credit is due, for being able to choose the exact time for our attack on the Japanese carriers when they were at their greatest disadvantage—flight decks full of aircraft fueled, armed, and ready to go.80
Admiral Spruance displays a sense of humility unique to a military hero. He makes an unusual concession that the actions of the leaders involved were not the determining factor in this great victory. He attributes the amazing timing of his own attack to “good fortune,” which, for a nonreligious person, would be a perfectly adequate explanation. It is my belief, however, that, instead of a series of “lucky” incidents at Midway we have seen a pattern of events that shows evidence of God’s hand acting on behalf of the American forces at this crucial moment of the war. It is difficult to imagine the long-range consequence of a different outcome to this battle. If the Japanese had achieved mastery of the Pacific, America would have been forced to drastically alter its commitment to the war in Europe. The shape of Europe and the world after the war would not have been the same.
When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.
March
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
During the 1930s, isolationist sentiment against involvement in the growing European conflict was strong. Negative public opinion and budget restrictions resulted in a meager allocation of resources to the U.S. military establishment. Up until 1940, the comfortable assumption prevailed that the army of France and the navy of Great Britain could successfully contain Nazi Germany in Europe. When this illusion was shattered, the United States, while continuing to profess “neutrality,” adopted a more open role designed to “keep England in the war” and to prepare herself for war.
Walking a political tightrope, President Roosevelt entered into base-sharing agreements with Canada and Great Britain, and pushed a “Lend-Lease” program through Congress to provide ships and materiel to the beleaguered British. On the day that Paris fell, the president signed a naval expansion bill that had been in debate for months, in effect doubling the size of the U.S. Navy.81 Unfortunately, it would take two years to bring this expansion on line. In September 1940 the Selective Training and Service Act was passed creating the military draft.
From the beginning, the German submarine (U-boat) threat to U.S. and British shipping had been serious. With the fall of France, however, the Germans were able to establish bases on the French coast, almost doubling the effective range of their submarines. Admiral Donitz, the German commander of U-boat operations, initiated a new concept called Rudeltaktik, or “wolf-pack” tactics, enabling groups of submarines to force their way through escort screens to effectively attack merchant convoys. The toll on Allied shipping began to rise ominously. During late 1940, 217 merchant vessels were sunk, representing more than a million tons of shipping. Britain’s survival became ever more tenuous. Winston Churchill declared, “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”82
The Battle of the Atlantic continued furiously for the duration of the war. Allied losses continued to be heavy during 1942 and 1943. Upon America’s official entry into the war, German operations also moved into American waters, inflicting heavy losses on coastal shipping and commerce in the Western Hemisphere. Progress countering this threat was painfully slow. Escorted convoys were the preferred countermeasure against submarines. There just weren’t enough escorts. Slowly, more destroyers became available, as Britain, Canada, and the United States were able to commit more resources to this theater of the war. Land-based air coverage was gradually extended, and the final gap eventually filled by escort carriers after 1943.
The climax of the Battle of the Atlantic came in late April 1943 when a forty-two-ship Allied convoy came against a U-boat picket line of fifty-one submarines off Iceland. Cdr. P. W. Gretton, RN, fought a decisive action over nine days in the worst possible weather. With nine ships he sank five U-boats, while aircraft disposed of two more.83 The German high command had to reappraise strategy. After this battle, most submarine activity was directed toward less defended, and less strategic, shipping lanes.
March 1
Revenge was the order of the day. The German battleship
Lt. Ludovic Kennedy was on the bridge of HMS
It was not a pretty sight. Bismarck was a menace that had to be destroyed, a dragon that would have severed the arteries that kept Britain alive. And yet to see her now, this beautiful ship, surrounded by enemies on all sides, hopelessly outgunned and out maneuvered, being slowly battered to a wreck, filled one with awe and pity… George Whaley, our Canadian lieutenant, wrote, “What that ship was like inside did not bear thinking of; her guns smashed, the ship full of fire, her people hurt; and surely all men are much the same when hurt.” It was a thought shared by many British sailors that day.84
It is somehow comforting to hear these conflicting emotions in a moment of triumph. The climax of this battle was surely satisfying to every British seaman. At the same time, there were pangs of conscience at the suffering of enemy counterparts. It is reassuring to know that such humanity existed then and that it is there within each one of us now. Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”(Matthew 9:13). In our moments of success we must open our hearts to him and let ourselves be the vessels of his mercy. This kind of loving humility is only possible through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting… I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief.
March 2
Corvettes were small naval vessels built early in the war to fill the urgent need for convoy escorts. Even
