On this day in 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived aboard the battleship HMS Prince of Wales at Placentia Bay off the coast of Newfoundland for a secret meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On Aug. 5, Roosevelt had boarded the cruiser USS Augusta from the presidential yacht Potomac. The Augusta proceeded to Placentia Bay along with the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa and five destroyers. The flotilla arrived there on Aug. 7 while the presidential yacht played a decoy role by continuing to cruise off New England as if the president — ostensibly on a 10-day fishing trip — were still on board.
