February 14, 2021
British A27L Centaur close support howitzers. RMASG (Royal Marine Armored Support Group), D-Day, Normandy beachhead, 6 June, 1944. RMASG was the only unit to deploy Centaur tanks in combat in WWII. During the initial beach assaults, they were firing direct support for troops on the beaches from landing craft off-shore. Once the beachesweree secured, they went ashore and continued fire missions with some remaining until the end of June 1944. Markings and camo were also unique. Azimuth calibrations were to assist fire control observers in clocking the guns onto targets. The tanks remained in the SCC-2 brown base camo paint which was non standardized in April 1944 (SCC-15 O.D. was the new standard).