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was also bolstered with soldiers from 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Again, rivalry between Scottish and
English Regiments can be taken a little too seriously. But in those woods, everyone seemed to club together for mutual survival in the trenches.
We spent days in the hide waiting for the main enemy thrust. To my annoyance the sighting system on my Warrior suddenly became inoperable. No amount of black nasty tape or hammer strikes would rectify the problem, spares were called for, but a delivery time of 5 days minimum was the reply. It looked as though I was going into battle without my trusty 30mm Cannon or 7.62mm Chain Gun. Intelligence reports indicated that the enemy recce forces had penetrated the forward lines and could be all around. This belief was reinforced when huge artillery strikes landed on friendly positions all around our little hide.
The enemy first appeared in front of
6 Platoon. Several BRDMs and infantry dismounts were destroyed in a short fire fight. It seemed as if the enemy had finally made his move. Reports were coming
in that the American Stryker units to our front had been decimated by a huge tanks force. The violence and destruction was
so fast that the main enemy axis had not been identified. It was unclear whether the enemy was aiming for the The Alamo in
the north or for the Bowl. 4 Platoon was deployed to The Alamo. We pushed into the ruins and occupied the position with the Warriors in amongst the ruins and up on the high ground. It looked as though we would stand and fight here until the Challengers could arrive and help.
Suddenly we were ordered south to help defend the Bowl. Where was the enemy coming from? Reluctantly I had to leave
my one Wagon, call sign 12, Sgt Hughes, and 2 section under Highlander Bamford to defend the The Alamo while I pushed south to defend the centre of the bowl with the tank troop. We occupied positions that
4 Pl Don their TES Kit and prepare to enter The Game...
would allow a side on shoot if the enemy attempted to attack the tank position. The wood was thick and boggy, but with some difficulty we set ourselves. A message from 12 came crackling over the radio with Sgt Hughes’ thick Scottish accent stating that
a tank force was attempting to overrun
The Alamo. Sgt Hughes called for artillery fire as a huge mass of armoured vehicles appeared before him and overran the minefield with little difficulty. Sgt Hughes tried to fight in support of his dismounted section but was quickly destroyed. 2 Section under the command of Highlander Bamford fought bravely on in The Alamo. First engaging enemy vehicles with AT4, however the enemy tanks refused to be
held up by the determined section of 6
men and bypassed them. Once the AT4s were expended Highlander Bamford and
his men used small arms fire and grenades against exposed vehicle crews and sighting systems. They put up such a splendid fight that the enemy wasted valuable resources and time co-ordinating artillery fire upon the small band of men. The barrage killed 3 of the section, but they continued to fight on. When their ammunition ran out they resorted to defending the position with flares and eventually bricks until they were overrun.
Once the main enemy thrust was identified the Challenger troop swung around towards The Alamo in an attempt
to intercept the dreaded Leopard 2’s. It
was too late; the Challenger troop met the Leopard 2 force in a small clearing. Without prepared static positions the Challengers didn’t stand a chance against the large enemy tank squadron. After a valiant fight the Scots DG tanks were left twisted and burning in the woods. The Leopards were heading straight for the rear of my position.
I swung the platoon around to face the new threat. Suddenly out of the mist not 100 metres away a tank appeared screaming towards us. I immediately grabbed the radio and sent a report as the dismounted infantry engaged with AT4s. As I was speaking more
and more tanks appeared travelling in a straight line towards us. 2, no 3, no 5, 6, 8 Leopards smashed through us. We seemed to have taken them by surprise; they weren’t in attack formation and they failed to stop and engage us in the wood line. The first Leopard fired an inaccurate shot which slammed into a tree next to my Wagon. That was close. The enemy ran straight over
our position without slowing down. The boys fired as many AT4s as the possibly could at the tanks from as little as 20 meters away, scoring several hits but failing to
stop them. The Leopards entered the Bowl from the north and spread out to attack 5 platoons trenches. They smashed through
5 Platoon destroying most of the Warriors and continued on towards the City. Reports were coming through that the enemy had begun to surround the City from the North, the South and the now the West. The Leopards swung around towards Company HQ and began engaging our command element and support vehicles. I mounted the platoon and pushed rearwards towards their beleaguered position, HQ were putting up a brave fight; destroying 3 Leopards
and 2 T80 tanks, but would not last long.
4 Platoon pushed through the woods as
fast as possible; the open ground was now too dangerous with enemy tanks having complete freedom of movement.
As we got close to Company HQ I realised the situation was dire. The position was completely surrounded by those blasted Leopards. I pushed the dismounted sections forwarded commanded by Cpl Brownjohn and Highlander Grant. They pushed through the woods and started engaging the tanks in the open with AT4s. Again several hits were scored but those tanks seemed near enough invincible against the strikes. Luckily two friendly
Hind helicopters and an American anti-
tank company appeared and caused the Leopards to disperse. However our HQ was utterly destroyed. Left alone, I pushed the platoon into a position over watching
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