They were ready to roll right off, to do battle with the horrifdied attackers- Achmed- the loads on those trucks, beneath the tarpauleans- they're moving!!!- while the convoy moves on out of the attackers kill zone, and after the worst of the fighting is concluded, the tanks [or other vehicles] can catch back up with the convoy and the transporters for the tanks can drop their ramps and again travel at convoy speeds. And oh, BTW: if a couple of the vehicles are down for maintenance, other loads can be covered with tarps and moved on the flatbeds, leaving the bad guys to guess whether it's an attack response vehicle under there or not.
During the 1960s, the US Army used a 5-tank platoon; for such tasks, it was found that six worked a little better, with two vehicles so carried up near the front of a 20-vehicle or so convoy, two in the middle, and two toward the rear. Since the three-tank headquarters company tank section sometimed drew the short straw for that job, one answer was to use three tanks backed up with three M42 twin-40mm antiaircraft *Dusters, which worked very nicely.*
Indeed, if *lo-boy* depressed center flatbeds or Volvo FH16 *dropbed* trailers are used, the tanks don't even have to roll off ramps to immediately respond- they can *neutral steer* off the side of the flatbed, and get after the task at hand immediately.
