What happens
The Pacific Story presents an episode on the Malacca Strait, the 520-mile waterway between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The narration traces centuries of rivalry over the strait, from Portuguese and Dutch competition to British control, piracy, and the Japanese occupation of 1941 and 1942. It then describes the Allied effort to reclaim the strait and its strategic value for shipping between Europe, India, China and the Indies. Admiral Sir James Somerville, head of the British Admiralty delegation in Washington, gives commentary on the strait's importance to the war in the Pacific. The episode was first broadcast on March 18, 1945, by the National Broadcasting Company.
The Malacca Strait between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, with ports at Malacca, Penang, Singapore, and Banda Aceh, in the Southwest Pacific during World War II
Characters: Admiral Sir James Somerville, Captain Worthington, Commander
Listen for: Admiral Somerville's commentary on why control of the Malacca Strait matters to the Allied war effort
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.