Also in August 1943…
5th: Eva-maria Buch, 22, and Rose Schlösinger, 36, are executed at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, found guilty of sending and translating messages in support of the Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) network of anti-nazi resistance groups. On hearing of her sentence, Schlösinger’s husband kills himself, while Buch’s parents’ appeals to Hitler for clemency fall on deaf ears.
11th: Operation Lehrgang, the evacuation of all Axis forces from Sicily, begins. As the Allies make rapid ground, the German commanderin-chief Albert Kesselring decides to leave the island as quickly as possible rather than defend it to the last man. His Italian counterpart, Alfredo Guzzoni, waits for orders from above to do so before following suit. 17th: The First Quebec Conference, a highly secret meeting between the governments of the US, UK and Canada, takes place. At the conference, US president Franklin D Roosevelt and British and Canadian prime ministers Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King discuss plans for the invasion of France. 19th: At the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Moeran’s Third Rhapsody in F sharp minor is given its world premiere by pianist Harriet Cohen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult. The piece goes down well, with The Times critic predicting that it ‘will win him [Moeran] respect from the general public, and something more from those who like their music unemphatic in manner, thoughtful by nature, and lyrical in expression.’
26th: The British golfer Ted Ray dies at the age of 66. Famous for a flamboyant style that saw him regularly getting into tricky positions and then having to play miraculous escape shots, Ray won the Open Championship in 1912 and the US Open in 1920. Perhaps his most famous moment, however, came when he lost to the US amateur golfer Francis Ouimet in a play-off for the 1913 US Open title.