My thanks to Bill Reader of Bexleyheath, who has sent me a copy of the Services Newspaper of South East Asia Command, dated October 6, 1944 – 70 years ago.

Printed in Calcutta, it cost one anna and is full of news, reviews, cartoons and comments from the various theatres of war including the home front.

The main story concerns the landings by Allied forces on the Greek mainland and some of the Greek islands.

There is a report of the deaths of Princess Beatrice, the youngest child of Queen Victoria, aged 86, and Dr William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, aged 63.

There was plenty of news from “dear old Blighty” to keep the boys well informed. This included an interview with Vincent Hoyle, warden of Dover’s deep cave shelters, which honeycomb the high white cliffs. Vin, as he was known, looked after dozens of Dover families who, for more than four years had known no other night life but the caves.

There are a few cartoons in the newspaper, but the most popular was almost certainly the one drawn by Norman Pett showing the adventures of a curvaceous lady who had difficulty in keeping her clothes on.

Jane had already acquired a devoted following among the troops and was to keep them entertained until 1949.

I remember seeing a copy of the original book of Jane and her dog Fritz. She appeared weekly in the Daily Mirror, but the cartoons were syndicated to all the services newspapers.

A wealth of material was published in service newspapers during the war and today they remain a relatively neglected source for students of history.

The editors were not allowed to criticise official government policy and journalists were obliged to be “economical with the truth” in order to sustain morale, although the correspondence columns afforded ample scope for political opinions and grievances to be aired.

There was even good news about the doodlebugs: “Fighters are destroying the fly bombs before they reach London.

“Germany believes these reprisal weapons are hitting at Britain’s morale but, once again, they are failing to do so.”

As north Kent knows, this was not the whole story.