Tanks Across the Desert: The War Diary of Jake Wardrop

by George Forty (Editor)

Tanks Across the Desert is a British tank sergeant's personal story of war. It gives an extremely true-to-life picture of fierce armored warfare in the Second World War, vividly recreating the atmosphere of conflict and destruction encountered by one Allied tank crew in the bloody campaigns across North Africa and Italy. Sergeant Jake Wardrop joined the 5th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment (5RTR) in 1937. He fought in France in 1940; in the Western Desert, Tripolitania and Tunisia; and then, until December 1943, in the invasion of Italy. Wardrop's battalion returned to the UK to prepare for D-Day and Jake took part in the great European campaigns of liberation in 1944 and 1945, only to be killed in action a few days before the end of the war. Wardrop kept a detailed and graphic record of each battle in which he was to take part from 1941 to 1943, compiling a personal diary which had long remained in the possession of his mother to whom he sent back extracts from time to time while on active service. This diary gives a vivid insight into Wardrop's many adventures with 5RTR and also serves as an exciting battlefield record of his battalion.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 22, 2003

About the author

George Forty was a British Army officer who was the chief of staff at the gunnery school at the Royal Armoured Corps. He was later a director of the Tank Museum at Bovington.

Forty was a military historian and had written numerous books on military vehicles with a focus on armoured warfare.

Reviews

[The Villan]

Good easy read. Author has blended the diary entries of Jake with known historical facts as his unit moved around Africa and Italy and finally Europe. Interesting insight into the life of a British tanker crew.