Portée (military)

The term is most often used to describe anti-tank equipments used by the British, Commonwealth and imperial forces in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War.

A battery of Deacons were issued per anti-tank regiment as a mobile reserve but by the end of the North African Campaign in May 1943 were obsolete and were replaced by US M10 tank destroyers before operations began in Europe.

[12] On 21 November 1941 at Sidi Rezegh in Libya, during Operation Crusader, J Battery, 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery with its 2-pounders resisted a German counter-attack by Panzer IV tanks.

The battery commander Major Bernard Pinney MC ordered Ward Gunn to remove the dead crew on a serviceable gun and get it back into action.

When Ward Gunn was killed, Pinney pushed his body out of the way to continue single-handed until it was eventually put out of action by direct fire.