British PM once almost crushed in war zone (12)
I believe the answer is:
battleground
'war zone' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'british pm once almost crushed' is the wordplay.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'pm once' becomes 'Attlee' (prime minister Clement Attlee).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'crushed' becomes 'ground' (synonyms).
'attlee' with its final letter removed is 'attle'.
'b'+'attle'+'ground'='BATTLEGROUND'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for battleground that I've seen before include "where action has taken place" , "Place of military encounter" , "arena" , "Area of conflict" , "Army hospital near here perhaps" .)