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L.Delsing · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Feb 10, 2006 Posts: 960

Is this the serial number plate of the Centurion and what are the numbers meaning?

img529.imageshack.us/i...40519k.jpg

TrevorLarkum

W.D. No is the "War Department number", which means its registration number (13 BA 09). I guess the other number is the serial number - certainly the plate is in the style of the Vickers Elswick works of the 1940s/1950s, these are similar but are from the pre-war period and a bit more complex:

preservedtanks.com/Ima...814&Page=6

preservedtanks.com/Ima...202&Page=7

Neil_Baumgardner

- L.Delsing

Is this the serial number plate of the Centurion and what are the numbers meaning?

img529.imageshack.us/i...40519k.jpg

Ironically, that should not be identified as a "W.D. No." but rather a Vehicle Registration Number (VRN). WD Numbers were used during WWII and prior - they started with a T followed by numbers. Canadian WD Numbers started CT... VRNs have the number, letter, number combination.

A few vehicles of the early postwar period - notably early Centurion tanks, Churchill ARVs, Sherman BARVs - had both WD Numbers and VRNs (likely received the latter after the former went out of use). Perhaps this Centurion (which appears to have been a Mark 3 to 5) still had an old style plate and they stamped the VRN where the WD Number used to go. I suspect later plates said VRN...

It may be that the changover happened when the War Department was merged into the Ministry of Defense in 1964.

Neil

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