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.

On the eastern front this week, Adolf Hitler orders the creation of the eastern wall,

along strong outlined defenses on the eastern side of German occupied territory in Latvia,

Lithuania and Estonia. The United States signed a military assistance treaty with Ethiopia,

and this is also the week that American liberators fly a record distance, some 2,500 miles from

bases in Australia to carry out the first bombing raid on the island of Borneo. Their mission,

striking the oil reserves stored at Balkpapan, thereby interrupting supplies to Japanese mechanized

forces. American and Canadian troops also invaded Kiska in the Illusion Islands, anticipating heavy

resistance. To their surprise, the 168 aircraft, 35,000 troops and 95 ships found the Japanese had

abandoned the island 17 days earlier. That did not, however, mean things went without a hitch,

while the powers that B had anticipated that one in five of the first ashore might die,

and that apprehension only increased when no Japanese appeared. The reality was that,

sadly, friendly fire meant 32 men were killed in action, and there were another 130 casualties

from trenchfoot and gangrene. Many of the infantry, quite simply, hadn't been issued with the

right boots. On that rather somber note, actually, we're not going to hear from major general

Oscar Griswald this week. We'll start instead with a quick update from Captain Bertie Packer

on HMS Warspite, Anchoroff Malta. Only a short entry from him, but I think it gives us a good

indication of what he must have been like as a commanding officer. He has a deep connection

with his ship and seems to understand exactly what makes his men tick.

...