Hello and welcome to this edition of Between the Lines, the podcast that desiphers the

handwriting, unfolds faded pages and dips into the details of Diaries, logbooks and letters

written during this same week, there or thereabouts, in 1943, some 80 years ago.

Let's start with a quick recap of the situation.

The battle for Sicily is still being hard fought, but if it wasn't clear before Operation Husky,

it's now all too obvious to most that Italy has finally shot its bolt in this war.

Mussolini is a shadow of his former strutting self, but agrees to see Hitler in person on the 19th

of July. They meet at Feltre in northern Italy, where the Fuhrer is in full ranting mood and

Il Ducce hardly gets a word in edgeways. It's the last straw for the fascist grand council,

and on the 20th of July they vote in favour of Mussolini's resignation. The following day,

the Italian king, victor Emmanuel III, insists Mussolini step down. After 21 years, the fascist

regime is over, until Ducce arrested. Italy's exit from the war is now inching ever closer.

The Allied Army Group Commander, General Saharald Alexander, becomes the first military

governor of Sicily this week, and one of his first acts is to denounce and proclaim the dissolution

of all fascist organisations. There's also plenty still going on in the South Pacific this week,

the battle for Buraco on New Georgia, for example, but on the home front all of the headlines

are about the Italian campaign. We'll check in with Veer Hodgson on the home front first,

where she's keeping up to date with a diary in Notting Hill Gate. Let's find out what she's

been picking up from the radio and the national newspapers. Sunday 18th July, during a broadcast

in Copenhagen, the Danes began singing the Norwegian National Anthem. At first the Germans did

not tweak what was going on, then it was hastily switched off, but the Danes had got it in well.

Captain Hanson, our nice Norwegian sea captain, called to see us in the office.

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