Eighty years ago the alllies bring one gruelling campaign to a close

 

 Canadian and Royal Marine forces stormed the island of Walcheren with the island's capital, Middelburg, falling to an audacious thrust by amphibious Buffalo personnel carriers. Because the ground was almost completed inundated it would not have been possible to use tanks. This ended  Battle of the Scheldt and finally opened access to the port of Antwerp. 40,000 Germans were taken prisoner but the attackers had suffered over 20,000 casualties of which the bulk fell on Canadians.

F. D. Roosevelt was reelected for an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States. He beat Thomas Dewey, his Republican opponent by a comfortable margin, winning 36 states giving him 432 votes in the electoral college, well above the 266 needed to win. Dewey took only twelve states. In the popular vote Roosevelt obtained 53.4% to Dewey's 45.9%. Concerns about Roosevelt's health and the conduct of the war were strong and vocal, but far less than support for him. 

Churchill confirmed to the House of Commons that the general election would be held after the war in Europe ended. It was not expected that Japan would be defeated for at least one, probably two years, so this would mean a possible change in government and the  reversion to the traditional battle between the government and parliamentary opposition during wartime.