Inside the Tanks: The Chieftain - World of Tanks 

I'm an ex-tankie mate, trained on Chieftain, Challenger 1 and 2, Scorpion/Scimitar and 432. It was interesting to be reconnected with a Chieftain again, thanks for that, good video.

I mainly play War Thunder, but these Inside the Tanks series are awesome, something that War Thunder lacks.

Like his Army style of explaining things, clear and to the point.

Got my full drivers licence in chieftain. Had learner plates on the NBC pack. Gun rear. Happy memories of 1987 in Catterick. Ex 14/20 Kings Hussars. Ex Kings Royal Hussars. Thanks for the video.

Love the fact there is actually an boiler inside :D Very good for crew morale!

I doubt anyone who hadn't been a crew member on a Chieftain would have shown us the BV. I cannot imagine having no way to boil water for tea and coffee. I agree it's probably the most important piece of equipment on the entire tank. :) Thanks a lot for the video!

Got to ride on the chieftain as I was in the Infantry. Remember it was nice and warm on top of the engine. saved us a lot of walking... All the Best from 1R.G.J

I wish I'd still had my Chiefey. Loved it. 07FA00 RIP

Makes ya realise just how sofisticated these machine's are when ya see the guts of the beast

What's most amazing is that they crammed so much stuff into one small space, no advanced electronics, only gears, levers and switches everywhere.

Thank you, really kind, The Challenger

Thanks for this Richard. I have been asking the Chieftain for quiet a while now to do his namesake tank.

I started out as a REME cadet (ACF) 2/8 Hvy Armoured Recovery Unit. We trained with the T.A at Mexborough. We use to go to the "Satan camp" training area at Ollerton in Nottinghamshire at week-ends. Most of the time we cadets got the shit ends job of digging out. We did get lucky though and were allowed to do driver training in the" Churchill" Recovery tanks, plus I had a cabby on the massive great big recovery bulldozer that was there. Loved every minute of it at 14 years old. Many years later I was with 1RTR has a Royal Signals corporal, Forward Air Control driver operator. I was the regimental photographer also. I use to go out with the Squadrons doing photo shoots.I loved going with the REME technicians doing gunnery sight tests on the Achmer training area just outside Osnabruck. I was the driver and photographer. All tests were recorded as photos which I produced on 10x8". (1/4 Plate) copies. These were sent to various places by secure means and I got paid for each one. and the photo session. I took photos of lots of other mods and faults on "The Chieftain". These were all security restricted and no civilian photographer was allowed near, ence I got the job and payed the rate for it.

as an ex sub guy i give all tankies respect! Cool description.

Great video! Very well talked through! Cheers :)

B.V was definitely the most important feature on my wagon. Good documentary.

excellent vid. I really enjoy your depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for your subjects

Great videos. I hope that you continue to make them in the future; its obvious you are very knowledgeable. Its nice to hear how the crews actually used the tanks, which is something you don't find much in books.

have just discovered this series and i must say i'm very impressed by your videos explaining the different mechanics of the different tanks. i play world of tanks aswell and its nice to see that alot of research is put into developing these vehicles for their use in game. if your a world war 2 or military nut like myself then i have to recommend bovington tank museum as it is a great day out and you can learn alot about your favourite military vehicles. keep these vids coming :)

Well I'm not a gamer of any type but I must recommend your video to a friend of mine Rtd US Army tank commander in M48s and M60s. He'd love it. Have to say I could spend days at Bovington. Next time must also spend time to visit Clouds Hill on the bike....all the best, Scotty

Interesting series. Thank you.

Loving these films,found that really interesting, good Job Challenger

excellent tour!!

I got to sit in the vehicle commander's seat in a Chieftain whilst on exercise on Salisbury plain, back in the 80s. A few tanks hauled up next to our harbour area. Really interesting. The crews were obviously used to curious infantry soldiers 😎

the show is getting better and better, it would be great if you could open the engine compartments and give some detiels on them

Great video!

My dad served on the mk 9 chieftains and i remember seeing them at the bovingto tank park

I was there when he filmed this. I met the Chieftain :D

very nice documentary series from Wargaming.

"Locking wheel nuts" - yes, you would need them in some UK towns.

I was a gunner on Chieftain in Germany with The Life Guards. The German pack's of 25cl bottles fitted perfectly in the ammo racks. We used the .30 ranging gun which fired 3 rounds of tracer at a time.

This bright back many memories, I was with an infantry regiment in Germany, the chieftain had a very distinctive sound and this may come as a surprise to any civilian who hasn't served that at night a stationary tank was impossible to find by sight of you were on a recce patrol. The only way we could find them was by following their tracks and following the smell of diesel, and even then sometimes you could walk right into the side of one, beck then the night viewing kit we had was pants. The phone on the back of the tank I had to use serval times as a section commander needing to contact the tank commander to relay directions onto a target I needed to take out, and I can assure you it is not a very nice place to be, at any moment as you approached the rear of the tank they could jockey their position and flatten you, this is why in the infantry it was nicknamed the grunt phone, you tend to grunt when you've got 50tonnes of armour on top of you 😂 😂, many times as we were fighting through enemy positions the tanks would then push through at speed, sectarian times guys were nearly crushed to death as the tankies had limited view around them, it was an occupational hazard that you had to be switched on to. In one occasion if been on a recce patrol, during our time away from our defensive position tanks attacked our platoon position, when we returned we realised just how lucky my sect had been, a tank had driven directly into our 4 man battle trench that was fully revetted, the tank had then done a neutral turn on top of the trench totally destroying it, if we'd been in it then I'm pretty sure people would have died that night, but it makes for an intresting story. There were very real dangers working with heavy armour and live ammo, but we get our own back in Canada and shoot the back bins up of the tanks when they were in front of us., seeing sleeping bags disintegrate was quite amusing for us, but for then, sorry guys.

I may be mistaken but I’m sure Diggs referred to the MRS light projector unit as the being the gunners auxiliary sight? He always made more sense when he had a few beers inside him. Seriously though, great chap and very knowledgeable. Hi Diggs!

I am sure you used yo be a gunnery instructor at lulworth and you took my commanders course on CR2. Harry's bar in Weymouth!!!! Awsome

Hi Todd, did the plains of Alberta in 1979! The union between the UK and Canada comes home to you! There was however a beer strike that year in Alberta! Our SQMS had to take a convoy of wagons to Moosejaw and return with enough beer to keep us going for two months! epic stuff! The SQMS is the hero, still killing russians for jesus!

Nice, can't wait to see it ingame

Absolute beast of a vehicle... LOVE IT!

Went on AFV course in lugersahll on one , and other tackle was amazing 6 weeks

Richard plays WoT, as do most of the community staff, I saw him running a Type 59 a couple of times in the quieter periods at Tank Fest this year.

Glad to see they're showing a 4/7 RDG tank. B SQN 4th 7th Royal Dragoon Guards. QS (Quis Separabit)

meanwhile the T72 is still in service. The most interesting thing about this tank is the arc projector search light, an honorable mention for the tea water boiler

much more in depth considering his personal experience with the tank

I've been to that Tank museum and had the privilege to sit in the gunners seat.

Had 5 great years in one of those B sqn 4/7 RDG Detmold happy days too much beer 👍🏻

When is the Chaffee coming to "Inside the Tanks"? I can't wait for it as it was in norwegian service, and at the local fort there is a turret from one in the Artillery museum. I really want to know how it functions, and if that turret may be missing some pieces.

Thank god we can make tea.

If I ever win the lottery or become incredibly successful, one of the tanks I would love to own would be the Chieftain.

love this channel, thanks for vietsub !

At 4:20 that is the MRS emitter. Not an auxiliary site. That was to the right of the main gun.

not a bad little series keep them coming. it would be good if you did the centurion, Matilda 1 and 2 and the crusader and all the other brit tanks

I spent the Cold War as an infantry platoon commander. I've spent many happy hours crouched behind one of these. If the SLR was the right hand of the free world, this was the (British) left hook

my farther commanded the chieftain in the 1420th kings hussars he loved it more then the challenger

I love the fact the BV hasnt changed at all lol

Pretty roomy looking in comparison with others shown.Seems like they put a good deal of thought into crew comfort and I really like the Loader's firing guard,nifty idea.

all other videos are much shorter but because the challenger trained on this he made it a longer video

He is wrong at 7:34 the CCMU isn't the computer, it is a dumb switch box and display unit. The computer is within the Computer Interface Unit (CIU), which is under the driver's seat, which, unfortunately we don't get to see.

it is so advanced. In most tanks in game commander had just some holes to look even no optics. And many tanks before tier VI used just gunner hand power to tun turret and control gun elevation. He had to tun wheel to one side or to other.

I need one for that slow morning commute. I'll get them moving.

I was waiting for the hot box for tea.

I thought you would show to us the driving post, because you were a pilot in a Chieftain 6:52 "and we are going to look at each of the crew stations in turn."

Armed with the same gun as the Conqueror. Wrong....the Conqueror was fitted with L1 120mm, this was a (US) designed gun, and was the same as fitted to the M103. The Chieftain was fitted with the Royal Ordnance (British) designed L11A5 120mm gun. N.B. This gun was also fitted to Challengers. And was the first NATO standard tank gun.

Such an awesome tank. I do wish the engine would have been scraped and replaced early on so the tank didn't get such a bad reputation from it. I know the Khalid variant solved they engine problem and is quite a beast. The Chieftain looks absolutely fantastic in the Berlin Brigade camo pattern. is the metal lip around the driver's hatch for fording operations?

It could be argued that a precedence has already been set by WoT, for the inclusion of a Chief variant, because of the T62A (the rifled gun) version of the T62, production stopped on the T62 in the mid 70's.

The commanders position looks comfy

Now that's a TANK! I want one!

The Cheiftan tank is my favorite Western MBT. I love it's looks and durability. The other Western tanks are the German Leapord 2A4, and French AMX-30. But this one the Chief is my favorite.

The Challenger inside the Chieftain. Somewhere someone's fanfiction sense must have been going nuts.

Nice video and I would say Richard must have trained on this tank during the 1980s to the 1990s and I would say they still use a working FV4201 at the tankfest along with a FV214 Conqueror tank and this tank would be the British tier X heavy after the FV215B is removed and this tank in World of tanks would go head to head with a Maus or a IS-7 tank both are German and Russian tier X heavy tanks and for this Tanks gun its used to this day on the Challenger II as the L30 since both the L11 & L30 guns fire the same round

the Chieftain gunner seat looks a tad cramped when doing rapid stuff like being under attack at the same time popping smoke.

This needs to be added in the game!

Nice tank

cool !

Do inside the hatch of an Type 74 please !

is this the same Chieftain used in demolition ranch video where h blows up his truck

No, on "Tiger Day" only, or by invitation I'm afraid

How Ironic that the series named 'Inside The Chieftains hatch' did not get this tank, the challenger did. Makes sense...

That boiling vessel looks suspiciously simmilar to the one we had on CV90 IFV's in the Swedish Army. It took three guldburkar :)

I'd like go visit the tank museum in Dorset,I've always had a fascination with tanks,...does anyone know if they let you go inside the tanks at Bovington or are you only allowed to walk round the outside?

My dad worked on the Chieftan and the challenger 2 prototype

To the left of the gunners sight hood was not the axial gunners sight

Man that thing is huge even by tank Standards

good vid, however when at the rear I don't remember my panzer having indicators, just a minor slip me thinks... good review thou and brought back some memories, pity he didn't sit in the cab and start up or get the back decks open.

For anyone confused what a IR light is.. I believe it's Infra red.

oh and on a personal note, was there a discussion on weather to include the brit modified sherman 'firefly' to WoT and if so why was it not included. it would have been a nice tank to play imho with the lovely 17 pounder.

great video, shame he didn't show how to get into the drivers position

I love how The Challenger, himself being a tank driver, describes the Chieftain and doesn't show the driver's position. After all, that's where he spent most of his time.

Andy, what you tend to forget is; tanks are designed to fight battles/wars, and not to compete in Trophy events. Besides the Leopard 1 was never able to out-gun the chieftain, why? because the Lep1 was fitted with the Brit L7A3 105mm; where as the Chief's had 120mm L11A5's. As a note did you know L7's where fitted to M1 Abrams, T54/55's, Israeli, Indian, Pakistani, Japanese, Egyptian & Swedish tanks; to name but a few.

the challenger reviewed the chieftain, when will wee see the chieftain review the challenger? :P

Hi mate, yes I do play and work full time for Wargaming, I certainly do have many views,,, more than would fit here I'm afraid.

It entered service in the mid-1960s, same time as the German Leopard 1 (which is already in the game).

What's that rail construction that goes around the driver's hatch? I can't find anything about it, and I theorise that it's for deep water fording.

In fact, the T-72 did not appear in numbers until very late in the Iran-Iraq war when most Chieftains were already out of service due to poor reliability of their engines and a lack of spares parts. Notice that iranian Chieftain were also penetrated near the gun's mantlet by 115 mm APFSDS from Iraqi T-62. Israeli have tested the Chieftain but were not satisfied. So, they began the development of Merkava.

If you lot dig this get also Haynes Tiger Manual it a really good read.

Nothing upsets me more than hearing the word “glacious” plate..

Hehe I love how Brits did not forget to include tea-brewing device in their war-machine :)

I think the FV4202, the tier 10 British medium, was the basis for the Chieftain, so technically the 4202 is a Chieftain :)

It will be in the game soon as the 2nd medium tank from uk

ah no worries i wont pester you with all my questions then, although when they first added the brits i was certain they would have the firefly or the achilles TD. in future i better wait and see before getting my hopes up :p

I’ve sat inside the turret of that very chieftain

it's gonna be in the game as the tear 10 heavy tank