was replaced with an enclosed metal-box structure with enough room for a driver and a gunner lying prone. This box, pivoting from the rear, could be elevated. At the top end was a machine-gun turret (with two Bren guns). The intention was to drive the Mantis up to a wall or hedgerow, elevate the gun, and fire over the obstacle from a position of safety. It was rejected after trials in 1944. An example of the Mantis is preserved in The Tank Museum. Operators Many variants of the British Universal Carrier have been fielded and used by the armed forces of the following countries, amongst many others: Pre-war/Second World War period (used by in-exile Belgian forces in the Middle Eastern regions during the war, after the country was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940) : 1500 UCs supplied by Australia during the war, with a sizeable number of these (about 400) being 3-inch mortar-carrier versions. The pro-Japanese Collaborationist Chinese Army also received carriers captured in Singapore by the Japanese. Mk.Is used by Czechoslovak battalion 11 in the Middle East, Mk.Is, Mk.IIs, Mk.IIIs, Mortars used by Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade in UK and Western Europe, 15 UCs Mk.II received from the USSR - served in I Corps of the Czechoslovak Army-in-exile on the Eastern Front) : used by Free French Forces (by the German Wehrmacht, which operated a small number of carriers captured mainly from the UK) : captured vehicles, many of them seized after the capture of Singapore. (fielded by Free Greek troops following the country's fall to Nazi German occupation in the Middle East, like the exiled Belgian military forces) Azad Hind: The Indian National Army received carriers captured by Japan after the fall of Singapore. : 26 Mk. I carriers received in 1940 and 200 Mk. II carriers from 1943 to 1945. Still in service in the 1960s. : a few captured UCs used by the Regio Esercito unit of the Italian Army and one locally produced copy (the ) Dutch government-in-exile: used by the Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade. : operated by the in-exile Polish Armed Forces in the West : the Portuguese Army received more than 178 universal carriers from 1942. (the main operator in WWII) (57 UCs en route for Canadian troop units in Hong Kong were in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded both Hong Kong and the Philippines, with 40 UCs