Churchill arrived at the White House wearing a double-breasted peacoat and a naval cap, carrying a walking stick mounted with a flashlight for London’s Blitz -driven blackouts, and chomping on a cigar. Navy plane, and the president greeted him at Washington National Airport.

The prime minister flew to Washington from Norfolk on a U.S. Both men had hoped it would convince the American people to join the war and ally with Britain, but public opinion in the U.S. They had met four months earlier, in Newfoundland, to draft the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration of postwar goals, including self-government for all peoples.

FDR had just told her that Churchill was arriving that night to stay for “a few days.”Ĭhurchill, whose warship had just docked in Norfolk, Virginia after ten storm-tossed days at sea, was anxious to travel the 140 miles to Washington to see Roosevelt. “You should have told me!” Eleanor said, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book No Ordinary Time. On the morning of December 22, the day of Churchill’s arrival, the chief White House butler, Alonzo Fields, walked into an argument between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. As December became January-75 years ago this month-the president and prime minister bonded over late-night drinking sessions that annoyed the First Lady, taxed White House staff and cemented the partnership that won the world war. He celebrated Christmas 1941 with FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Churchill arrived in Washington for a three-week stay at the White House.

“Delighted to have you here at the White House,” the president replied. After expressing concern about Churchill’s safety in the U-boat-filled ocean-a concern the prime minister waved off-FDR assented. “We could review the whole war plan in light of reality and new facts,” an eager Winston Churchill wrote to Roosevelt. Roosevelt was delivering his “day of infamy” speech to Congress, the British prime minister resolved to sail across the Atlantic to fortify his nation’s most important alliance. The very hour that the United States entered World War II, Winston Churchill decided to invite himself to Washington, D.C.

1942 call of war day change