The Sentinel: Australia's "Tank Meme" 

Can just imagine the mate designing the water jacket armour casing just giggling and then crying when it gets accepted.

Perhaps you could do a video on the CAC Boomerang, similar to the Sentinal it was a home grown fighter, and again considering Australias lack of experience with aircraft design and production, wasn't a bad effort at all. By the time it entered service it was outclassed as a fighter, but found a niche as a ground attack aircraft.

being from Australia i found this extremely fascinating and we all feel pain in Holdens absents.

As well as the M3 Grant and Churchill, we got the Matilda II (used in PNG and Borneo) and M3 Stuart (used in PNG).

RIP Holden Although the Bombadore can stay in the depths of hell.

I remember seeing a tank at the Lancer barracks in Parramatta many years ago. I am no tank expert and don't recall it's name but what I do remember was the fact that it was cast. At first, I thought it was cast iron and would not take much to shatter but my father (an engineer) assured me that it was cast steel. It may very well have been a rare Australian made Sentinel.

The Sentinel wasn't a bad try, actually. It was better than anything the Japanese had, at least.

this is what happens when you let the engineers get on the beers before 6 o clock

Great video mate! Super interesting and I had no idea that an Aussie was the first person to design a tank

Why you gotta drive a knife into my heart by bringing up Holden

On the topic of the 17 pounder, the Thunderbolt was the first allied tank to actual house the gun, well before the Firefly would and apparently was the inspiration for the Firefly because during the test with the 17 pounder there were a few British army officials and they took that idea back with them to help with the Firefly project.

One still remains at the tank museum in Puckapunyal north of Melbourne, it was in the workshop when I was there and managed to get a peak at it

Even if some parts of the Sentinel were perhaps less impressive; compare it to the tanks the Japanese fielded. Those are the things it would have to face. Against that, the 2 pounder would suffice.

Good luck with your channel.

We all know the sentinel was made to wrangle hunstman spiders for the milk farms, gotta keep the populace strong and healthy after all!

thank you for bringing Lancelot De Mole into light .....where most have ignored him for some bizarre reason

There's also 2 including a 17pdr at the Cairns Armour and Artillery museum as well as a Yeramba.

New Zealanders had Crusaders and some Matilda’s so they were pretty good but I know I know they didn’t make anything special, they just had the Māoris and the Hakka ;-)

not to bad at all and quite entertaining... i always wanted to subscribe to some hard working drongo with less than 50 subscribers and think.. i encourared them ... But really keep up the good work.. the more you produce the better it will be.. your kind of naturally entertaining ...

Another thing about the sentinel, was that during the war Australia had a shortage of zinc an important component when making armour. So they developed a new armour metal alloy that was just as good as zinc based armour.

damn this is some good content, keep it up

I will watch this channels growth with great interest

this man is criminally underated

The Sentinel was tested to see how resilient the tank was for 17 pounder use by putting a pair of 25 pounder howitzers in the turret and firing them together to see if the turret/hull could take the strain. It worked. In something of a missed opportunity for Commonwealth nations, we all could have adopted the 25 pounder howitzer as a tank mounted gun. It was a tried and tested artillery piece. Ammunition would have been readily available. This was an 87mm gun! The thing that probably didn't sell it to the British was the fact that it was a two part ammunition system, though for a country that was already making a lot of 25 pounders, fitting them to a Sentinel would have been a good step. I think they were planning for more 25 pounder equipped Sentinels, and a good portion of 17 pounder ones - set up in the same formation as the British did with their 3 Sherman 75mms with one Sherman Firefly.

This channel is criminally underrated, lol. Hope you get good fortune in terms of viewership and the likes.

Not a bad vid you forgot the twin 25 pounder version but that is okay. Just to add on your vid at 6.24 you made a mistake. The American and British tanks we ended up with was the M3 Stuart which we used the M3 Grant which we hated and used for training and replaced it with an older tank the Matilda which we used in service. Matilda was still useful agianst the Japanese. Near the end of the war the Churchill vs Sherman contest happened with the Churchill winning the compitition for our next tank in service because of its great climbing abilities which suited New Guniea. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HseO2f0WGDg.html

There are two Sentinels at the Australian Tank Museum in Cairns.

Keep the videos coming mate, keep the ww2 memes alive!

Good video. There was an experimental version of the Sentinel that had TWO 25-pounder guns mounted in the turret (I kid you not - I've seen pics of it). I think this must have been the run-up to the Thunderbolt. They didn't have the intended gun to experiment with at that time, but DID have lots of 25-pounders.

you deserve more subscribers keep it up bro

It’s a shame the Sentinel never saw service, particularly against the rubbish Japan was designing and building. The speed and armour of the Sentinel would have easily dealt with Nippon steel.

great vid m8 keep it up

Considering how the Japanese Tank industry went during the war, the Sentinel was a perfectly acceptable domestic alternative to fend off Japanese Armored Units.

the south african armoured car sounds like a good idea for harrasing supply lines.

Great Video, 🎉🙌

Cool videos, I hope you are able to make more

That was an awesome video, very informative. Keep it up imkeen for more, cheers mate ☆

great video

Hey mate - just had this video suggested to me so it looks like the algorithm is picking you up! Subbed and looking forward to more

You get my subscribe, Mr Budget historian.

Glad i stumbled upon this channel in all it's glory of 475subs.. This is gold.. definitely better than Four X

You forgot to mention that the work done on the 17 pounder variant was used to design the 17 pounder mounting on the Firefly You should look into 'Big Lizzie' and Frank Bottrill who designed a vehicle using his own improved version of 'Dreadnaught wheels' intended for domestic and military use

there is a sentinel at the puckapunyal tank museum and another at Armour & artillery mueum in cairns . i dont believe there is one at the war memorial

For your video endings, just make a opaque white layer over the screen and have a big D- appear and get circled in the same nice quick sharp fashion a teacher who's been getting the "disappointing" class 5 years in a row

Just subscribed and loving your videos so far. If I may offer some constructive criticism - own your jokes. It is hard enough to make history funny.

More random history about military vehicles to fuel me.

Considering some of the other cringe pronunciation Yeramba was pretty close , certainly better than Simon Whistlers appalling Australian place name pronunciation. Ernt a subscription

You did your best for sure! It was entertaining the whole way through, I'll be here to see how the channel grows ^-^

is the title a reference to potential history, if so then loving this channel

Never knew about these. What a rugged piece of engineering from down under its a shame they never saw service :(

It was also an Aussie, General Monash, who came up with the self contained tank unit and shock troops combat that broke the stalemate in France in WW1 and the Germans would use to great effects in WW2. I don't think it's a coincidence that it was the Aussies in Tobruk who were the first to stop the German blitzkrieg as many of the officers were students of Monash and could recognise his tactics when they saw it.

All 3 tanks (Sentinel, Thunderbolt and the Yeramba can all be also seen at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Queensland. Or via there You tube channel.

Work on fitting the 17 pdr in the AC4 sentinel helped with the development of the Firefly. The Michell crankless engine was proposed, that's a whole other video there.

Specimen of this in Aussie armour and Artillery museum in Cairns.

Would honestly love to see you do a video of the Canadian Ram tank

Great video lol

The flamethrowing Shermans were the real crowd pleasers of the Pacific.

"Most australian innovation ever: 3 Cadillac V8s". Yup, that famous Australian brand, Cadillac!!

Hi great vid - The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum has a Sentinel Mk I, Sentinel Mk IV

Dual citizenship =/= True Aussie. In this age of ever diluting immigration it's important to remind foreigners that the government doesn't decide what you are, the citizenry do. Act Indian, guess what, still Indian. Otherwise, nice video on our tank legacy and the accents weren't all that bad 👍

I agree, bring back the V8 - Holden & Ford! We desperately need to bring back the " … can do, she'll be right attitude..."'. It will come I'm sure. In the end; she'll be right!

rip our good old mate holden

So. What I got out of this is that the thing everyone else calls a 'cruiser tank' is what Australia considers a car, but suitable for the Outback. And it was essentially just three Holdens and two guns wrapped in cast steel. But then we never bothered using it and just bought imports. About right.

"Australia's industrial capacity at the time" *sigh*... R.I.P Australian refinement industries

The Sentinel was designed to arm a complete armoured division for North African combat but the war entry of Japan meant hat an armoured division was not required. However development did continue despite US pressure to buy Shermans instead. But the only tanks used in force were Matilda II's by choice against Japan, US tanks were only used for training.

Very interesting design even had the first power pack design of engines

Thunderbolt or AC3 had a 25-Pdr. It was the AC4 that had the 17-Pdr

In other words it came from a land down under. (Just play down under and you'll get it xD)

R.I.P Holden

I’d rather the sentinel over the bob semple tank any day 🤣 we also churned out some decent small arms too

You mention how we couldn't build a modern tank due to the lack of our car industry, yet you forget to mention that these tanks were actually built by NSWGR's Chullora Workshops. Theoretically, we still have the industrial capacity to build tanks, since our rolling stock industry is still alive and well. Also, it's just funny that the direct predeccessor of Sydney Trains built tanks.

Bob Semple was a wise and far-sighted individual. He may have come up with a crap idea; but his idea was a stop-gap for the early war years when no other resources were available. Nor was the industrial development necessary to the times. All weaponry started from agricultural development tools. Iron to steel, scythe to sword, etc., etc., and so forth.

2:40 incidentally a MKIV tadpole tank.

dead on, mate

"and their armoured hulls converted into farming vehicles" Australia: Secretly a UKRAINIAN colony!

GO PAULY!

"focus on manufacturing domestically" shame we lost that spirit post-1980. nowadays nothings made here anymore and the stuff that is manufactured here is made by french companies

as an australian the fist time you did the accent was funny

Are there any abandoned Holden plants still standing?

I only just noticed that the right star of the southern cross on the flag is higher than the left star.

wait wait wait, hold the fuck up! Holden's gone?

"australia was the 1st country to invent the tank" [ANGRY BURSTYN TANK NOISES]`

Fahkin lekker m8

First ever single casted hiull also suffering from a shortage of zinc, to make traditional armours steel. So Australia invented a new type of armour equal in strength. Was it the best tank? But it was Australia’s first attempt at a tank up against any other countries first attempt

Goodday the one in Canberra is in the storage area with so much more terrific tank .

I made a video on this last year it's a very unusual looking tank

There's no way that cooling jacket didn't get repainted once in service.

My favourite non meme tanks (the bob semple is my favourite meme tank) is the sentinel

A correction, other than those places mentioned that have the sentinal the Cairns tank museum has 2 sentinals a mk1 and mk 4 and a matilda no 3 mk1 dozer tank as well as several other tanks and artilary pieces, they also do cool videos about restoring the vehicles, ru-vid.comvideos

Australia made cars?!

why did holden have to leave. im an australian, and i love the car. WE MISS YOU OL' BOI!

Canada also made Valentine tanks.

As far as i know there are 6 AC-1s left, in varris states. At least 5 in decent completion.

lindybiege said this was not a very good tank. Thechieftainshatch responded No. but it's a lot better than other countries first attempt at a tank

"slow and agonising death of Holden's" bro they literally left the country months ago

Damn

Not a bad video, but I spotted a few mistakes or other things worth mentioning, India did actually build an armoured vehicle in the form of the Indian Pattern Carrier. The tank at 2:39 is a Mark 4 Tadpole not a Mark 1. I’m pretty sure the Matilda 2 had a fully cast hull as well which predates the AC 1. It was also worth mentioning the AC 3 Thunderbolt, a variant armed with a 25 pounder gun

I'd a called it a shazz wozzla!

could you edit this video to add the 3 other veriants of the sentinel you missed

because foreign tanks became available we did what we always do, drop support of local innovation and industrial ability