CHALLENGER 2 battle tanks blasted their way across Lulworth’s firing range in a live-ammunition training session for the Royal Wessex Yeomanry’s reserve soldiers.

Soldiers demonstrated their growing ability to support the UK’s rapid reaction force as the country’s Armoured Reserves.

For the first time the tanks were manned entirely by reserves from five squadrons based in Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

Their practice sessions on Five Tips firing range in the 52-tonne tanks included shooting 20kg ‘squash head’ practice shells as well as anti-tank rounds, which had three moving parts.

Captain Ed Hodges explained the ammunition being used packs quite a punch and moves so quickly it could even ‘burn through’ the armour of other tanks, becoming a ‘molten slug’.

Trooper Curtis Croker, 21, has been with Bovington-based A Squadron for three years but found the training really useful.

He said: “I have been out to Canada with the regular army.

“I was a [tank] driver out there. It was a really good experience and I learnt a lot more being attached to a regular regiment.

“Now I know what to expect I want to get a job whenever something comes up– as a driver, or hopefully a gunner or loader.”

“Driving a tank is an amazing experience and it’s very different to an ordinary job.

“It can be challenging, especially if you are under a lot of pressure, but it can also be exciting to see how everything works – I’d recommend it to other people.”

Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Chris MacGregor said the training was essential to acquire the right skills.

He said: “We can train them in virtual environments but there is nothing like getting them in the equipment that they are going to have to use. It’s really useful to give them that training to get them up to standard.

“The fact that 53 reservists are here firing tanks, it’s an assumption they wouldn’t have made four years ago. We have taken an old Territorial Army and updated training and added reserves to it and we are now much more capable.”