Another great video as always, guys.

Yeah, Jordan’s army in the larger context of the Arab-Israeli conflict gas always been a strange case. As Gerry says, mostly equipped with British (but also a lot of American) equipment, as opposed to Syrian or Egyptian forces.

The issue here with this boxed set is that (sorry …) Jordanian vs. Israeli armored battles almost never see the Jordanian Centurion in actual combat. Instead we see much more of Jordanian US-made M48A3s. The biggest example for this is the Battle of Jenin near the end of the Six-Day War, where you see Israeli M-51HV Sherman upgrades and Centurion / 105mm / L7s up against faster but less-powerful US M48A3s (90mm) in RJA service (40th Armored Brigade). The Israelis naturally won the battle, even though the 40th RJA Armored brigade is actually a pretty elite unit (IAF air strikes had a lot to do with this).

The Jordanians did have the 20-pounder Centurion for that war (200-300 of them), they just didn’t get into very much combat. We have to remember the Jordanians were only in ground combat there for 36-48 hours, and most of it was infantry battles in the streets of Jerusalem. Again, there are exceptions, like aforementioned Jenin and the 10th Armoured Brigade further north. I think the Israelis managed to capture some of those 20-lbr Centurions after the RJA 10th Armoured Brigade performed quite poorly.

Then we have Israeli-Jordanian clash at Karameh (21 March 1968) where again we see Israeli 105mm/L7 Centurions in urban combat against Jordanian tanks, but again these are M48s (60th RJA Armored brigade in support of 1st RJA Infantry Division and PLA forces of the Arab Legion). The Israeli Centurions actually do quite poorly here, also Jordanian “Hunter” aircraft (supplied by the British) do well in a ground attack role and knock out several Centurions.

About the only time Jordanian Centurions see significant combat to my knowledge is, ironically, against the Syrians in the Black September War of 1970. I won’t bog down into the politics of the situation, but Jordanian 20-pounder Centurions actually hammer the hell out of Syrian T-54/55s at the Battle of Irbid when Syria invades Jordan to help PLA/PLO insurgents rising against Jordan. Jordan actually requests Israeli help against the Syrian invasion. Definitely a strange one. To their credit, the 40th Brigade of the RJA really do well here with 20lbr Centurions, although again those British-supplied Hunter ground attack planes of the RJAF also help.

The RJA’s Centurions are not upgraded to the 105mm L7 until 1972. Predictably, the elite 40th Armored Brigade is the first to get them, and technically they are sent to help the Syrians in Yom Kippur 1973. I’ll set that sink in a minute, after what had happened between Jordan and Syria only three years before.

But the 40th only clashes with the Israelis once, a half-hearted skirmish at Tel El-Mal and Tel Maschara that lasted about 20 minutes – NOT worth a real wargame. This was more of a political posture more than an actual military attack, made with very poor coordination with “allied” Iraqi units (where fighting was actually much more heavy). Note that Jordan did NOT enter the 73 war officially – this is to “show Arab solidarity” rather than lead Jordan into another ruinous war (as they had been bullied into doing so by big brothers Syria and Egypt in 1967). Sadly for this boxed set, that is the only time Jordanian 105mm Centurions ever met Israeli forces, and it really a non-starter as a historical engagement.

My point is, all respect, I would NOT build these Jordanian Centurions with the 105mm, at least if you ever wanted to use them in anything close to a historically-accurate (or even historically approximate) game. Stick with the 20 pounder and you can use them against Israelis in ’67, ’68, or Syrians in ’70.