British armour and rules of engagement

Britain's armoured forces appear alongside submarines and sloops as wartime subjects whose public stories are often forgotten or distorted. A Netherlands scene in Band of Brothers presents a British tank commander as foolish for refusing to fire without knowing the target's location. The counterpoint is that this is a rules-of-engagement problem: uncertainty about the target can make restraint professionally necessary. The example prepares viewers to read the following books as correctives to simplified judgments about British armoured performance.