On Exercise Crusader in 1980 some smart chap commanding a British tank sqn thought it would be a good idea to avoid the brigade killing zone west of Hanover by infiltrating his sqn through the woods on the Bentheberg, just behind the village of Benthe.
Unfortunately he ran into our battalion echelon which was bashered up in the woods. Our QM staff, cooks, storemen and REME mechanics engaged the armour, which was forced to remain on the track in column and was unable to traverse the turrets due to the densely packed trees.
The unpires gave our cooks and bottlewashers a complete victory and deemed the armour had been destroyed with LAW and 84mm MAW.
At the same time we were doing the same to a second tank sqn which tried to sneak through the village of Benthe and trapped the tanks in the narrow streets.
It's never a good idea to try and use unsupported armour in terrain which favours the defending infantry.
:-)
BTW Nick, there's no link to the film…
Barrie
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
