Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

by Larkin Spivey

  This letter is an inspiring insight into a strong family. This strength obviously derives from a mother’s faith that has brought her family close to God and to each other. With this faith they were able to deal with the hardships of war and pain of death with confidence and hope. Faith and family remain the surest sources of strength to meet the constant challenges of this world.

  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” which is the first commandment with a promise “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

  —Ephesians 6:14

  August 7

  Family Relationships

  During the war women on the home front took on new roles. Edith Sokol married Victor Speert in 1942 and moved from base to base with him fourteen times over the next two years. When Victor was deployed to Europe in 1944 Edith got a job in a day care center. Before long she was named director of the True Sisters Day Care Center in Cleveland. Her new responsibilities were important and challenging. In October 1945 she wrote to her husband about how she thought she was changing:

  Last night Mel and I were talking about some of the adjustments we’ll have to make to our husbands’ return. I must admit I’m not exactly the same girl you left I’m twice as independent as I used to be and to top it off, I sometimes think I’ve become “hard as nails” hardly anyone can evoke any sympathy from me. No one wants to hear my troubles and I don’t want to hear theirs. Also more and more I’ve been living as I want to and I don’t see people I don’t care about I do as I d____ please. As a whole, I don’t think my changes will affect our relationship, but I do think you’ll have to remember that there are some slight alterations in me.318

  Of necessity, many women became more independent during the war years. Large numbers left their homes to enter the workforce, representing a new phenomenon in our culture. Those women staying at home also became used to shouldering more responsibility and to making decisions on their own. In the decades since the war these trends have continued and have presented challenges within the family. Fortunately, even though the culture has changed, our guidelines for successful family relationships have not. The Bible continues to be our authority. God ordained that marriage should be a relationship of such depth that it reflects Christ’s own all-consuming and sacrificial love for his church. In this sense it is a partnership between a husband and wife who love each other and submit to each other unselfishly and generously.

  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord… Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy… each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

  —Ephesians 5:21, 22, 25, 33

  War bond poster. (National Archives)

  World War II recruiting poster. (National Archives)

  Women working on a B-17 bomber. (National Archives)

  August 8

  For Those Who Suffer

  Roy Campanella was a baseball player during World War II and was one of the first African Americans to play in the major leagues. As catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played in five World Series and was a league All-Star eight times. In 1958 his career ended when he was paralyzed in an auto accident. While going to therapy every day at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York City, he noticed a bronze plaque on the wall inscribed with a poem written by an unknown Confederate soldier. After reading it twice, he was filled with “an inner glow that had me straining to grip the arms of my wheelchair.”319

  I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

  I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey…

  I asked for health, that I might do greater things.

  I was given infirmity, that I might do better things…

  I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

  I was given poverty, that I might be wise…

  I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.

  I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God…

  I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.

  I was given life, that I might enjoy all things…

  I got nothing I asked for but everything I had hoped for.

  Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

  I am, among men, most richly blessed!320

  If we can look at our trials in life as opportunities to grow closer to God and to be a more effective witness for him, then truly every trial can be a blessing, to ourselves and to others. The courage to adopt this attitude doesn’t come from within. Only in Jesus Christ can we find the inner resources to lead such a life.

  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

  —2 Corinthians 12:10

  August 9

  I’ll Wait for You Forever

  Couples separated by the war were affected in different ways. Some could not stand the strain. Fortunately, some not only endured but even grew stronger. Relying on God and their faith, Ruth Kwall and Joseph Portnoy remained true to each other through a long engagement. When Joseph could get a three-day pass they were finally married in 1943. Ruth wrote a letter affirming where the strength in their relationship came from:

  I want to tell you again, more surely than ever, that no matter how long or hard the siege may be I’ll wait for you forever. I know, and darling you must too, that God in heaven will guard this precious thing and help preserve it and us for a time when the world will need tangible examples to show it that war does not end things; that good, beautiful emotions live on forever. I’m nineteen, Joe, but I know deep down inside me that the emotion I feel, that we feel is older, is mature that it has made me grow to more of the sort of person you’d have me be. War isn’t funny and I know we’ll be tested even further than we ever dreamed could be possible.321

  Echoing these feelings, Joseph responded, “You are wise to rely on your complete faith that everything will turn out right for us, and knowing that you think like that, I also feel free to exercise my faith.”322 This couple is a living testament to a great spiritual truth: if two people strive to grow closer to God, they will inevitably grow closer together. As they put God at the center of their relationship, Ruth and Joseph Portnoy experienced a deepening of their love in spite of the hardships and separation of wartime.

  And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

  —2 John 6

  August 10

  Miracle of Radio

  World War II was the first war in which radio played an important role in civilian and military communications. The science of sending code and voice transmissions through the airways was pioneered in the early 1900s, and the first commercial broadcast stations were licensed in the 1920s. One of the earliest practical uses for this new technology was communication with ships at sea, making the U.S. Navy an early and vigorous proponent of its military use. By the early 1940s commanders were able to stay in regular although sometimes tenuous contact with their ships and units around the globe. Within the civilian community, families gathered around their radio sets to be entertained and to hear the latest news of the war.

  The following prayer was written by a well-known Navy chaplain in 1944 giving thanks for this marvelous invention:

  Thanksgiving for Radio Communication

  Infinite God, who hast founded the known upon the unknown, and hast hidden the secrets of Thy universe beneath the twin cloaks of silence and invisibility: Who has dared Man to divine the meaning that there lies hidden, and has made Man of such a disposition that he can find no satisfaction as long as there remains one unanswered question: W
e thank Thee for the mind and spirit, the indefatigable energy and the questing intelligence of those scientists and technicians in physics and electricity, who took Thy cosmic dare, and by the force of their insatiable curiosity and their persistent imagination made possible radio communication and brought forth from the silence of electricity the beauty of sound and from the invisibility of light the beauty of color. Thou who hearest our unspoken prayers across the unimaginable abyss of eternity; we thank Thee for all those who have helped Man to enter into communication with Man across the echoless miles with a wonder and fidelity that is akin to prayer. Amen.323

  The final thought in this prayer is startling and thought provoking, comparing the communications of man through the ether with prayer to God. It is something to ponder.

  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

  —Deuteronomy 4:7

  August 11

  Missing in Action

  Marjorie and Rowland Gaunt were married in Cranston, Rhode Island, in August 1943. Within a few weeks, Rowland received his navigator’s wings and assignment to a B-17 bomber squadron in England. In March 1944 Marjorie received the dreaded telegram informing her that her husband was missing in action. For months, she lived in the limbo of not knowing. She continued her letters and her prayers in spite of the agonizing uncertainty. In November, with dwindling hope, she wrote:

  Wherever you are, I know you must feel my love for you. My love has grown stronger each day and it is just bursting for expression. I’ve told you many times how much I love you, and I am so thankful for that now… Please, darling… keep your eyes uplifted and trust in God. I’ve prayed continually for His protection over you and His guidance during these long trying months. I pray for Him to give you patience and to bless you and make you strong. Oh, that I might bear it for you. I would gladly die that you might come back to those that love you and live gloriously to serve humanity and God… Be strong, my darling. May God give you courage, patience and strength that will carry you triumphantly through your ordeals to lasting peace, gentleness and love.324

  Unfortunately, these prayers were not answered as Marjorie hoped they would be. Rowland was lost at sea in February 1944 when his B-17 was shot down off the coast of Denmark. It was not until 1945 that she was officially informed of his death by the War Department. Marjorie’s courage and faithfulness sustained her during this long ordeal and are a strong witness to the power of faith in such a bleak time. Her prayers may not have been rewarded in this life as she had hoped, but we can rest in the assurance that God’s will was accomplished and that this brave couple will triumphantly find lasting peace and love together in eternity.

  And the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.

  —Mark 10:89

  August 12

  Physical Separation

  Erman Southwick was inducted into the Army in 1943 and served in Europe for most of the war. He was sustained during this separation by a lively correspondence with his wife, Flora, at home in Marietta, Ohio. Her words made a moving case that she and Erman were not really separated by the miles between them:

  When I get a letter from you I try to make a mental picture of all the things you tell me and then knowing you as I do I work out just how you reacted to what you said and the expression on your face. It makes me feel so close to you and through every line of your letters is the assurance over and over again of your love and that gives me a safe warm feeling inside. You see, darling, I just love you so much, I don’t really recognize any separation from you. They can separate us physically and that is pretty hard to take sometimes but when there is complete emotional and intellectual unity between two people to really separate them is impossible.325

  This couple demonstrates the biblical model of marriage: “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate”(Matthew 19:6). Even though separated by time and distance, they remained united in spirit. The marriage relationship is intended to be an everlasting bond between a man and a woman reflecting the depth of our relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. With the words “complete emotional and intellectual unity” this young woman perfectly captures the essence of that higher unity promised by the apostle Paul. In one of the most moving passages of Scripture, we receive a vision of the spiritual unity in Jesus Christ that will prevail through every hardship:

  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  —Romans 8:38–39

  August 13

  Pocket Prayers

  In 1941 the Episcopal Church of the United States published a small booklet for soldiers and sailors that could be carried in their pockets wherever they went. It included an Order of Worship, Holy Communion, prayers, psalms, readings, and hymns. All these were selected to meet the needs of military men and women. Some of the prayers are especially poignant and universally relevant:326

  For God’s Help

  Grant us, O Lord, in all our duties thy help, in all our perplexities thy counsel, in all our dangers thy protection, and in all our sorrows thy peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour, Amen.

  Grant us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  For Fidelity

  Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  For Loyalty

  Almighty God, grant us thy gift of loyalty. For our homes, give us love and obedience; for our country, sacrifice and service; for our Church, reverence and devotion; and in everything make us true to thee; through thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

  For Loyalty to Our Homes

  Grant, O Lord, to those in the service of their country who have left wives and children at home, a steadfast loyalty through all the days of separation, that returning at length to their beloved they may know the joy of unbroken fidelity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.

  —Psalm 6:9

  August 14

  Pride and Anguish

  Gabriel Navarro was a first-generation immigrant from Mexico living in Houston, Texas. His son, Porifirio, was a Marine corporal fighting somewhere in the Pacific. Mr. Navarro’s letter to his son reflects the mixture of intense pride and anxiety felt by World War II parents:

  It has been one year to the day that, courageous and optimistic, full of faith and love of country, you left our side to join the armed forces of America. The forces of Democracy and Liberty. Twelve months of absence, during which time our thoughts and my paternal affection have followed you step by step across an ocean full of dangers… My heart stops beating when I think of death extending its wings over your head.

  The courage and enthusiasm which you demonstrated upon leaving us to answer your country’s call, which needs the help of its children, filled me with satisfaction and pride. And you may be sure that your mother, who gave you life, also covers you with benedictions and prayers, just as your mother country covers you with its flag.327

  I believe that the most difficult test of faith for any person is to have a son or daughter in a life-threatening situation. This anxiety is prolonged and even more acute during wartime, when duty calls the child to face danger over a long period of time. We might see the higher purpose and feel pride in their devotion to an important caus
e. Nevertheless, as the parents of today’s military men and women can attest, the worry is still crushing. There is only one source of effective relief from this degree of anxiety, and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. During his ministry he explained and modeled the perfect love that our heavenly Father has for his children. He is always there to ease our burdens and to take our anxieties upon himself. His constant care and concern is the ultimate source of comfort in this life and in the eternal future.

  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

  —Matthew 6:26–27

  August 15

  Rationing

  By early 1943 shortages of food, gasoline, and other war materiel were beginning to be felt throughout the nation. Renee Pike gave a sense of what it was like on the home front in letters to her husband, George: