Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (28 page)

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the L
ORD
in the land of the living. Wait for the L
ORD
; be strong and take heart and wait for the L
ORD
.

—Psalm 27:13–14

M
AY 14

Looking for a Divine Hand

The nighttime bombardment of Henderson Field was more intense that night than usual. The naval gunfire shells from the Japanese ships streaked red as they rained in and around the Marines’ positions. Each blast was a violent upheaval of shrapnel, dirt, and acrid smoke. An ammunition truck was hit, causing an enormous explosion that shook the island and hurled thousands of fragments through the air. A Navy chaplain huddled in his trench, sharing the terror with those around him:

Alongside me, head bowed, there were Catholic boys reciting their rosaries, Protestants murmuring prayers, and Jewish boys, with closed eyes, fingering the holy mezuzahs they wore around their necks. The adage that there are no atheists in foxholes was already familiar to me. In moments of deadly peril, the human hand reaches out for help from above. Even those who hadn’t uttered a word of prayer or been inside a house of worship for years before the war, were looking now for a Divine hand to shield them.
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In times of real danger our superficial concerns are stripped away, and we are brought back to an elemental reality. There is a God, and we need him desperately. The universal need to pray at such times is proof of this point. Unfortunately, these prayers are often not remembered after the crisis passes. On this score I have been the worst offender. My bargains made with God while in physical danger were soon forgotten. I didn’t give him credit or thanks that I survived a war and was able to live a blessed life with my family. One of my foremost tasks as a new Christian has been trying to make up for all those years of ingratitude. I have a long way to go.

O L
ORD
, I say to you, “You are my God.” Hear, O L
ORD
, my cry for mercy. O Sovereign L
ORD
, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle.

—Psalm 140:67

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AY 15

Tokyo Rose

During the war, a dozen women of American descent made daily broadcasts on Radio Tokyo designed to demoralize U.S. servicemen deployed in the Pacific. These women combined “soft” propaganda with popular music, and became known collectively by the GIs as “Tokyo Rose.”
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As the war progressed, the troops enjoyed the music and generally laughed off the obvious attempts to undermine their morale.

During the Guadalcanal campaign, however, it was not so easy for the Marines to laugh off Tokyo Rose’s insidious effort to make them feel isolated and abandoned. The Marines could see for themselves that they were undersupplied and, at times, seemingly forgotten in their prolonged struggle. A Navy chaplain explained:

The Mata Hari of the airwaves had no competition for our attention or our interest. Though we naturally discounted most of what she told us, some of it couldn’t help sinking in. There was a gnawing fear among us that the home front was incapable of giving us the help we desperately needed. “You are forgotten like the men of Bataan and Corregidor were forgotten,” Tokyo Rose would purr at us. I was worried about the spirit of valorous men who were beginning to feel that they, too, were expendable.
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Discerning the truth in what we hear is often difficult. Unfortunately, Satan’s voice can be very soothing and plausible, with just enough “truth” to deceive us. As we filter what we hear, our own self-serving inner voice can also override our objectivity. We have to remember that God normally speaks to us in a quiet voice that we must diligently seek to hear and to understand through our prayers, Scripture, and Christian friends.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

—John 10:27

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AY 16

Jungle Fighting

Fighting a determined and fanatical enemy should have been challenge enough. However, the jungles of New Guinea added unimaginable suffering to the ordeal. The equatorial climate inflicted torrential rains, high humidity, and insufferable heat on those unfortunates who had to live and fight in it. Wet clothing, rusting equipment, omnivorous insects, and an endless variety of tropical maladies were the constant companions of every soldier.

As the battles raged on and around Guadalcanal in late 1942, U.S. Army forces were committed on the north coast of the Papuan Peninsula to take the port of Buna and to relieve another threat against Australia. As the campaign wore on, the Japanese defenders and the jungle took their toll:

The track is now knee deep in thick, black mud. For the last ten days no man’s clothing has been dry and they have slept when sleep was possible in pouring rain under sodden blankets… Every hour is a nightmare.
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…The troops were riddled with malaria, dengue fever, tropical dysentery, and were covered with jungle ulcers.
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…It was a sly and sneaky kind of combat which never resembled the massive and thunderous operations in Europe… In New Guinea, when the rains came, wounded men might drown before the litter bearers found them. Many did. No war is a good war, and death ignores geography. But out here I was convinced, as were my soldiers, that death was pleasanter in the Temperate Zone.
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There truly has never been a good place for a war. However, these heroes of the early days of World War II in the Pacific endured more hardship than most. With tenuous supply lines and great uncertainty about the outcome, they fought on for interminable months. During the darkest days of the war, they not only survived they also turned the tide of battle and gave a glimmer of hope to an Allied cause that had up until then seen only defeat.

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus… If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.

—2 Timothy 2:3, 1112

Battleships and cruisers in formation. (National Archives)

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AY 17

Savo Island

By the evening of the second day the invasion of Guadalcanal was progressing successfully. More than ten thousand Marines had landed and were in the process of securing their major objectives. Nineteen cargo vessels were beginning to move their stores of food, ammunition, and equipment ashore.

Although taken by surprise, the Japanese responded aggressively to this challenge. Within hours Vice Adm. Gunichi Mikawa launched a naval counterstrike from Rabaul, six hundred miles away. He personally led a task force of five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and one destroyer south to destroy the invasion force off the beaches. Unfortunately, this threat was not detected by air search as it approached.

At 1:42 a.m. on August 8, 1942, Mikawa’s fleet passed Savo Island and made contact with the U.S. screening force, deployed about thirty miles north of the invasion beaches. In half an hour the U.S. Navy suffered one of the worse defeats in its history. Surprised and outmatched in night gunnery tactics, the U.S. force lost four heavy cruisers and more than one thousand men. At 2:20 a.m. Mikawa reassembled his largely unscathed but scattered ships, and pondered briefly what to do next. The now undefended transport fleet lay exposed only miles away.

At this moment, Admiral Mikawa made one of the most fateful decisions of the war. Considering his “victory” and the possibility of air attacks after daybreak, he turned north, away from the invasion beaches. The transport fleet and the 1
^st
Marine Division that it sustained were spared. The most perilous moment of the Guadalcanal campaign had passed.

This decision, made in darkness and under the stress of combat, saved America’s first offensive effort in the Pacific. This is another moment when we can see evidence of God’s providential hand moving to change the odds in a desperate struggle.

Daniel answered, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.”

—Daniel 6:21–22

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AY 18

The Parson

Radm. Robert Mills tells the story of an unnamed Kansas divinity student who enlisted in the Navy in 1941. Seeing an opportunity to serve his country and the Lord, the young man brought one hundred miniature Bibles with him when he reported aboard his first ship, the destroyer USS
Ralph Talbot
. Since storage on the ship was extremely limited, the Bibles had to go in his own locker. Also, no chaplains were assigned to destroyers, so he started holding worship services himself. The rough-talking crew attended sparingly and showed little interest in the Bibles. They did start calling the young man “Parson.”

In August 1942 the
Ralph Talbot
was assigned to support the landings on Guadalcanal. The Parson’s battle station was the Number 4 five-inch gun mount on the main deck. This mount was unshielded and ammunition had to be passed hand-to-hand across the deck from the ammunition hoist. The Parson was the last man in the chain and had to hand the sixty-pound shells up to the ever-moving gun mount.

During the night Battle of Savo Island the
Ralph Talbot
was heavily engaged, attracting the fire of at least three enemy cruisers. One of several shells hit the crew living compartment, flooding it with a mixture of seawater and oil. Another shell struck the main deck, as the admiral described while telling his story:

Of more instant concern, one incoming shell hit the underside of #4 five inch gun, bursting just behind the large brass and steel fuse setter, not three feet from where the Parson was busy at his battle station. The explosion and shrapnel killed the man on the Parson’s right, the man on the Parson’s left, and killed or injured nearly every other man in that gun crew. The Parson was untouched.
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After this incident, the crew regarded the Parson with a sense of awe. His church services on the fantail soon became overcrowded. The hottest items on the ship were salt-water-soaked, fuel-oil-stained miniature Bibles.
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Surely the hand of God was on this man dutifully trying to do God’s work in a difficult place.

But you, O L
ORD
, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.

—Psalm 22:19–20

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AY 19

Personal Responsibility

During the naval battle of Savo Island, the USS
Astoria
was the first Allied cruiser to engage the Japanese fleet, suffering severe damage from accurate Japanese gunfire. At about 2:00 a.m. Signalman 3
^rd
Class Elgin Staples was hurled overboard when an 8-inch gun turret exploded. In the water, he was able to stay afloat thanks to the life belt around his waist that he managed to inflate in the darkness.
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Four hours later, Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the
Astoria
. The captain was trying to save the fatally wounded ship by grounding her on the beach. When this effort failed, Staples again found himself in the water. He was one of five hundred survivors rescued again later. Once safely aboard a transport ship, he examined the life belt that had saved his life. It had been made by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and had a serial number inscribed on the label.

Later in the war, Staples was able to return home to Ohio on leave. Since his mother worked for Firestone, he asked her about the number on his life belt. She told him that numbers were assigned to each inspector, so that one individual would be responsible for each piece of equipment sent to the war. Since everything about that life belt was indelibly imprinted on his mind, he told his mother the number. Astonished, she told him that that was her personal code affixed to every item that she was responsible for approving.
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