare for designers & engineers.
the Chieftain was fairly well armored, but it lacked composite armor (at least until Stillbrew, although it wasn't exported to foreign users), which for example both the T-64 and the later T-72 had. then again against Iraqis with subpar ammunition (all-steel APFSDS like 3BM9 and 3BM17 or at best 3BM15, which are all more or less inferior even to the Chieftain's APDS) that probably didn't matter all that much and early composite armor was mainly intended for defense against shaped charges anyway. I mean the earlier composite materials were probably worse against sabot rounds than plain RHA of equivalent thickness, but they were also significantly lighter, and any possible advantage they had against sabot came more from the spacing between the outer and inner RHA plates rather than the composite material itself. the gun was great for its time, but smoothbores have since clearly surpassed it in terms of muzzle velocity, which became a problem for rifled barrels. what the tank really lacked was mobility due to the problematic engine, but I would also say that Jordan was especially lucky, when they got the Chieftains meant for Iran with a lot more powerful and reliable engine that was used in the Challenger 1 and an upgraded version is still in use with the Challenger 2 as well as a further upgraded version will most likely continue to see use in the Challenger 3.
the inferior 115mm and 125mm apfsds were able to penetrate chieftains armor on long range (2000m), while chieftian had to close in to below 900m for a killshot on a T-72A
I remember being on exercise in BAOR when a chieftain put it's barrel through a house after crossing a bridge the convoy was stopped for hours gave us loads of gonk time in our 432's waiting for it be removed from the house
BVs are top notch !
Thanks for that Richard. Just watching the video, I could smell panzer! Been a while since we were at Junior Bleeders! Best regards, Paul Booth.
Great to see Richard again 👍👍👍
I reversed a brand new one off a transporter, drove 100 yards to the tank park, and the engine seized in the gateway. Spent some hours helping REME fit a new powerpack.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Your Burco hasn't melted it's pins, Amazing!
My cousin was in American Armor during the sixties in Germany. He told that they thought the chieftains were a superior tank
Thx, very interesting info. Beautiful peace of kit thiugh 😉
A very interesting video, cheers 👍
And if you want to see some of one in bits there is the Mr Hewes channel :o) *so many relays :o
Could have been a world beater if they had put a decent proven power pack in it
Excellent description
Spent many hours changing traverse and elevation gearboxes in the chieftain. EX REME ART WPNS.
Great video!
This is a really good breakdown! Most tank videos go something like this: "this is the tank, it was designed to kill people and as you can see its got a big gun to do that. Another feature of this tank is it can go off road thanks to its pair of foot wide tracks". Even with old tanks where security isn't an issue they do this. My father has a remote control one he made as a boy that I played with as a boy. I always remember the distinctive smoke launchers and search light housing. Speaking of which, how was that used in battle? Was it "aim aprox, light on, aim+fire, light off, move repeat?"
Anything that could leak would leak 😂
BEAUTIFUL
I was a tank troop Sgt in the Queens own hussars .1975-1991. Best days of my life!!
This could have been the best tank NATO ever fielded if the Brits had only decided to ignore the fuel recommendation as the rest of the NATO nations did. America certainly learned a lot as many of the innovations were copied in the Abrams except of course the water boiler which I'm told many American tankers stole for their own use.
or it was one of the worst tanks in NATO at the time. armor protection was adequate for 1950´s and 1960´s, but from the early 1970´s onwards basicly everything that wanted to poke a hole into a chieftain could do that. T-55. T-62 etc all got HEAT rounds with enough penetration since the late 60´s, from the 70´s onwards APFSDS rounds for T-62, T-64 and T-72 achieved enough penetration to punch a hole into chieftians front on 1500+m, while Chieftain had to close in below 900m for the reverse shot vs T-72 and T-64.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 Which is why the Challenger (and Abrams-Leopard 2) was developed? If a country can't keep up with the defense-offense race they are doomed!
Nice one Diggs, it takes me back 😊 Gunnery if Funnery.
Great vid 🎉
Magnificent beast.
If I remember correctly, the Russians always used to place their best units opposite the Chieftains. Which is a compliment I guess.
remember also that the UK had ONE armored division and one mechanised division in the area, while germany had 2 armored + 3 mechanised divisions. Plus the Dutch division, the Landjut with another german overstrength mechanised division and the danish forces with 2 divisions etc. Its not due to the BAOR that the russians placed their guards armies opposing NORTHAG. The Chieftains were less than 1/5 of the total NATO MBT´s in the area. (just the german compliment were around 1000-1800 MBT´s, the UK brought in around 230 MBT´s) And basicly all other MBT´s were similarly capable or more capable to Chieftain. (Leopard 1 was just a better MBT in the 60´s and 70´s and from then on Leopard 2 was introduced, wich outclassed Chieftain by such a margin...)
@@zhufortheimpaler4041The 120 was simply a more powerful gun than the 105 most NATO tanks had until leo2/abrams etc.
@@PureFalcon1 that is only partally correct. The 120mm rifled was the most powerful NATO gun in service until the mid 1970´s, when the rest of NATO started to use APFSDS ammunition iin their 105mm guns. the UK continued to use APDS with shitty performence untl 1985
A great tank in battle as long as it broke down in a good fire position.
The story of British tanks and their development , their design forged in the breach of combat , it is quite a story and one for the ages.
Very good presentation by someone who knows the vehicle intimately. If that boiling vessel was boiling on the brakes and gun fired and the recoil destroyed it. Not nice for those around boiling water gaining everywhere. Nice to know it could do the job if it had too.
Best looking tank ever If ONLY they gave it a decent engine
nice episode :)
My favourite tank chieftain Mk6 ❤
Cheers. I need to do some models of the Cold War as I was a kid back then, so that's whetted my appetite.
Always had a real soft spot for cheiftan. Never did understand how they got the engine so wrong. Leyland were pretty crap but hey ho. Great vid
The poorer results in the Iran-Iraq war were down to the training and support not being up to high British Army standards but, to be fair, that was a big ask given the tank's maintenance requirements.
Every time I look at the cramped interior of the tank, it makes me feel wanting to widen the tank to get more space inside.
Cant imagine a Driver giving up His seat to a Gunner to sleep, one of the few perks of the job on Chieftain. got the MRS right on this Vidieo though!
I do love a chieftain, good looking machine
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥:@15:33 SPOTTED THE PERFECT CHAIR FOR A 22-HOUR GAMER SESH ON WOT!!!! 👀👀👀👀👀🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Interesting that the Leyland L60 seems to have worked reasonably well in the Vickers Medium Tank used by India. I suppose that's what happens when you know about 15-16 tons off.
It was already at least partly sorted by then Tilling Stevens were called in as consultants
@@andrewwmacfadyen6958driving off piste in the North Frontier District,Kenya , l came across a Vickers MBT ..... broken down.
I love how theres a name brand magnehelic in the nbc system, nothing custom, no proprietary special differential pressure guage just a magnehelic...
Richard, the Leopard 1 used an MTU twin supercharged V10 that was mult-fuel. But comparing Leyland to MTU doesn't need any explanation. Actually the L60 was developed from the Junkers Jumo 205D which looks almost identical, the only difference was the 205D worked. 🙂
In the armoured engineers, we had 3 Chieftain bridgelayers and 3 Centurion AVRE (2 x 165, 1 x 105 gun tank) in our troop. The Cents were far more popular with crews because they were clean, reliable & had nice warm, flat engine decks to sleep on. The Chieftains would have been more survivable in battle, but that engine was horrible. Not only did it constantly break down, but it howled like a banshee & smoked a lot, so it wasn't really very "tactical". At RARDE Chertsey, I asked the tank design boffins why they put single-pin tracks on Chieftain, when the yanks & Germans already had double-pin (with much less track-bashing required); they didn't really have an answer.
You mentioned that the thermal blanket is for the heat of the barrel from firing, but I thought it was to protect the barrel from heat from the sun, warping the barrel. And the Abrams is multi-fuel, so America didn't ignore NATO's recommendation
Hmm, is it suspicious isnt it ? Because they uploaded video about chieftain, hmm.
what 💀
It's literally a tank game.
Now put this beast, the Chieftain Mk. 6 in game please! :D
It is slready...
September, 2023. Several sources say the entire UK military has less then 60 operational tanks.
Tanks are recommended for getting through heavy traffic. Easy to park. Unbeatable off road capability. Only issue is bad fuel consumption and difficult to get a baby seat.
That Chieftain in Bovington is as close as many tomatoes will ever get to it 😂
When did Centurion gun tanks finally leave service with the British Army? 1970-something? Was was the effective vision range of the infra red night sight device on Chieftain?
What good memories,,I did manage a complet BATUS without breaking down ,,,,,Ex LG
As for The multi fuel engine of the Chieftain... I read an old book from the 1990s...it simply said:. "It Didn't Work!". Something like a 50% failure rate.
Were there any significant differences between the exported tanks and the British tanks?
Hi Richard can you confirm one of the reasons the battle of the bridges stopped was the Chieftain crews ran out of ammunition
no the irakis retreated. It was recon/forward elements of a mechanised brigade that got hit and then retreated. Following that, the remaining chieftains relocated into saudi arabia. The Kuwaitis lost basicly all of their chieftians during the invasion. Most of them due to mechanical breakdowns or getting destroyed by hostile fire.
So when do we get the Chieftain in the tech tree?.