The 'Impossible' British Tank That Could Kill Anything

In 1945, the Soviet Union rolled the IS-3 into the Berlin Victory Parade. British observers watched it and reached the same conclusion: nothing they had could reliably kill it at safe range. What followed was seven years of extreme engineering. The result was the FV4005 Stage 2 — a 183mm gun mounted on a Centurion hull, firing a shell the size of a small child that had to be loaded in two separate pieces. In live fire trials it blew the turret clean off a Centurion and split a Conqueror's gun mantlet in half. It could kill anything. Britain cancelled it anyway. The sole surviving turret spent decades at Bovington Tank Museum without a nameplate. Children climbed on it. Nobody knew what it was. Then the internet found it — and World of Tanks made it famous. IronBritain. One machine per video. From the factory floor to the front line. 🔔 Subscribe — new video every week.