- Yes
- No
History
In the summer of 1975 the Canadian government announced that they would replace their aging centurion tanks with a lighter and air-transportable vehicle, which at the time they were looking at that FV101 Scorpion as a fit for this role. However many allies of Canada in Europe put pressure on the government to keep their MBT’s in Europe as they felt that the change would not be able to fulfill the requirements that that MBT’s would be be able to do. This decision to replace the Centurions was brought to the table again when it was announced in November of 1975 that the Canadian MBT fleet of Centurions in Europe wouldn’t last past the next year. (1976)
As the tanks were becoming outdated, slow when compared to other MBT’s at the time, unreliable and issues with the tanks increased as the tanks aged.
The Canadian Government started to look at options that were available to them at the time as they only had a year or 2 to replace their MBT’s. At the time The Leopard 2, Challenger 1 and M1 Abrams were all in development however the estimated dates that Canada would be able to procure these tanks would be into the early 1980’s which was too long for the Government of Canada to wait. At the time the the tanks that were considered were the M60, Leopard, Chieftain and the AMX30. Out of these tanks Canada looked more toward the Leopard as the tank was at the time already in service with 6 other NATO countries, the only issue with procuring Leopards was that the Krauss-Maffei’s Leopard production line was full and the was would not be able to be delivered until 1979.
Until Krauss-Maffei completed its order for Australia, the German Ministry of Defence offered that they lend some Leopards. When this option came along, the Canadian Government took the deal and, in October 1976, they reached a deal with Krauss-Maffei and the German Ministry of Defence to borrow 35 Bundeswehr Leopard tanks from them until their order of 128 new tanks was complete. The Germans began leasing out tanks after scrounging for them and even taking several from a tank range in Castlemartin, England. The Canadian Forces in Europe started to receive the tanks in December 1976 and by April 1977 all 35 Loaned Leopards were delivered.
The Royal Canadian Dragoon’s were faced with the task of learning how to operate a new tank, with manuals written in a different language, in the space of a few months. Which was a enormous task as the Technical Services back in Ottawa estimated that it would take 2 years to translate all the German manuals, in 1965 the Royal Canadian Dragoon’s sent a few officers and a few soldiers to the German armoured school that was located in Münster to better understand the Leopard hand-on and to work on translating the manual from German into English. These officers and soldiers cut and paste illustrations from the German Leopard manuals and translated the technical terms into “Canadianese.”
Canadian’s learning track repair from german’s
After having the tanks just for 16 weeks In June 1977 the Royal Canadian Dragoon’s won the Canadian Army Trophy (CAT). The Canadian Army trophy was a tank gunner competition for armoured forces in NATO nations in Europe.
The 35 tanks that were leased from Germany were Leopard 1A2’s as they would allow the Canadian crews to be able to get hands on training and experience with the leopard tanks.
You can tell which are the loaned vehicles and which are C1’s by the roof mounted MG as the one’s on loan were fitted with an MG3 and the C1’s replaced the MG3 with a C6.
Loaned Leopard 1A2 from September 1977
In June 1978 the first Leopard C1 was delivered to Canada and by summer of 1979 the Canadian forces in Europe received all 114 of the tanks that were outlined in the contract, the contract also included that Canada’s entire fleet of Centurions be given to Krauss-Maffei (*I cannot find enough sources to support this fact). All of the 35 Leopard 1A2’s were returned during this time as the C1’s were received.
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Specs:
The specs would essentially be the similar to the 1A2 we currently have in game.
(Exact specs on these changes is unknown)
Crew: 4
Top Speed: 64km/h
Armaments:
1x 105 mm L7A3 gun
2x MG3A1 Machine gun’s (1x Coaxial, 1x Roof mounted)
4x2 Smoke Dispensers (a row of 4 launchers on either side of the turret)
IR Spotlight
Driver/Commander Night Vision equipment
Additional Photos:
Sources:
Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank 1965-1995 by Michael Jerchel, Peter Sarson
https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/leopard-tank
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/leopard-1
Library and Archives Canada for some of the photo’s
Other photos were found by other members of the WT CAN Research Community Discord: WT CAN Research Community