CAT '83
Held on Range 9 at Bergen-Hohne, teams competed corresponding to their army group assignments within the Central Region, from Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) or Central Army Group (CENTAG). NORTHAG consisted of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR)'s British I Corps, American III Corps Forward, German I Corps, Netherlands' I Corps, and Belgian I Corps. CENTAG consisted of the German II and III Corps, the American V and VII Corps, and the Canadian 4th Brigade.
This was the first year that the M1 Abrams participated in the competition, utilized by Charlie Company, 3/64 Armor Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division. The other two US tank companies were utilizing the M60 Patton tank. With the M1, Charlie Company's three platoons scored in second, third and eighth place. 1st Platoon Charlie Company was in second place with 19,294 points behind West Germany's 1st Platoon 2nd Company, 293rd Panzer Battalion. The West German Platoon won with the highest score of 21,153 points out of a maximum of 28,100 with their Leopold 1 tank. Charlie Company's Second Platoon got eighth place with 16,116 points and Third Platoon got third place with 18,068 points.
Many individuals involved with Charlie Company for CAT '83 extended their tour of duty of Germany to participate in CAT '85 with Alpha Company, 3/64 Armor.
C Co 2/66 Armor surprised the competition by placing with its old M60A1 tanks, which used optical rangefinder technology from the WWII era. This showed the value of local course knowledge over pure technology.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Army Trophy
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