Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (9 page)

Watching dogfights high in the sky. (Harry S. Truman Library)

Fighting fires during the London blitz. (National Archives)

J
ANUARY 29

A Nation Prays

Forty days after the German invasion of France and Holland it began to appear that all was lost. The French army was largely routed. The noose was tightening at Dunkirk. Panic was beginning to ripple through Great Britain at the specter of her army being annihilated on the beaches of France. In utter desperation the church leaders of England, with the support of King George, many political leaders, and much of the nation’s press, called for a National Day of Prayer on May 26. On that Sunday church attendance mushroomed as thousands flocked to the altar, turning to God in the hour of their greatest trial.

As we know in retrospect, these prayers did not go unanswered. Hitler’s panzer divisions continued to hold back from an assault on the beaches at Dunkirk. Amazingly, the weather on the French coast and English Channel seemed to be finely tuned to benefit the desperate soldiers on the beaches. Somehow the Royal Air Force stemmed the tide of the Luftwaffe. Many years later the Reverend Clive Duncan of St. Mary’s Church delivered a sermon about these events:

There were two phases to the Battle of Britain. One was the Military side and the other was the Spiritual phase… the Germans initiated the Battle of Britain in order to clean the RAF out of the air. However, they lost the battle not only because of the RAF’s defence of the skies over London but also because they could not break down the courage and resolve of the civilian population. It took Christian courage in both phases to face the battle and to win.
⁴²

If there ever were a time for people to quake with fear, this would have been it. But regardless of how they may have felt, the people of Great Britain found the strength to behave courageously. Their faith sustained them during their darkest hour. In the same way, whenever we feel daunted by circumstances beyond our control, we should call upon God and move forward courageously in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.

—Psalm 50:15

J
ANUARY 30

Faith of a Child

Elizabeth Batten was five years old when World War II started and had vivid recollections that she shared with her daughter, Ellen. She saw the sky light up over Liverpool during the bombings and heard the sounds of aerial combat overhead. She spent hours and sometimes all night in a shelter under the stairs. She cried a lot and forever after had an aversion to small spaces. She consoled herself by sticking Bible verses and Sunday school pictures on the walls of the shelter. She took special comfort in a picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the image of him watching over her and her family.

In recent years Ellen Batten was leafing through her mother’s Bible and found a picture of her grandfather with an inscription on the back, “To Betty, lots of love, Daddy.” She thought about her mother’s prayers and how they were eventually answered when her father came home from the war. Her mother’s faith had sustained her through many difficult years. Ellen realized that her mother’s faith had also profoundly influenced her own spiritual life:

Today in a world ravaged by war and human rights abuse, many question the existence of God. However, I have come to share my mother’s quiet faith. Faith turned to constructive prayer and action, faith placed in a God of love and compassion surely can give strength in dark times.
⁴³

The key to Ellen’s faith, modeled after the faith of her mother, was that it was based not on what men do, but on who God is. It is a lesson that would serve all of us well to remember in every trial we face. The character and power of God is unchanging.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

—1 Corinthians 2:4–5

J
ANUARY 31

The Few

The Battle of Britain was raging. Every resource of Fighter Command was engaged in defense against the attacking Luftwaffe. On August 20 Winston Churchill went before the House of Commons once more to inform and reassure his countrymen. In this speech he coined the phrase “the few” to refer to the fighter pilots of the RAF. The phrase would stick.

The great air battle which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth.

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
⁴⁴

We know from the outcome of this great struggle the effectiveness of a few good men. There are other examples of this phenomenon from previous wars. In biblical times, Gideon faced the army of Midian with thirty thousand of his own troops. God told him that he had too many men. Twenty thousand were dismissed, and, still, God told Gideon that he had too many men. Finally, three hundred were selected to battle the powerful Midianites. God did this to ensure that Israel would know that he had saved them, and not their military might. God also knew that a few good men could be more effective than a nervous horde.

The L
ORD
said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’”

—Judges 7:2–3

A British air raid shelter. (National Archives)

*

F
EBRUARY

Turning the Tide in the Pacific

On December 7, 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers launched a massive air strike against the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. All eight American battleships were moored in port and were caught totally unprepared. Four were sunk and four were severely damaged. More than three hundred aircraft were destroyed, mostly on the ground. There were thousands of American casualties. By crippling the U.S. Pacific Fleet with one stroke, Japan hoped to achieve clear dominance in the Pacific for years to come. They came tantalizingly close to total success. Unfortunately for them, all three American aircraft carriers were away from Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack.

On December 8th the United States declared war on Japan. Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, immediately declared war on the United States. America found herself facing adversaries with powerful and effective military forces, victorious so far on all fronts. In the Pacific the Japanese Fleet was superior in every category. Three American aircraft carriers faced an overwhelming naval force of ten carriers, well-trained veteran aircrews, and superior aircraft. The United States Army, numbering only one hundred ninety thousand in 1939, was frantically expanding for war.

Almost simultaneously with the Pearl Harbor strike, Japanese attacks were launched against Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, and the Gilbert Islands. All fell before the onslaught. In early March 1942 the conquest of Java and the Dutch East Indies was complete. Japan had accomplished all her immediate war aims in half the planned time and with virtually no naval losses.

Desperate for some success, the U.S. Navy carried out a daring strike of its own on April 18. The carrier Hornet took sixteen B-25 bombers into Japanese waters. Led by Jimmy Doolittle, the American airmen bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The minimal damage inflicted caused a furor within the Japanese high command, which was disgraced for allowing such a strike against the homeland. Strategically, the Japanese had to face the need for defense of their home waters for the first time.

In June a vast Japanese armada of more than two hundred ships and seven hundred aircraft returned to the central Pacific to finish the job started at Pearl Harbor. The objective was destruction of America’s three remaining aircraft carriers, the last vestige of U.S. naval power in the Pacific. The stark contrast in forces made victory in this engagement as close to a sure thing as it is possible to achieve in war. The Japanese again came very close to achieving their aim.

On the morning of June 4 the opposing forces came within striking distance of each other north of Midway Island. Both sides employed heightened air search efforts to find the other side, but the Americans got the earliest sighting and launched their attacks. After an amazing sequence of events, U.S. dive-bombers found the Japanese carrier strike group and delivered fatal blows to four enemy carriers. Even though he still had superior forces on the scene, the Japanese commander ordered a full retirement. Japanese expansion in the Pacific had reached its limit.

F
EBRUARY 1

The President Speaks

In his first inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to provide reassurance and spiritual comfort to a troubled nation facing economic depression at home and military conflict abroad: