Starting with my own role, a Challenger 2 driver. A classic career progression in the 3 Regular Regiments, King’s Royal Hussars, Queen’s Royal Hussars and Royal Tank Regiment moves through these in order, with a few exceptions, and in the Army Reserves, Royal Wessex Yeomanry, its possible to step into any of the first three. It is a four man crew, Driver, Gunner, Operator (Loader in layman terms) and commander. What I want to answer is how does a Tank WORK? I do not mean the mechanics (Perkins V12 4-Stroke engine simply) but how everyone has an important role and how they do it. It’s true the Royal Armoured Corps has a different ethos, especially to the infantry, it is necessary to the way they operate, but I will dig into this more in depth in a future article. The tank crews are a unique part of the British Army and they have a certain style, often coming across as ‘elitist’, eccentric or a walking pamphlet of statistics. This portrayal has led to the belief that you can spare a man from the Challenger 2, the Russians use auto-loaders in the T series tanks so this is the way forward right? Wrong! Every man is as much a vital part of the running of the tank as a part of the engine or gun itself. Often seen in the realms of films and video games is the one man tank crew, that couldn’t be further from how Challenger tanks really work.
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