1943

To fully appreciate The More the Merrier, it is important to know that, during WW2, there was an acute housing shortage in Washington DC. This is why elderly Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is obliged to share a tiny DC apartment with pretty Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and handsome Joe Carter (Joel McCrea). After nearly two reels of misunderstandings, the trio becomes accustomed to their curious living arrangement. Joe takes a platonic liking to Connie, but she's engaged to stuffy bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines)..

Author William Saroyan's corn-shucking brand of sentimentality works wonders in this 1943 filmization of his novel. Narrator Ray Collins is dead before the film begins; thus he is able to provide an all-seeing overview of the tiny community of Ithaca, California. The principal character, played by Mickey Rooney, is Collins' son; as the delivery boy for the local telegraph office, Rooney keeps in close contact with virtually every family in town, which results in several comic and poignant moments..

Mervyn LeRoy directed this excellent biography of the life of Madam Curie, the Polish woman who discovered radium. The film presents the scientific and romantic life of Curie with great authenticity, basing the story on the biography by Curie's daughter, Eve. Greer Garson stars as a stunning woman too in love with science to have time for men. Walter Pidgeon plays her perfect complement, a man who thinks of an effective marriage as a form of chemical compound..

An expansion of, and improvement upon, Lillian Hellman's stage play of the same name, Watch on the Rhine stars Paul Lukas, recreating his Broadway role of tireless anti-fascist crusader Kurt Muller. As the clouds of war gather in Europe in the late 1930s, Muller arrives in Washington DC, accompanied by his American wife Sara (top-billed Bette Davis) and their children Joshua (Donald Buka), Bodo (Eric Roberts) and Babette (Janis Wilson)..

Between the end of the Kokoda campaign in January 1943 and the start of the New Guinea offensives at Lae in early September 1943, the Australian Army was engaged in some of the most intense and challenging fighting of the war for the ridges around Salamaua.

In July 1943 the German Army launched what proved to be its last great offensive on the Eastern Front against the Kursk salient. Kursk: The Greatest Tank Battle Ever Fought 1943 is a comprehensive account of the last time that Germany held the strategic initiative in the war against the Soviet Union, which, once lost, would lead to the inevitable destruction of the Nazi state by the vengeful Red Army. The book begins with a study of the background to the battle and a description of the events on the Eastern Front before the opening of the offensive, including the decisive battle for Stallngrad that had finished only a few months beforehand. The strategic importance of the Kursk salient is considered, as are the factors that caused the Germans to delay their offensive, even when the element of surprise had been lost. The extensive Soviet defensive preparations are covered in depth, as are the strength of both sides and the new equipment, such as the Panther tank that the Germans were using for the first time. Kursk: The Greatest Tank Battle Ever Fought 1943 shows how a bitter struggle developed between the Soviet and German forces, which sucked in huge numbers of tanks and men into a small area, so that it became the greatest armoured battle of the war. The Red Army of 1943 was very different from the force that reeled before the German onslaught in 1941, and its new found professionalism wore down the attackers until all their momentum was lost. The final chapter discusses the full implications of the battle for the Germans and for the Russians. The book's authoritative text is complemented with detailed maps that explain the troop movements that took place during the battle. The book also includes appendices with information on orders of battle, losses and equipment.