Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (23 page)

Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.

—Matthew 25:28–29

Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca. (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library)

American Generals (Eisenhower Presidential Library)

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PRIL 18

Unconditional Surrender

In January 1943, as the battle for Tunisia was still in progress, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in Casablanca. Speaking to journalists, Roosevelt made a bold statement: “ The elimination of German, Japanese, and Italian war power means the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy, and Japan.”
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Churchill nodded and then voiced his agreement. This “unconditional surrender” position, taken with relatively little deliberation, had long-range and controversial consequences. Many voiced criticism that the war would be prolonged, as the Axis dictators would be forced to fight on to the bitter end. Winston Churchill disagreed with this objection:

We… demand from the Nazi, Fascist, and Japanese tyrannies unconditional surrender. By this we mean that their will power to resist must be completely broken, and that they must yield themselves absolutely to our justice and mercy. It does not mean, and it never can mean, that we are to stain our victorious arms by inhumanity or by mere lust of vengeance, or that we do not plan a world in which all branches of the human family may look forward to what the American Declaration of Independence finely calls “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
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With this statement Churchill articulated a higher vision of the Allied purpose in the war. The war had first to be won, but the peace would be characterized by mercy. This vision was ultimately borne out by the actions of the victorious nations. The defeated countries were not subjugated or pillaged. Instead they were rebuilt and reintegrated into the free world.

Mankind has been blessed that our infinitely powerful and righteous Creator is also amazingly merciful. Rather than giving us what we deserve in judgment, he has given us redemption through his only son, Jesus Christ. It is only through God’s mercy that we have any hope of a secure place in his kingdom. When we display compassion toward others we are reflecting this mercy and doing his will.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

—James 2:12–13

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PRIL 19

Lost Friends

Bill Cheall was a member of the Green Howards Regiment and part of General Montgomery’s 8
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Army advancing into Tunisia in 1943. Jumping off early in an attack on a place called Wadi Akarit, Cheall’s company covered about four miles under bright moonlight before coming under heavy artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire. Under the eerie illumination of flares the Green Howards struggled up the hill toward their objective in intense close-range fighting. By 8:00 a.m. the hill was taken with heavy casualties on each side.

Shortly after, Cheall and another soldier were detailed to bury a member of their unit who was killed nearby. He was appalled at having to gather horribly disfigured body parts, likely caused by an exploding artillery shell. As he went about his gruesome job, he found the dead man’s identity tags. He learned that he was about to bury one of his closest friends in the company. There was nothing to do but carry on with the task at hand. He later said, “I don’t know how I contained my emotions at that moment.” The next day he learned that another close friend in another unit died in the same attack. He lamented:

I was now devastated once again. That was two grand lads only nineteen years of age—dead—and when I had last seen them only a matter of days ago they were laughing and cracking jokes. What a tragedy war is. No, I will never forget the 6
^th
of April 1943, but life had to go on.
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In wartime soldiers often have little time to mourn lost comrades. This is a big part of the psychological stress that they have to endure during and after combat. Thankfully, the grieving process can be more deliberate for most of us. We can find comfort for ourselves and confidence in the fate of our lost loved ones through our faith and in the promises of God revealed in his Word:

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

—Revelation 7:16–17

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PRIL 20

Purple Heart Box

During a lull in the North African campaign, Gen. George Patton escorted a British general on a tour of his frontline units. He was not slow to brag on his men and equipment. At one point the generals came up to a crew working on a vehicle known as a half-track. Sgt. Bob Bishop was underneath the vehicle, making repairs.

He and the other men present heard General Patton explain the vehicle’s superb mobility, great firepower, and armor that could stop almost anything.

“Isn’t that right, Sergeant?” asked General Patton.

“No, sir,” said Sergeant Bishop, getting up. He walked around to the other side of the half-track, the generals following him, and he pointed up.

“You see this hole? One bullet from a strafer. One bullet, pierced the armor here, rattled around inside, and killed Private Torgerson. The men call it the ‘Purple Heart Box,’ sir.”

General Patton turned pale and quickly escorted General Alexander somewhere else.
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The truth sometimes hurts. It was certainly dismaying to the general to have it thrown in his face. Most of us would probably have been a little more tactful or even supportive of the views of such an exalted leader. This tendency is one of the great problems of anyone in authority, whether in the military, business, church, or family. When approaching the boss, many tend to cushion the bad news or paint a rosier picture than is warranted. Worse still, many leaders consciously or unconsciously promote this kind of behavior. The truth does sometimes hurt. But the truth is necessary for any group to effectively deal with its problems. Facing the truth is even more vital to our individual spiritual health.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

—John 3:21

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PRIL 21

Red Oak

By early 1943 the United States had been at war for just over a year. So far on the home front the war was remote and felt mainly as a void, with the absence of many friends, family members, and consumer goods. Little was known about the details of early setbacks in North Africa. The battle for control of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia was fought in late February and proved disastrous for the Allied forces. There was no inkling of this at home until the Western Union telegrams began to arrive. Particularly hard hit was the little Iowa town of Red Oak, population 5,600.

On March 6 more than two dozen telegrams arrived, almost at the same time, with the dreaded words: “The Secretary of the Army desires me to express his regret that your son…” A historian described the effect on this small town: On March 11, the Express printed a headline no one could dispute: “SW Iowa Is Hit Hard.” The photographs of missing boys just from Red Oak filled four rows above the fold on page one. “War consciousness mounted hourly in Red Oak, stunned by the flood of telegrams this week,” the article began. The busiest man in town was a boy, sixteen-year-old Billie Smaha, who delivered wires for Western Union. “They kind of dreaded me,” Billie later told the Saturday Evening Post . A New York Herald-Tribune reporter calculated that “if New York City were to suffer losses in the same proportion… its casualty list would include more than 17,000 names.”
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Red Oak was a microcosm of what was happening across the nation. Instead of an abstraction, war had finally become real. Instead of newsreels of ships and tanks and newspapers with maps and arrows, war had become a matter of dead, wounded, and missing boys. War was finally experienced by the American public for the human disaster that it was then and will always continue to be.

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God.“

—Psalm 46:9–10

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PRIL 22

Rite of Purification

Maj. Gen. Terry Allen was a division commander during the North African campaign. He was third generation Army and raised by his father to be a soldier. The young Allen was “Saddle-hardened before he was ten,” and learned “to ride, smoke, chew, cuss and fight at the earliest possible age.”
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Later on, hard drinking became another characteristic, and this got him into trouble. It came to the attention of Generals Marshall and Eisenhower that the attitude toward alcohol was somewhat loose within Allen’s division and that Allen himself was drinking too much. Allen was warned about the problem and had an encounter with General Patton, who didn’t care for Allen’s rather loose interpretation of uniform regulations.

As Allen was about to go into battle, he tried to prepare himself by purging some of these stains. He described this in a letter to his wife explaining how he burned various personal records, including the letter in which Marshall had warned him about excessive drinking. By incinerating “all that stuff,” Allen told his wife, he hoped to purge all “rancor or ill-will in my mind or in my heart.” The little fire was like a rite of purification to give himself a clean slate going into combat.
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This story reminds me of a little ceremony that I once experienced during a regular church service. Each person was asked to write down the one thing that he or she most regretted having done. Later in the service we were invited forward to give these little pieces of paper to God and to throw them into a fire beneath the cross, where they were consumed. This act was to dramatize how God will remove any stain if, through his Son, we confess it and ask for his forgiveness. It was a powerful reminder of God’s grace and of our standing as adopted children in his family. Through Jesus Christ, and him alone, we always have the opportunity to gain a clean slate.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

—Colossians 2:13–14

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PRIL 23

May I Fulfill My Duty

Gen. Terry Allen had remarkable success leading two different divisions during World War II. British Field Marshal Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander called him the “finest divisional commander he had seen in two wars.”
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When asked about the qualities of leadership that won such devotion from his troops, one of his officers replied: “It’s just because he’s so… honest.”
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He was honest about his affection for his men and his desire to keep casualties at a minimum. He knew that the combat infantrymen represented 20 percent of U.S. forces overseas, but suffered 70 percent of the casualties. He was a fierce combat leader, but was ever conscious of his responsibility to the men under him.