In August of 1953 a British built Centurion tank with the number
169041
was parked 500 yards away from a 9 kiloton test bomb in the Australian Outback. To put it into perspective Little Boy which was dropped on Hiroshima was around 15 kilotons so it was not a very powerful bomb but still stronger than any conventional weapon in the arsenal at that time. The Centurion survived with some armor plating being torn off and the side facing the blast being sandblasted and scoured. The crew whom had driven it out there to begin with filled the gas tanks three days later and drove it away. The engine did throw a rod and it had a couple other problems but in the end a minor refit and the tank was as good as new.
The tank continued to serve with the Australian military and in 1968 Australia sent a squadron of Centurions to Vietnam, among them Centurion 169041. In 1969 the Centurion was hit by an RPG injuring most of the crew but not killing any of them.
It was sent back to Australia and repaired then used as a parade tank and training vehicle with the 1st Armoured Regiment at Robertson Barracks, Northern Territory where it remains today.
Centurion 169041 remains the only tank to have survived a nuclear blast that was still operational and used in combat, mainly because the weapons the Americans were testing at the Nevada Test Site were much stronger and would have completely destroyed the Centurion.
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