Wartime terrors

I AM pleased the tV thriller Bodyguard has raised the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder.

My father was a 21-year-old wireless operator/gunner in Lancaster bombers during World War II, flying 31 operations over germany and France. on one occasion the bomb bay of the aircraft was shot away and another time they limped back to england on only two engines and without an undercarriage.

My mother told me that for a long time after the war, my father would wake up during the night covered in sweat and screaming: ‘Put that fire out.’ Just like the scene in Bodyguard, on two occasions he grabbed my mother’s neck while he was in the middle of a nightmare.

thankfully, he recovered and went on to lead a full and successful life. But how many, like Sgt Budd in Bodyguard, lose their families, or end up on the streets or in prison? ALLAN PICKERING, Egremont, Cumbria.