Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

by Larkin Spivey

  That pair of goggles was probably on someone’s checklist, and, even though such gear had little intrinsic value, someone had to make sure it was all there. This faithful attention to detail is what saved these men. A Marine 1st sergeant once told me, “If you take care of the details, the big picture will take care of itself.” Some who pride themselves on being “big picture” people might disagree with this assertion. However, I believe it is valid in the sense that any big task can be broken down into detailed action steps. Success comes in faithfully attending to those small steps. Long ago a little boy took five barley loaves and two small fish with him on an outing to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. This boy’s faithful attention to detail was glorified by Jesus in one of his greatest miracles.

  Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.

  —Matthew 25:21

  B-24 Liberator bomber. (U.S. Dept. of Defense)

  B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. (U.S. Dept. of Defense)

  July 5

  A Triumphant Conscience

  In September 1943 more than four hundred B-17 bombers flew more than five hundred miles against heavy opposition to reach targets near Stuttgart, Germany. On the way, the flight crew of

  The Old Squaw knew that they were in trouble. An attacking enemy fighter had put holes in their right wing tank, which was trailing a mist of leaking fuel. With a slim chance of making it home, the crew faced a fateful decision.

  Less than one hundred miles to the south lay neutral Switzerland. Under international law combat crews landing there were interned for the duration of the war. It was well known that living conditions were excellent, not to mention a guaranteed safe return after the war. The navigator of The Old Squaw called over the intercom for a vote. He was startled by the response: “By the time it was my turn to vote, the other nine had all voted to go to England.”266

  After a harrowing flight and crash landing in the English Channel, one of the crewmen later explained his vote:

  The only thought in my mind was of returning to England and our base. The idea of going to Switzerland and being interned for the war’s duration did not take root at all. I had a simplicity of thought and purpose in those days which stood me well. For 45 years I have lived with a triumphant conscience because we made it back to fight again, which was the duty and purpose for which we were pledged.267

  This is an inspiring testimony to the long-range benefit of making a good, but difficult, choice. We especially need a perspective like this when we wrestle with the problems of family and marriage. Our decisions today can have everlasting consequences to our spouses, children, and ourselves. Doing the right thing may be difficult now, but think of the countless blessings of a “triumphant conscience” in the years ahead.

  The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

  —1 Timothy 1:5

  July 6

  A Different View of the War

  Jim Goodson was taken prisoner when his P-51 was shot down over Germany. On the way to a Luftwaffe interrogation center in Frankfurt he was taken off the train in Berlin to change to another line. He learned from a guard that he was at the Friederichstrasse Bahnhof. He was shocked to realize that he was at the site of a major raid scheduled for that day he had helped plan. He also remembered that the Bahnhof was the main aiming point for one thousand bombers. When the air raid warnings sounded at noon he knew what was coming.

  We took refuge in bomb shelters. Because I had taken part in planning the raid, I knew who would be leading the different boxes of bombers and my own fighters would be escorting. It’s a very different view of the war, when you’re up there at 30,000 feet and you see only little flashes and puffs of smoke. You don’t think of people. Sitting in an air raid shelter with Germans all around you, and the crashing, deafening noise above you is something else… It brought home a war pilots very seldom see. Digging women and children out of the rubble we had caused was profoundly affecting.268

  Few of us ever have an epiphany of this magnitude. We continue through life without realizing how our actions are affecting others. This can be an especially acute problem for men. We often spend years dedicated to careers and causes before looking closely at the effect on our families. Too often it takes a crisis to wake us up to important things we’re neglecting. It would be far better to hone our listening skills every day with wives, children, and friends, making sure we know as we go along what our bombs are doing at ground level.

  Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

  —Proverbs 12:18

  July 7

  A Greater Hand Than Mine

  After surviving a crash landing at sea, several crewmembers of The Old Squaw reminisced about their harrowing experience and expressed a belief that something more profound than “luck” was involved:

  I cannot help but feel that there was something bigger than luck riding with us that day. The fact that we were able to stay with the formation until there were no enemy fighters around, and the fact that our escort arrived shortly afterward might be explained by luck, but when that rescue boat appeared on our course, at just the right moment, I was sure that the Omnipotent was guiding us that day especially. I cannot help but feel, too, that a greater hand than mine or Bob’s was on the controls when The Old Squaw sat down in the Channel. The captain of the rescue boat told us one last thing which made us thank God for our safety. If we had landed a few miles to the south, we would have been caught in dangerous rip tides. If we had landed a few miles to the north, we would have been in the minefields… that particular area was the only place where we could have done so safely.269

  Many things had to go right for this crew to survive such a disastrous mission. Even though each detail had a logical explanation in itself, these men saw a miraculous pattern in these details and experienced a deepening of their faith as a result. We always have the same choice. We can accept the logical explanations and even the role of luck in our lives, or we can look more deeply for evidence of God’s guiding hand. We know that God created an intricately designed and beautiful universe that we can rightly consider miraculous. Sometimes it takes a child’s eyes and sense of wonder to see the miraculous in our own lives.

  No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

  —1 Corinthians 2:9

  July 8

  Better Off Angry

  It was comforting to see the fighter escort nearby, but, unfortunately, they would not be there long. As the

  Luscious Lady flew further into France, Merlin Miller became more and more nervous at his tail-gun position. This was his second raid on Schweinfurt, deep in German territory, and he knew it would probably be as bad as the first. Alone with his thoughts, there wasn’t much to do other than anticipate what lay ahead. As the escorting P-47s peeled off, he went through a familiar mental exercise:

  I said to myself, ‘Merlin, get mad, get angry.’ I started thinking about the Germans, what they were trying to do to us, what I was going to do to them, anything to stir up my blood and get anger coursing through my system, anything to take away from that feeling of fear I otherwise would have had. By this time I figured out that it was difficult for a person to feel two emotions at the same time. In combat I thought I was better off being angry than afraid.270

  This airman’s strategy for dealing with fear was effective, and it is not uncommon to see athletes use the same approach as they try to get “psyched up” for a big game. However, we should consider war and football the exceptions rather the rule. Anger is usually a destructive emotion and counterproductive to solving our problems. It is always a bad idea to take action against others when upset. We need to be especially careful when we find ourselves with feelings of anger toward God. He is not the cause of our problems, but rather the solution. We are usually the problem. In our rel
ationship with him, we are better off being afraid than angry.

  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

  —Psalm 111:10

  July 9

  Hogie and Wac

  My twin uncles were pilot and copilot of a B-26 medium bomber. They took off from Rougham, England, on May 17, 1943, to bomb a power plant in Holland, and, with the rest of their entire squadron, never returned. Edward and Arthur Norton, nicknamed “Hogie” and “Wac” were the proud sons of my mother’s parents, pioneers of aviation in the small town of Conway, South Carolina, and hometown heroes. They left Clemson College in 1941 to join the Army Air Corps, seeking to answer the call of a nation at war and to pursue their love of flying. At their own insistence, they were together in the same airplane. The deaths of these promising young men was a tragedy for an entire community and my family.

  My grandmother was the daughter of a minister and a lifelong pillar of the Presbyterian Church. She made sure her family was well grounded in the Christian faith and faithful in their Christian duties. Even so, this event was a blow that she and my grandfather felt forever after. When the war was over, they sent a poem to be read at a memorial service for another pilot who died with their sons. It captures the devastation that they felt, but also a determination to find a higher meaning in the tragedy:

  As we trail the weary pathway down the sunset slope of life

  As we pass through grievous shadows in this war torn world of strife.

  Then our thoughts turn slowly backward to a better, brighter day

  When we were building castles and watching you at play.

  We had dreams and hopes and visions for your busy little feet

  Now we know those dreams and visions never-more your lives shall meet.

  And now lonely, sad and stricken our one debt to you is plain

  To prove that your great sacrifice shall not have been in vain.

  So tis us you left behind you who must carry on

  Take up the fight you died for till the last great battle’s won.

  And to you we pledge our promise in the peace that is to be

  That we shall never falter that the whole world may be free.271

  The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

  —Isaiah 57:12

  July 10

  The Weaver

  Bert Ramsey was killed in 1943 when his B-26 medium bomber collided with another aircraft during a low-level attack on a power plant in Holland. A Dutch family buried him there, and his parents later held a memorial service at home in his honor. The service was conducted on November 25, 1945, at the Statesboro, Georgia, Methodist Church. After the congregation sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” The Reverend Charles Jackson prayed and gave a sermon. A series of tributes to Ramsey and poems to comfort the family were then read. Mrs. Sanford Schulert, whose husband had been killed in the same raid, recited a poem with a special message for the grieving family:272

  My life is but a weaving

  Between my Lord and me.

  I cannot choose the colors

  He worketh steadily.

  Oft times He weaveth sorrow

  And I, in foolish pride,

  Forget He sees the upper

  And I the underside.

  Not til the loom is silent

  And the shuttles cease to fly,

  Shall God unroll the canvas

  And explain the reason why.

  The dark threads are as needful

  In the Weaver’s skillful hand

  As the threads of gold and silver

  In the pattern He has planned.

  This well-known poem provides a unique insight into our relationship with God. God interacts with us as we pray, study, and work together with him to weave the pattern of our lives. This weaving process presents an issue of perspective. Ours is limited by our human nature as we experience events only as they affect us. God’s perspective is all encompassing and eternal. A tragedy to us may simply be part of God’s plan and even a cause for heavenly celebration. We need to rest in the assurance that God sees the completed tapestry as it unfolds according to his design.

  This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call my name and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The Lord is our God.”

  —Zechariah 13:9

  July 11

  Holes in the Fuselage

  Their first mission was supposed to be a “milk run.” They were flying in support of ground troops near Caen, and someone had even decided that flak jackets and helmets wouldn’t be needed. Since the flight path was close to the English Channel, Bill Frankhouser looked forward to an easy first day as navigator on his B-17. However, as they approached the target area at an altitude of 14,000 feet, the picture began to change. Bill started to notice tracers coming up from below, although well under his formation. Then a few black puffs appeared closer to their altitude. Suddenly, he found out that he was at war:

  I noticed a one to two-inch-diameter hole as it opened in the aluminum hull close to my right-side gun, and small metallic shavings were propelled inward. This was my first realization that we really were in combat. The Germans were shooting big guns and the plane’s hull offered no protection!273

  This story brought back memories of my first time under fire in a helicopter. We were hovering over a hillside in Vietnam, hoisting a wounded Marine through jungle canopy. Suddenly, holes began appearing in the skin of the helicopter. The gunfire was unheard because of the engine noise, making the sensation especially eerie and frightening. Those few moments of being utterly defenseless are burned in my memory. I can’t imagine the courage required of these World War II airmen who had to face this extreme vulnerability day after day, week after week. It is gratifying to know that so many of them had a strong faith on which to lean. True comfort during such fearful times can only be found in an eternal perspective and in the assurance of an ultimate safe haven in God’s eternal kingdom.

  Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

  —Psalm 90:12

  July 12

  Brownie’s Faith

  The coast of England finally came into view, but they knew they weren’t going to make it. The B-17 was unable to hold its altitude on its one remaining engine, and settled ever closer to the waves below. Expecting to ditch at any moment, the crew assembled in the radio room and braced themselves for a crash landing. Each became lost in his own thoughts as they looked at each other and waited for the inevitable. One of the crewmen, Elmer Brown, started praying. George Hoyt, the radio operator, remained at his console, sending SOS signals in Morse code. Hoyt looked over at his praying friend for reassurance, and he was not disappointed:

  Brownie’s faith shone as bright as the very sun itself. I remembered him giving me a smile as big as all outdoors. Out my window I saw the choppy and rough sea coming towards us, closer and closer, and I prayed fervently as I continued to beat out those SOS signals.274 Hoyt and others in the crew went on to describe an amazing peace that settled over the group in this tense moment: As we were waiting to hit the water, a complete calm came over us as if ‘all is well.’ A feeling of absolute calm, just like I was laying under a tree back on the farm… (I felt) a great calm take possession of me which language can’t describe. I experienced a peace that surpasses all imagination as I watched the whitecaps now flicking by under the wing… I called to Brownie and the boys, ‘This is it!’275

  This smile for a friend in a moment of extreme stress is a strong witness to the power of faith. The faith of this one airman
not only reassured him, but, when he let it show outwardly, brought peace to his friends as well. We should always look to our heavenly Father during times of stress with faith that he will hear our pleas. Then, we should also be ready to share a smile with a friend to bear witness to the reassuring power of our faith.

  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

  —Matthew 5:16

  July 13

  Commitment

  Bud Mahurin’s perspective on war began to change in his first dogfight. A burst from his machine guns hit the ME-110 and, as the enemy aircraft trailed smoke and spiraled down, he could see the tail-gunner slumped over and wounded. He realized suddenly that,

  “We’re chasing after other human beings, and not just a machine that’s flying in the air.”276 In March 1944 Mahurin himself was shot down and had to bail out of his P-47 behind enemy lines. He came down near Orleans, France, more than 130 miles from the coast. He hid in a field for a day and then made his way to a French farmhouse. The farmer took him to a local member of the Resistance.