Larkin Spivey - Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord.

Ensign Gay fought to control his Devastator during his long, tortuous torpedo run on the Soryu . Through every burst of enemy gunfire he kept the nose of his aircraft pointed at his target. He witnessed his fellow pilots going down and was very aware that his own life could be measured in seconds. Every detail seemed to stand out as he focused his eyes on the looming enemy carrier. The flight deck was full of aircraft and scrambling figures. For an instant, a strange thought flashed through his mind: “I had a thought right in a split second there to crash into those planes… because I could have started a beautiful fire.” However, his thought process then changed course rapidly: “The plane was still flying and I felt pretty good and I didn’t see any sense in crashing into those planes. I thought maybe I’d get a chance to go back and hit them again someday and as long as there’s life there’s hope. So I pulled up and went over them.” 75

For some reason America seems to face foes who glorify suicide. The Japanese in World War II sent countless young kamikaze pilots on one-way missions. Terrorists of today kill themselves and innocent victims for their own “higher” cause. American values, thankfully, do not permit this approach. In the beginning, our Founding Fathers acted on the firm belief that the value and dignity of every human being comes from God and that every citizen is “endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights.” In wartime our leaders sometimes have to send men on dangerous missions. However, every effort is made to provide for their safe return. Every American soldier knows that he will never be considered “expendable.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Lt. Joseph Pollard went aboard the USS Yorktown on May 27 and sailed with her three days later. As one of the ship’s medical officers, he prepared his men and equipment for the action ahead. On June 4, the Japanese task force was finally sighted. The Yorktown’s aircraft were armed, fueled, and launched late that morning. An eerie lull ensued. Finally, at about 2:00 p.m. the aircraft began returning, many with battle damage. In the midst of recovery operations, the general quarters alarm was sounded, alerting the crew to an enemy attack. Suddenly two sickening thuds shook the ship, resulting in an immediate hard list to port.

Pollard remembered: “Just then word came over the speaker, ‘Prepare to abandon ship!’ I was dumbfounded. It was uncomprehensible. A man lying beside me with one foot shot away and a severe chest wound turned his head towards me and asked, ‘What does this mean for us?’ and turned his head away. He knew that he would have no chance in the water.” 76

We have sympathy for anyone like this who is suddenly jolted from calm conditions to utter chaos. How would you or I react? We hope we would be cool and confident in a crisis, but we never know until it happens. We can only pray for courage under fire and the ability to think clearly. Confidence in God and in our relationship to him is a big advantage at such a time. Jesus promised, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). This peace pertains not only to our long-term spiritual well-being, but also helps us find confidence and a calm mind in an emergency.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Early on June 4 Lt. Cdr. Wade McClusky led a squadron of Dauntless dive-bombers from the USS Enterprise in search of the Japanese carriers. Arriving at the designated point, he found the sea empty. Unknown to him or anyone else, the Japanese task force had changed course. The search then became a guessing game. Having climbed to high altitude with heavy bomb loads, fuel and time were running out.

As he was calculating his next move, McClusky looked down to see a lone Japanese ship far below:

Call it fate, luck or what you may, because at 1155 (0955 local time) I spied a lone Jap cruiser 77scurrying under full power to the northeast. Concluding that she possibly was a liaison ship between the occupation forces and the striking force, I altered my Group’s course to that of the cruiser. At 1205 (1005) that decision paid dividends. Peering through my binoculars which were practically glued to my eyes, I saw dead ahead about 35 miles distant the welcome sight of the Jap carrier striking force. 78

This decision not only “paid dividends” in the Battle of Midway, it was one of the most pivotal decisions ever made in any war. Twenty minutes later McClusky’s dive-bombers delivered fatal blows to the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi , ensuring one of the most improbable yet decisive defeats ever inflicted in naval warfare. McClusky’s decision was one of many “lucky” events contributing to this amazing and miraculous victory.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale.

The air group from the USS Enterprise was amazingly successful in finding the Japanese carrier force on June 4. The Americans were also astounded to find no fighter opposition to their attack. As Lieutenant Commander McClusky bore in on his bombing run, he discovered one more surprise:

As we neared the bomb-dropping point, another stroke of luck met our eyes. Both enemy carriers had their decks full of planes that had just returned from the attack on Midway. Later it was learned about the time we had discovered the Jap force, an enemy seaplane had detected our forces. Apparently then, the planes on deck were being refueled and rearmed for an attack on our carriers. Supposing then we, Air Group Six, had turned southward toward Midway, as the Hornet group did, I can vividly imagine the Enterprise and Hornet at the bottom of the sea as the Yorktown was some three days later. 79

The condition of the flight decks on the Japanese carriers at this decisive moment was critical to the outcome. There was great confusion because the aircraft were being rearmed for a strike on the American carriers, instead of a second attack on Midway. The flight decks were filled with fuel lines and aviation ordnance. The bomb hits of McClusky’s dive-bombers would probably not have been fatal in themselves. However, they were devastating due to what McClusky termed “another stroke of luck.” In this case the “luck” was confusion on the part of the Japanese and the sacrifice of Torpedo 8. Human planning could not have orchestrated the sequence of these improbable circumstances.

The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire.

After the war, Mitsuo Fuchida, the leader of the attack on Pearl Harbor, coauthored a book about the Battle of Midway. The book contains a foreword written by Adm. Raymond Spruance, the officer most responsible for the success of the U.S. forces during the battle. In the foreword Admiral Spruance makes this comment:

In reading the account of what happened on June 4 th, I am more than ever impressed with the part that good or bad fortune sometimes plays in tactical engagements. The authors give us credit, where no 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