The Russians are removing their T-54/T-55 tanks from storage, at the same time more and more Western tanks are arriving in Ukraine - in particular, Ukrainian tankers have completed training on British Challenger 2 tanks, and it is in the context of these vehicles that it is interesting to recall one of the last meetings between these British and Soviet tanks on the battlefield during the war in Iraq – the news of The Guardian edition of March 28, 2003 will help us with this.
" Early yesterday 14 Challenger 2 tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed a squadron of ageing Iraqi T-55 tanks and three armoured personnel carriers," the news reported.
Read more: Ukraine’s Defense Minister Confirmed That British Challenger 2 Tanks Arrived in Ukraine (Video)
As noted, 14 Russian-made Iraqi tanks, after they emerged from a wooded area, tried to attack British Challenger 2 tanks as they crossed a canal on a pontoon built by the Royal Engineers.
One of the British officers called such a decision an " not a rational act", and the battle between the T-55 and Challenger 2 was compared to a "the bicycle against the motor car" competition - the Soviet-made tanks were destroyecd, and the British vehicles came out of that battle without losses and the result was called "remarkable success".
However, here it is worth noting that the battle for the British Challenger 2 was not so simple - details about it are added in Forbes, where it is noted that it was quite difficult to operate a vehicle weighing more than 60 tons, because there were only salt flats and drained marshland around, and in fact the vehicles could move only along the pipeline trails.
It is also worth noting that the British tanks entered the battle not without the support of artillery, which at the beginning of the battle "scattered" the Iraqi T-55s moving in one group.
Read more: The UK Ministry of Defense Published a Detailed Video on How Ukrainian Tankers Mastered the Challenger 2 Tank
