Click here for entry for Wednesday 13th January – Tuesday 19th January 1943
Wednesday January 20
Day 655
Farm trip cancelled owing to state of weather so spent most of day in writing. Slowing catching up.
Thursday January 21
Day 656
Booked in for tour to Jericho & Dead Sea for next Wednesday. Received 4 cables – Xmas greetings & parcel from home – sweets and socks. Still raining as hard as ever. Free pictures at night – Next of Kin. British Propaganda but quite good and a lot in it.
Friday January 22
Day 657
Usual fatigue during morning – massage. Went for stroll through village & orange groves during afternoon. Quite an enjoyable walk. Kfar Vitkin termed? as a Co-operative Colony. All deal through one general store but farm their land individually. Farms much smaller to ours at home – very compacted. Pictures at night.
Saturday January 23
Day 658
Usual morning. In afternoon watched football match between Palestinian Police & Con. Depot. Cinema at night “??? of ???”. Graded B.1.
Sunday January 24
Day 659
Fatigues then began writing letters. Saw football match again – South Island vs. North Island. South winning 5-3. Saw “Torrid Zone” at night.
Monday January 25
Day 660
Rather showery today. Continued writing. Pictures during evening. “In the Navy” Dick Powell.
Tuesday January 26
Day 661
Weather cleared considerably – might be fine for tomorrow. Picture “Bill of Divorcement”.
Wednesday January 27
Day 662
Went on tour to Dead Sea & Jericho. Left camp 8am…
Click here for entry for Wednesday 27th January (cont) – Tuesday 2nd February 1943
14 Weeks Worth of Socks 
Day 657. He went for a walk through a Jewish or Zionist kibbutz, collective community, that would have served as a defensive unit in the days before the establishment of Israel. If you can locate his camp on a map, you should be also be able to locate this kibbutz which was nearby.
I am curious about the movies he is seeing. How current are they?
Most of the movies I tend to caption on the posters with the date if can find it. Usually they are 2-3 years old.
I’ll see if I can find a map. Thanks 🙂
[…] Click here for entry for Wednesday 20th January – Wednesday 27th January 1943 […]
Most of the films they were shown were only a couple of years old. Have you kept a running tally of how many he’s seen.
No but it seems like a heck of a lot!
Have you ever read Alan Moorehead’s The Desert War? I you havent, you might find it informative.
No, but I have reading the 23rd battalion official history by Angus Ross which is free to read online (not sure if this works out of NZ) http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-23Ba.html
I’m reading this one along side the diary entries which is an interesting perspective.
and I found Our War by Martyn Thompson very interesting too as it was personal recollections of NZ servicemen (and a few women) in the North Africa campaign.
Moorehead should be available in a cheap, used condition. I read it a long time ago. He was a war correspondent, and I think you will enjoy the perspective.
Thanks, I will see if I can track down a copy
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