THE LODZ GHETTO - The Jewish ghetto in Lodz (named Litzmannstadt by the Germans) existed from May 1940 to August 1944. The very first to be set up in Poland, and the second-largest after Warsaw, it was also the longest surviving of all the ghettos created by the Nazi regime. Karel Margry tells the story.

The Race for Messina - Armando Donato explains how the Allied invasion of Sicily, which began on the night of July 9/10, 1943, had two principal objectives: to secure a springboard for a planned invasion of the Italian mainland, and to destroy the Italian and German forces that garrisoned the island. Prime objective of the campaign was the city of Messina, in the north-east corner of the island, separated from the Italian mainland by only the narrow Strait of Messina.

Port Stephens Amphibious Training Centre - From September 1942 to October, 1943, the Royal Australian Navy and the US Army and Navy maintained a joint training school at Port Stephens on Australia's eastern coast for amphibious landing operations. This was to ready troops for operations in the war against Japan. David Mitchelhill-Green reports.