Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (42 page)

David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the L
ORD
my God. But this word of the L
ORD
came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.’”

—1 Chronicles 22:78

Shipbuilders at work. (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library)

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UGUST

War on the Home Front

As America witnessed the disappointing aftermath of World War I and struggled through the Great Depression of the 1930s, a strong isolationism gripped the nation. Even into 1941 public sentiment remained strong against involvement in the wars spreading over Europe and the Far East. This attitude changed completely and irrevocably when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. After President Franklin Roosevelt gave his famous speech to a joint session of Congress declaring December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” Congress voted unanimously, except for one vote, to approve a declaration of war. America entered the war with a complete unity of purpose.

The war effort soon touched every strata of the nation’s economic and social life. The military draft had the most obvious and profound effect. By the end of the war more than ten million men were inducted into the armed forces. The absence of these men affected families and businesses in many ways. Women not only had to take care of their households, but they also had to take over many essential jobs. To attract women into the industrial workforce, a campaign was launched featuring “Rosie the Riveter,” an attractive, patriotic, and efficient assembly line worker. Eventually, more than three million women worked in war production plants.
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The war consumed vast amounts of the country’s agricultural and industrial output. Production of automobiles, houses, and appliances almost came to a halt, as assembly lines were turned over to tanks, trucks, ships, and ammunition. The Ford Motor Company created the world’s largest assembly line in Willow Run, Michigan, where the production of B-24 Liberator bombers reached 428 per month.

Ship construction was revolutionized under the leadership of Henry J. Kaiser. Abandoning the traditional keel-up procedure, Kaiser introduced a modular construction method where sections of a new ship were constructed away from the final assembly site. These large sections were then brought together and welded into finished ships. By the end of the war, sixteen U.S. shipyards had delivered 2,580 Liberty ships, the largest production run of a single ship in history.
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Overall, the United States increased its shipbuilding capacity by more than 1,200 percent, producing 5,200 naval and cargo vessels during the war.

By 1944 the War Department was consuming 40 percent of the gross national product, and many commodities such as meat, sugar, butter, coffee, gasoline, tires, and clothing were being rationed to the civilian populace. Ration books were issued with colored stamps worth different point values. Items were displayed on store shelves with labels indicating their cost in cash and ration points. A customer could make a purchase if he had enough stamps and cash, if there was something on the shelf. Gasoline was probably the most critical item with most people receiving coupons for three gallons per week. To supplement food supplies, Victory Gardens sprang up everywhere, as individual families joined the effort to feed the nation.

In spite of the hardships of the war, and perhaps to some extent because of them, there was a remarkable unity across the country. The entertainment industry vigorously supported the troops and the government’s War Bond campaigns. Churches rallied behind the war effort, as nearly every American was convinced of the moral rightness of the Allied cause. More than ten thousand chaplains were provided to the armed forces and countless ministries were initiated to support the troops at home and overseas. The nation’s leaders and citizens prayed for the safety of their loved ones and for victory in the greatest struggle in history. Never before or after has America been so united.

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UGUST 1

Face to the Coal

During the darkest days of the war there was trouble in England’s coal mines. Workers were leaving the mines to enlist in the army. Many young men wanted to be fighting in the front lines, not digging coal out of the ground, and coal production was in jeopardy when the nation needed it most. Winston Churchill went to the mines to deliver a speech and to give the miners a vision of the future:

He pictured for them what would take place when the Nazis were beaten and the war was over. He said there would be a great parade honoring all who sacrificed for victory. First, there would be the Royal Navy sailors who had battled Hitler at sea. Then would come the Royal Air Force pilots who had fought the Luftwaffe in the skies. Then would come the Royal Army soldiers who had fought at Dunkirk. Last of all would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner’s caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, “Where were you during the dark days of our struggle?” And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, “We were deep in the earth, with our faces to the coal.”
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Churchill’s vision was powerful. With tear-streaked faces the miners went back to work with the firm belief that every piece of coal they brought out of the earth was vital to the survival of their nation. They knew that their work might be mundane and seem unglamorous, but that it was necessary to the larger cause. This story has been used many times to inspire others in addition to these miners. We know that, as Christians, our service to God can often take mundane forms. It was Jesus himself who washed the feet of his disciples. He did this to focus their attention, and ours, on service to other people. He might be telling us to keep “our faces to the needs of others,” and to rest in the knowledge that there is no such thing as mundane service in his name.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

—John 13:14–15

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Prayer and Sacrifice

Mary Alice Pinney was twelve years old when the Second World War began. She vividly recalled President Roosevelt’s radio address declaring that December 7
^th
would forever be “a date that will live in infamy.” Her most vivid recollection of the war was the united effort that she saw on the home front:

One of the most important things I have ever seen in the world it was something I saw then that I haven’t seen in any war since. Any church, any synagogue, any place that held any religious practice, what-so-ever, sent prayers, and I mean, everywhere for the people fighting in the war. And it never stopped until long after the war. I have never seen any kind of support the way our town supported the troops in World War II. The home front sent food, supplies, and clothes, anything we had on hand to help them. We were rationed painfully, it didn’t matter how rich or poor you were, everyone was sharing in the loss.
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In
The Screwtape Letters
, C. S. Lewis masterfully presents letters from a senior devil to his younger nephew instructing him on the fine points of winning humans away from the “Enemy” (God). He had some startling insights about why war might not be as good for the devil’s cause as might be expected:

I must warn you not to hope too much from a war. Of course war is entertaining. The immediate fear and suffering of the humans is a legitimate and pleasing refreshment for our myriads of toiling workers. We may hope for a good deal of cruelty and unchastity. But, if we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy, while tens of thousands who do not go so far as that will nevertheless have their attention diverted from themselves to values and causes which they believe to be higher than the self.
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Mary Alice Pinney has illuminated C. S. Lewis’ point. During the trials of wartime, many Americans did come closer to God and to each other through mutual prayer and sacrifice. Fortunately, war isn’t necessary to bring us to this condition. Whenever we put our individual concerns aside in support of a worthy goal, we have the potential of drawing closer to others and to God.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

—Philippians 3:8

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UGUST 3

Stockings

With a “War Ration Book” families were allowed to buy limited amounts of food, clothing, shoes, coffee, tires, gasoline, and other essentials, based on the size of the family. People learned to use everything sparingly and to waste nothing. Even razor blades were re-sharpened. Butter was so scarce that a vegetable-oil substitute was invented, called margarine. Posters appeared in the stores saying, “Do with less so they’ll have enough.” The shortage of consumer goods was severe in all areas, but in one case affected women particularly. Lourelei Prior was a female defense worker in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She explained:

We couldn’t get stockings either all the silk was used for parachutes and nylon hadn’t been invented yet. Now, stockings didn’t matter at the plant. There, all the gals wore tight clothing and pants and a hat and safety glasses and no jewelry because of the heavy machinery. But no gal or new bride wants to be seen in a skirt without stockings! So when I would go out with Herb, sometimes to make it look like I had on stockings, I would draw a black line up the back of my legs with an eyebrow pencil to make it look like I was wearing silk stockings.
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Like most Americans this woman took the shortages caused by the war with good humor and ingenuity, and made the best of what she had. She expressed the attitude of most civilians toward these hardships and gave us good advice for the present day:

In our house we didn’t grumble about the shortages… I had four brothers-in-law who were in the service. If giving up a little bit helped the boys “over there” and would bring them back sooner, it was fine with us… We just thanked God for what we did have.
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When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.

—Ecclesiastes 7:14

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UGUST 4

North Platte Canteen

By December 1941 the east-west rail lines across the United States were filled with troop trains. A small group of citizens in the little village of North Platte, Nebraska, took note of this fact and decided to try to do something for all these servicemen passing through their town. On Christmas Day the first team of five volunteers waited at the depot with baskets of sandwiches and little bottles of cold milk. During the ten-minute stop, they moved along the train passing out these treats to the hungry and appreciative men crowded into the cars. Soon the whole town and surrounding region were involved in supporting the North Platte Canteen, which became famous for this unusual and unexpected hospitality. For the duration of the war, the little town of twelve thousand fed hundreds of thousands of troops passing through without the benefit of government aid and in spite of food shortages and rationing.

One of the women who worked in the Canteen from the beginning was Elaine Wright. Her husband was a railroad employee, and her son was in the Navy. One day word spread throughout North Platte that Elaine had received the dreaded telegram informing her and her husband that their son had been killed in action. No one saw her for several days, until one morning she walked into the Canteen. There was a long and uncomfortable silence, as no one knew what to say to her. She finally said to them: “I can’t help my son, but I can help someone else’s son.”
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Some wise person once said, “You can be bitter, or you can be better.” Elaine Wright epitomized the “better” approach to dealing with grief. There is no more effective way to soothe your own pain than doing something for someone else. Seeking a higher purpose in service to others is the surest way to move beyond yourself and your grief.