by Andrew Hitchon

A YORK museum has greeted a new arrival - a senior commander's tank from the Gulf War.

Perhaps fortunately from a space point of view, the new acquisition at the Regimental Museum in Tower Street is a model of a Challenger I tank.

But the accuracy of the model has been vouched for by the man whose tank it was based on - Major General Patrick Cordingley, who commanded the Desert Rats during the conflict.

Maj Gen Cordingley, who is Honorary Colonel of the Royal Dragoon Guards, yesterday presented the model to the museum, which the regiment shares with the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire.

He was also in York to make preparations for a special day on March 16, when the Royal Dragoon Guards will be exercising their freedom of the city, and unveiling a memorial window in All Saints' Church, Pavement.

Maj Gen Cordingley, who formerly commanded 2nd Division in York, explained that the model was highly accurate, down to its desert surroundings, and the journalists questioning him as he sat in the turret.

"We were always surrounded by reporters, talking to me," he explained.

The tank, which carried his pennant as brigade commander and that of the Desert Rats, was given an individual name, following tradition.

This vehicle was known as Bazoft's Revenge, a name which initially puzzled Major General Cordingley.

But, as he explained in his book about the conflict, In The Eye Of The Storm, his driver explained that the name came from Farzad Bazoft, who was hanged by the Iraqi authorities in 1990 for alleged spying. Mr Barzoft was working for The Observer newspaper at the time.

Major General Cordingley said about 50 members of the Royal Dragoon Guards accompanied him to the Gulf, so he had decided that the model should be in their regimental museum.

Updated: 09:33 Saturday, January 26, 2002