The unit's commander described the moment the tank was hit by
the missile in a letter he wrote to the wounded soldier in March.
The officer wrote: "I recall seeing it [the RPG-29 being fired] and
thinking, 'Oh Christ, that's bad.'
"As it slammed into the hull, I was picked up by the shock wave of
the blast and thrown against the back wall of the turret. The
explosion singed my eyebrows and burnt my face slightly. The tank
was full of acrid smoke and fumes. I became aware of you screaming,
'I'm hit, I'm hit. My foot's off.'
"Daz [another crew member] and I looked at each other in slight
disbelief - after all, what could possibly breach a CR2's
[Challenger's] armour?"
Tpr Chance's mother Kay, 49, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said
her son had been told that the Challenger was the best in the world
and essentially impenetrable to any weapons the insurgents
possessed.
She said: "Sean often told me he felt totally safe because he was
in the best tank in the world. But we now know that is not the
case. The Government has covered it up.
"If I was the mother of the poor soldier who lost his legs last
month I would be horrified to think that an earlier attack like
this had happened before but none of the soldiers were told about
it."
His brother Luke said that Tpr Chance had been "abandoned" by the
Army following his injury. He said: "Sean has been forgotten about.
He hasn't received his Iraq medal. He's been told he is going to be
medically discharged because of his injury but no one has told him
when and what sort of pension he might get. It's a disgrace."
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