D-Day afterthoughts

In all the commemorations of D-Day on our TV screens in the last few days there is one aspect of the success of D-Day that is barely mentioned today, yet it was of huge importance at the time – and those in charge of the invasion knew it well.  

 

Two of the most astounding events of the the Second World War happened on the coast of France. The first was at Dunkirk in 1940 – rightly called ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’ by Winston Churchill.  The second was of course D-Day in 1944.

 

The King

In 1940, King George VI rallied the public to a national Day of Prayer – and miraculously well over 300,000 troops were saved from the shores of France, far more than anyone might have expected.  

 

Queuing for the National Day of Prayer

 

Then again in 1944 the King called the nation to prayer again, saying    Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve. After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honour may be the foundation of the life of men in every land…….  I  desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God: and we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling his high purpose.

 

Eisenhower

Several of  the key leaders of the invasion were committed Christians who knew well that in fighting Naziism we were fighting a great evil.  They knew they could not achieve the necessary victory on the shores of France without divine help, and they echoed the words of the King.  The Commander in Chief was General Eisenhower, and his Order of the Day included these words:  “… The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you … let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

 

Later, in 1952  he said “This day eight years ago, I made the most agonising decision of my life. I had to decide to postpone by at least twenty-four hours the most formidable array of fighting ships and of fighting man that was ever launched across the sea against a hostile shore. … If there were nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an almighty and merciful God, the events of the next twenty-four hours did it … The greatest break in a terrible outlay of weather occurred the next day and allowed that great invasion to proceed, with losses far below those we had anticipated …”

 

General Eisenhower

 

General Montgomery

The Commander of Land Troops was General Montgomery. Some years earlier, before Alamein,  he had said “I would as soon think of going into battle without my artillery as without my chaplains”. 

Now, on the eve of D-Day, Montgomery sent a message to all his troops :  “To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history; and in the better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride in our doings. We have a great and righteous cause.  Let us pray that ‘The Lord Mighty in Battle’ will go forth with our armies, and that His special providence will aid us in the struggle.”

 

General Bernard Montgomery

Chaplains

Prayer surrounded D-Day. Army chaplains prayed with troops. On Sunday 4 June there was a prayer vigil attended by 400 officers and men of the Second Army HQ, where the final prayer included the following:“As we stand upon the threshold of the greatest adventure in our history, let us now offer to Almighty God all our powers of body, mind and spirit, so that our great endeavour may be thoroughly finished.”

The D-Day invasion of Normandy was the largest and most complex invasion in history.  If it had failed, Britain and Europe would be very different today. There were many reasons why it might have gone disastrously wrong – the most dramatic of which was the uncertain weather. There is a good 10-minute video about this at 

https://youtu.be/W4piAK9uRhk      

 

Films about D Day or about Dunkirk concentrate on the events themselves. Generally there are no references in them to the role of prayer or to God’s blessing. Yet I believe that ultimately prayer was the most vital ingredient in these events. Would it be the same if we were involved in a battle against evil today?