As a result of the Allied occupation of North Africa, powerful units of the French Army and Navy are going into action.  They are in action with the United Nations forces.  We welcome them as allies and as friends.  They join with those Frenchmen who, since the dark days of June, 1940, have been fighting valiantly for the liberation of their stricken country.

We pay tribute to the fighting leaders of our allies, to Winston Churchill, to Joseph Stalin, and to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.  Yes, there is a very great unanimity between the leaders of the United Nations.  This unity is effective in planning and carrying out the major strategy of this war and in building up and in maintaining the lines of supplies.

I cannot prophesy.  I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are going to strike next in Europe.  But we are going to strike—­and strike hard.  I cannot tell you whether we are going to hit them in Norway, or through the Low Countries, or in France, or through Sardinia or Sicily, or through the Balkans, or through Poland—­or at several points simultaneously.  But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly.  Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.

Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their miscalculations—­that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior air power as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London and Coventry.  That superiority has gone—­forever.

Yes, the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it—­and they are going to get it.

Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our progress on the production front.

There has been criticism of the management and conduct of our war production.  Much of this self-criticism has had a healthy effect.  It has spurred us on.  It has reflected a normal American impatience to get on with the job.  We are the kind of people who are never quite satisfied with anything short of miracles.

But there has been some criticism based on guesswork and even on malicious falsification of fact.  Such criticism creates doubts and creates fears, and weakens our total effort.

I do not wish to suggest that we should be completely satisfied with our production progress today, or next month, or ever.  But I can report to you with genuine pride on what has been accomplished in 1942.

A year ago we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943.  Some people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some big figures out of a hat just to frighten the Axis.  But we had confidence in the ability of our people to establish new records.  And that confidence has been justified.

Of course, we realized that some production objectives would have to be changed—­some of them adjusted upward, and others downward; some items would be taken out of the program altogether, and others added.  This was inevitable as we gained battle experience, and as technological improvements were made.