A Day for Prayer
In this post, military historian Alison White emphasizes the importance of prayer on D-Day, commemorating 75 years since the historic invasion that changed the course of WWII.
June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. While the invasion was anticipated, the news of its arrival brought the faithful around the world to their knees in prayer, as the conclusion of that day could determine the outcome of the war. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were among those who reached out through prayer on that historic day. The following is an account of some of their prayers.1
In Spanish Fork, Utah, members of the Palmyra Stake presidency2 called a special meeting “for the purpose of holding a period of prayer.” During the meeting a prayer was offered by former stake president Henry A. Gardner, in which he pleaded with “our Father, and our God” for those involved in the invasion. While the entirety of his prayer is stunningly worded, this passage more than any other speaks to the heart of his plea to the Lord.
“O, Lord, God, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget! Help us to have faith in Thee. Help us to serve Thee here and our soldiers on the battle-fronts over there. We know, Our Father, that their road will be rough. We know that millions of men will lose their lives or receive the shocks that will perhaps not only injure them in a physical way, but many of them will be called upon to lose their minds. Father, we are not unmindful of the pain, anguish and sorrow through which they will pass, and we petition Thee most humbly that Thou will preserve as far as possible with Thy power those of our boys and girls who are making this supreme sacrifice, who are giving their lives that we here on the home front might continue to enjoy the liberty and the happiness that comes to a free people.”
He goes on to say,
“We know, Heavenly Father, that our armies and soldiers are well prepared and if Thou will be on our side we shall win. We plead that Thou will hear our humble petition among the millions of prayers uttered this day.”3
Farther north, in Logan, Utah, Ellen B. Pugmire recorded in her journal the events of the day.
“D-day, we were listening to the early morning news, or rather JR had just turned it on at the usual time when we heard that the invasion had all ready started. Dad called us, we were up in no time, can’t express the feelings we had as we listened to the news. We had the radio on nearly all the time for the next few days. Our hearts and our prayers were for our boys over there and for their loved ones here at home. It was a day I’ll never forget.”
She also recorded a variation of the first stanza of the Annie Johnson Flint poem “A Red Sea Place,” which seems to be a fitting prayer for the day.
Have faith,
When you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where in spite of all you can do,
There is no way back, there is no way round,
There is no other way but through,
Then trust in the Lord with a faith supreme,
Till the night and the storm are gone,
He will still the winds,
He will part the waves,
When he says to your soul “go on!”4
“One of the boys” the Pugmire family was unknowingly praying for was Latter-day Saint Charles Ray Bates, who had prepared for the invasion the day before by reading a letter from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In this letter Eisenhower expressed how “the hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere” were with them. Then, after several paragraphs of informative pep talk, he closed by saying, “Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”5
The following day Charles’s air crew flew three combat missions in support of landing troops. Of that experience he said, “We prayed a lot. We were serious. We knew our life was on the line, and we did everything we could to protect each other.”6 In his moment of need, he heeded the words of his general and called upon the God whom he had been trained in his youth to rely upon for help.
The many prayers offered that day were a source of comfort to those who lived through that historic event, for they knew where to turn for peace.