Tanks Across the Desert: The War Diary of Jake Wardrop.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.Neat,ink owner inscrptn to top edge of ffe,and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj (upper panel+spine/backstrip),with red+ black lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Head of spine/backstrip of dw/dj minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean and pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - appears unread apart from my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,original,plain brown cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate (owner inscrptn excepted) plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,9-222pp [paginated] includes illus list/table,poem,foreword by Maj-Gen W.M. Hutton (ex-CO 5th RTR), editor's preface,7 chapters,The Last Battle,profuse b/w contemporary photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book,appendices (A-B),notes on the text,a bibliography,and an index.Plus [unpaginated] half-title with b/w photographic frntis to recto,title page,a dedication,contents list/table, acknowledgements,and 2pp blanks at rear.Book (this edn) now out-of-print,as publishers ceased trading within a few years of this issue. William Kimber himself,worked for Hutchinson for about 17 years before founding "William Kimber & Co" in 1950.It specialized in aviation,war memoirs,autobiographies and motor-racing titles until 1973 when "Haunted Cornwall" took off and the Ghost Stories became another specialty. The company was bought by Thorsons in 1988,and therefore ceased publishing under that name. William Kimber was purchased by Thorsons in 1988 and therefore ceased publishing under that name. Thorsons was purchased by William Collins in 1989.William Collins became wholly owned by News Corporation in 1990, and was then incorporated into HarperCollins Publishers. The name of William Kimber has not been used for publishing since that ,making all previously published titles by them, out-of-print, under that name. 'Tanks Across the Desert' tells the story of war through the eyes of a tank sergeant.It gives an extremely true to life picture of fierce tank soldiering in the Second World War,vividly recreating the atmosphere of conflict and destruction encountered by one tank,of one squadron of one regiment in North Africa and later in Italy. Sergeant Jake Wardrop joined the 5th Battalion,Royal Tank Corps in 1937 and fought in France in the summer of 1940, then in the Western Desert,Tripolitania,Tunisia and on to Italy until December 1943.The 5th then returned to the UK to prepare for D-Day and Jake was 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 now not only gives an insight into Wardrop's many adventures with the 5th Royal Tank Regiment,but also serves as an exciting battlefield record of the fine regiment to which he was proud to belong. Please contact seller @ rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **