https://www.nps.gov/articles/erooseveltww2.htm
"On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his “Day Of Infamy Speech”. That evening, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt gave a radio address about the need for Americans to focus on the war effort, trying to calm fears for the future, and calling upon women and young people for their support of the President and the nation’s leaders in the difficult days ahead. Then she was off to the west coast, travelling to Oregon and San Francisco to help organize Offices of Civilian Defense in that area. Her “My Day” columns were filled with information about the efforts to prepare for the war on the home front, and seeking to rally citizens to do their part by volunteering for organizations like the Red Cross. In later years, she wrote, “In retrospect, the thing that strikes me about these days is my triple barreled effort to work with the Office of Civilian Defense, carry out my official engagements and still keep the home fires burning.” I wonder particularly how I ever managed to get in all the trips I took.” Yet at the time, she felt that she was not doing enough. When FDR approached her about taking a trip to England to observe the women’s role in the war effort and visit American servicemen, she was delighted.
By October of 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt was on her way to visit a country in the midst of war, where the shrill sounds of air raid sirens and the whistle of German bombs were a part of daily life. Despite the danger, Eleanor Roosevelt was determined to go because she wanted to be doing something useful. Security and secrecy were essential to ensure the safety of the First Lady. Therefore, her name was not mentioned in official communications. Instead she was given the code name “Rover”. Although the Secret Service assigned her that code name, she suspected that her husband had something to do with the choice. People who officially accompanied her were dubbed “Rover’s Rangers”.
While touring England, Eleanor Roosevelt’s typical day began at 8:00 AM and ended at midnight. Each day included writing a My Day column. She visited clothing distribution centers, military and naval bases. She spent time with hundreds of wounded servicemen and offered to write to their families when she returned home. She collected hundreds of names and followed through on her promise.
There was nothing that she did not want to see and experience. At one point she even inspected a parachute battalion and insisted on having the pilots help her into the seat of a cockpit of a plane. One reporter wrote, “She walked 50 miles through factories, clubs and hospitals. She walked me off my feet.” During the course of her travels, Mrs. Roosevelt was impressed with all the work women did to support their country. She also felt that the effort to win the war erased the lines of social class among the British citizens. She wrote, “These British Isles, which we always regarded as class-conscious, as a place where people were so nearly frozen in their classes that they rarely moved from one to the other, became welded together by war into a closely knit community in which many of the old distinctions lost their point and from which new values emerged.” Doubtless she was hoping this kind of positive change could eventually occur in the United States with respect to racial differences. "...(more at link)
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