A SOUTH Lakeland soldier was crushed to death when the tank he was commanding overturned during an Army exercise, an inquest heard this week.

Lieutenant Paul Syred, 25, of Sedbergh, and radio operator Corporal Michael Paterson, 28, of Warminster, lost their lives when a 62-tonne Challenger II tank driven by an inexperienced trooper plunged down a steep ravine onto its roof.

They had their heads out of the tank's hatches when the accident happened during Operation Druid's Dance on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on July 11 last year.

Their injuries were so horrific, the inquest heard, that positive identification could only be made through fingerprints.

Lt Syred - a Cambridge and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, graduate - was taking part in his first exercise which was aimed at training tank crews of the King's Royal Hussars Regiment.

A colleague of the two soldiers, Trooper Simon Hampton, told the inquest in Salisbury how the tank had just been engaged to "enemy" tanks on a narrow track when the gunner heard orders to reverse.

"I was just trying to lock on to our first target when I heard the order to reverse on my headset," he said.

"We must have been going quite fast because I wasn't able to lock on to my target.

"Then I heard screaming.

It was frantic shouting coming from either Lieutenant Syred or Corporal Paterson, but I couldn't hear what they were saying."

The tank, which had been driven along the higher of two narrow tracks, paused for a split second before plunging down a steep ravine and tipping onto its roof.

Trooper Scott Christie, 18, told the hearing that he had only been qualified to drive the tank for a few weeks and added that conditions had been slippery, causing the tank to lose ground on a gradient.

"It was the first time I had experienced these problems," he said.

Trooper Christie said Corporal Paterson had given him the order to "hard reverse" after they engaged an "enemy" tank.

The inquest heard that although the Challenger tank had suffered from battle fatigue, with high mileage and suspension problems, inspections by the Army's Land Accident Investigation Team and Wiltshire police found that the vehicle was mechanically sound.

Wiltshire coroner David Masters said he was concerned about how many inexperienced soldiers were involved in the exercise and criticised the Ministry of Defence's failure to sufficiently train young troopers on hazard awareness.

He recommended a review of the mix of experienced and inexperienced tank crews and the hours spent by them on cross-country exercise.

The inquest jury returned verdicts of accidental death.