I happened to discover a fix simply by chance. When you start the game you get the menu still present throughout the game until you've either destroyed all the Russian Tanks or you are destroyed. After a few moments I'd had enough of the game because the menu was too distracting; so I pressed the Esc key , which pauses the game, then, instead of returning to the main menu I pressed the continue button; hey presto, the menus disappear and you can play without the menu present. Problem solved.