James Holland

And 8% are armoured units, of which only 48% are actually in tanks.

So less than 4% are in tanks.

The comparison really is the Lancaster crew of seven that has sort of 48 men servicing it on the ground.

It's a kind of similar sort of principle.

Exactly.

But the point is, is that by this stage, they've really worked out the logistics.

And a lot of these hard yards have been worked out, not earlier in the war, but in the Western Desert.

There's that big change in the summer of 1942 where they go, hang on a minute, let's just really reassess everything.

tactical air forces the desert air force through to you know how you can duct tape farm and all the rest of it this is part of the montgomery reforms it's not entirely i mean a lot of the stuff has already been worked out beforehand but but this is part of that principle that you that you have that long tail that you you've really fought it through and you're maximizing your equipment because getting equipment to the battlefield is really complicated takes a huge amount of time and effort and and

shipping space and all the rest of it so when you get it there yes it's expendable but if it isn't expendable let's let's try and keep it on the battlefield yeah and because they're for the most part going forward what that means is whatever most of the tanks that are damaged at night there's very very few tanks when they're knocked out in a battle are knocked out permanently

Some of them are, you know, they're hit and the turret blows off and everything burns out and that's that.

And it's complete, total write-off.

But lots of them conk out because mechanical failure, because their track's been knocked out, it hits mine, whatever it might be.

And so the whole point of the LADs and the armoured recovery vehicles is to come in overnight, whip them off the battlefield, take them back to the kind of, you know, the A echelon rear areas where the LAD is, the light aid detachment, and get them ready again for the following day.

Large numbers are really helpful because then you've got large numbers of parts.

You've got lots of numbers of people who know how to use them.

And there's a kind of sort of universality about them.

Yes, I mean, I think the point we're trying to say is don't assume that's a sign of weakness.

That's actually a sign of strength.

Yeah, exactly.