http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-01BB-Duke%20of%20York.htm
22nd – DUKE OF YORK arrived in Chesapeake Bay. She then proceeded to Norfolk Navy Yard where Churchill and party disembarked and travelled to Washington for their series of meetings which became known as the ARCADIA conference.
(The ARCADIA conference and its outcome was arguably the most important conference of the war for Great Britain; for as General Marshall, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated, “notwithstanding the entry of Japan into the war, our view is that Germany is still the prime enemy and her defeat is the key to victory”. FDR courageously endorsed this view and took the decision of ‘Germany first’, for at the time the US population were clamouring for revenge after Pearl Harbour and felt less urgency in securing the defeat of Hitler. So Churchill achieved what was his main priority for the conference.
The two leaders also called for the formation of a “grand alliance of the Allies” and between them they drew up a solemn declaration to be signed by all nations at war with Germany, as they had done with the Atlantic Charter.
On 1/1/42, representatives of 26 Allied nations signed the “Declaration by the United Nations”. Pledging to support the Atlantic Charter, the signatories agreed to commit their full resources to the defeat of the Axis powers, promised to make no separate peace, and agreed to preserve idealistic virtues such as freedom and justice. Later it would be said that this signing was the birth of the United Nations. At a time when the Germans controlled the European continent and the Japanese were sweeping across the Far East the Philippines and the Pacific, the Declaration provided millions with an uplifting message of hope.
The conference also established a Joint Anglo-American Chiefs of Staff to control the future conduct of the war, the most complete unification of military effort ever achieved by two allied nations)
23rd – DUKE OF YORK remained at Norfolk, Va to re-embark the Prime Minster after the conference, which was scheduled to last a week
(In fact, the Prime Minster did not leave the White House until 14/1/42)