May 19, 1943

May 19, 1943. Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D.C.

On 13 May Allied Forces completed their Northern African Campaigns, achieving total victory. Churchill commented in The Hinge of Fate: ‘The sense of victory was in the air. The whole of North Africa was cleared of the enemy. A quarter of a million prisoners were cooped in our cages. Everyone was very proud and delighted. There is no doubt that people like winning very much.’ On 16 May the Royal Air Force, in a brilliant raid deep into Germany, destroyed the Möhne and Eder dams, causing widespread flooding and destruction to the Ruhr Valley. It was under these auspicious circumstances that Churchill addressed the US Congress for the second time.