Gareth highlights the loss, 75 years ago of Jake Wardrop a veteran tank sergeant, just weeks from the end of the war. His diary, published in various versions, is one of the most remarkable personal accounts of the war.His words were censored, to avoid embarrassing the living 1/ https://twitter.com/bermicourt/status/1248533447607533568

While writing The Tank War, I found a letter fm Sjt Wardrop to his mother explaining his refusal to take a cushier job, "if I stopped now & skulked around until the end I would never hold my head up again...I am a tank commander...and I will continue to be one until the end" 2/

A whip smart, pugnacious & caustic Glaswegian, Wardrop reminded me of NCOs I met in 4RTR. But he was very damaged by 5 years continuous combat, suffering 'jitters' in battle, drinking heavily & toying sometimes with suicide. But his death so near the end rocked his regt /END