A British Centurion tank crosses the Imjin River during the Korean War. (IWM neg BF10300)

The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 found US forces largely using equipment first issued at the end of the Second World War such as the M40 155 mm self-propelled gun. For the British Army Korea saw the first action of the Centurion tank, the standard post-1945 British Army battle tank. The Soviet contemporary of the Centurion and most widely-used tank after 1945 was the T-55 medium tank which has been used in combat by, amongst other armed forces, North Vietnam, Syria, Pakistan, India, Libya and Iraq.