The 9th Annual Visit of the 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment

Once a year for the past 8 years we have been visited by a crew of 3 men from the north. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited crew of the year for our instructors here at Armourgeddon and certainly a day never to forget.

The crew usually book early in the season and from that point on, make Facebook comments about their up coming visit, tell us when we are making Democratic statements that their Communist personas disagree with and join in almost every conversation that we have on social media. Of the previous 8 visits, there has been just one tank battle loss. And so their arrival at 1400hrs on the 13th July 2014 was red circled in the diary, highlighted and starred and our newest instructor, Joe, was prepared to welcome the 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment.

Sargent Bigckstly, P Harris and Kenny Allen arrived at Southfields Farm with Russian Marching music blaring form their portable CD player in full Russian military clothing and badges marching down the drive and into the reception area at Armourgeddon. Furnished with water guns (this year filled with water rather than the Vodka of previous visits…) our most imaginative regular crew had entered the building, plugged their CD player into our museum PA and the sound of Russian Marching music played out for the rest of the day.

Welcoming the crew were our merry band of Amourgeddon Instructors – soon squirted by way of an entry by the 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment. As Joe stepped forward to meet his crew for the next couple of hours, he was welcomed into the Regiment by way of Russian salute- not quite sure what to make of his crew for the afternoon.

Joe was warned by the Regiment that they had only once lost one battle in their history with Armourgeddon and that they would not be repeating that event today…

The battle that they had lost a few years ago saw a 9 year old boy as a part of the crew in the tank that beat them. When the 2 crews left their tanks, the child was summoned over by the 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment and one of them took off a pin badge from his uniform and presented it to the boy stating ‘for mission of excellence you are presented Star of Leningrad’. The delighted boy raced back to his mother with a huge grin on his face.

As Joe and his 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment headed off to 09A- Martha with the Russian flog on the turret to start their tank driving, marching across the entry to the bombing range here at Armourgeddon, smiles were aplenty throughout the group.

Keeping to character throughout their Tank Paintball Battle experience, the three spoke only in clipped Russian prose to Joe and to one another with their battle mantra of “No Retreat, No Surrender” After a quite spectacular battle, the score stood at a staggering 10-10 with the enemy tank. Quite a feat of targeted shooting from both crews- the average score is 7 out of 12. And so the 9th visit of the ‘Crazy Russians’ stands at a draw.

As the late afternoon sun continued to warm the ground of our WWII bombing range, the Crazy Russians headed off for another year, back to their hotel at Knaptoft House Farm B+B to meet with the wives who had spent their day shopping and, almost guaranteed, to the bar for an evening re-telling the stories of their 9th visit to Armourgeddon.

See you next year, 256th Wiganski Tank Regiment.