British Invasion

With plenty of tanks participating, pairs of foxes were chosen at random and sent into the forest to start each round. Each pair of foxes was given 5 minutes to hide before the dogs of war were released. In addition, two artillery pieces - Bazooka Joe and the Flak 88 - were placed in the woods and allowed to shoot both foxes and hounds. The artillery pieces had unlimited ammo and were considered invincible.

In past battles using this scenario, only a single fox was sent out and despite some valiant efforts, no fox ever survived the entire 15 minutes. This day would see not only the first successful fox, but also the first successful pair of foxes.

In the first round, Frank's Semovente and Will's SU-100 were randomly chosen as the foxes and they hid in the forest. The hounds began sniffing them out and there was some confusion (amongst the hounds) as to where the "road" was located (the outer boundary of the forest). The foxes watched the confusion for a couple minutes, hidden nicely underneath some large evergreen trees. Eventually, the hounds located the foxes and the chaos was in full swing. Ferocious attacks by Neil's Tiger against the SU-100 resulted in one fox retired (7:30 min) and magazine problems in the Semovente eventually caused it to be cornered, despite wild rides through the trees (10:30 min).

The second group of foxes included Paul's PzII and Neil's Tiger. The hounds took a while to locate these foxes. They flushed out the Tiger first, surrounding it under the trees. The Tiger was captured by the hounds at exactly 8:00 minutes into the sortie. The PzII was more difficult to locate. Paul hid the tank in the trees and then walked to another location. The hounds started sniffing around Paul, losing valuable time. Eventually, the PzII was located, but it still couldn't be cornered and put down. The PzII became the first ever fox to survive the scenario.

Paul and I were selected as the second pair of foxes. Fully intending to work together I spun T001 into the thick of the trees expecting to encounter Paul in there somewhere. Once in the trees I realised visibility was very low and I was on my own. My new plan was to wait in ambush for the first hound to wander into my line of fire. In the distance I could hear the hounds howl as they set off towards my general direction. Before long I could see the side of Will's tank and fired a few shots into it. Mayhem and panic immediately broke out, as tanks and tankers darted in and out of small gaps, every hound knowing they couldn't survive by keeping their fronts facing the enemy and every fox knowing that they were outnumbered. In other words, whilst engaging one hound another would be making a move to flank your side. If only hounds would come one at a time a fox would have a long life but this was not to be the case. Quite quickly I had three hits on the Tiger. I sharpened my game and spent my time repositioning and only firing when I could see a very possible hit. The sound of a moving tank is a dead giveaway in thick cover and it was a long way back to home base to re-arm. I was eventually taken out by more experienced and skilled tankers than myself but felt pleased with my performance thus far.

The final group of foxes, Steve and John, backed themselves in heavy underbrush (just on the outskirts of the designated area). The only way in was from the front and the thick cover would not allow any shots at their flank to penetrate. As they had noticed from earlier hunts, Bazooka Joe and the Flak 88 were hunting Hounds not Foxes (perhaps they were Greenpeace assets) and they continued in that fashion. So the 88 set up in the crossroads and Bazooka Joe in concealment. These assets were allowed to move at will on the battlefield and were invulnerable to attack. So, the foxes had prepared a trap for their domesticated cousins. Had to live up to the saying "Smart as a fox" after all. The fur began to fly after about 5 minutes into the scenario. At one juncture, John's intrepid fox, took advantage of a precedent set in an earlier hunt, and was able to take a time out while reloading. The hounds did not like this, but, a precedent is a precedent. In the end, both foxes were alive. The Cromwell and PzII became the first fox team to survive. Moreover, they (with help from the artillery pieces) sent all but one of the hounds back to the kennels.