So I was reading up on tanks of the second world war, as you do, when I started wondering about the Centurion. It only just missed out on seeing combat by a few months. So I ask: would it be at all possible for the Centurion to see combat? I would assume that this would be a result of accelerated development instead of the war dragging on longer. My theory is that the Centurion could make it to European battlefields in time for seeing combat if there were 2 factors:
1)The Army disregarding the outdated concept of breakthrough Tanks like the Tortoise, allowing for more resources to be devoted to the A34 concept.
2)The allies being made aware of the production of the Panther being much higher than anticipated (this might have the knockon effect of seeing more heavily armed tanks in general on the allied side, with more heavily armed Sherman, since the US experimented with 90mm armed versions and perhaps earlier adoption of the Pershing and/or Comet)
3) the concept of the Universal tank gaining traction. This obviously overlaps with point 1, since one of the main issues with British tank doctrine was the division between Cruiser and Infantry tanks. Would this premise be at all feasible, or am I just being foolish? edit:cleared up the formatting.