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

If the port facilities at Dunkirk had permitted evacuation of equipment perhaps the decision would have been different. We will never know. As it was, only the men could be saved. In a well-known Bible story, Jesus once healed a sick man at the expense of a herd of pigs. The townspeople were incensed over the loss of their property, ignoring the value of a human life. If we think about it, we have a choice in our lives that is even starker. We often have to choose between our spiritual condition and our possessions. Jesus clearly taught us where to put our priorities. If anything gets in the way of our relationship to God, we need to “leave it behind.”

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Pilot Officer G. W. Spiers was flying patrol over Dunkirk in a twin engine Blenheim IV light bomber when his aircraft was attacked and fatally damaged by a formation of German Messerschmitt 109 fighters. He knew he had to ditch the aircraft and struggled to keep it level as the water came up to meet him. After a violent impact, water rushed into the cockpit as a dam bursting. Spiers tried to get to the escape hatch over his head but his feet were slipping and he could make no progress toward it. He found himself underwater. “I had never prayed to God with such agony or earnestness… as I realized that I would not escape,” Spiers said. “I tried to suck water into my lungs to hasten the end, but I was unsuccessful and only swallowed it. My lungs were bursting and my pulse pounded in my eardrums, brilliant flashes and yellow spots appeared in front of my eyes.”

Starting to drift downward, Spiers somehow found the reserve to give one more kick with his right leg: “I had sufficient consciousness to realize my right leg was straight and not in contact with what I thought was the floor of the aircraft. Thinking this may be a way out, I drew my left leg up to it and paddled my way down… after I had descended several feet I slowly backed away and then swam to the surface.” 23

A friendly trawler picked up the brave airman and delivered him back to safety in England where he was hospitalized for a broken ankle and other injuries.

Fortunately, few of us are taken to the absolute limit of either our endurance or our patience. However, we all experience situations where “one more kick” might make the difference between success and failure. We sometimes call it “going the extra mile,” often so important in business and sports. We sometimes forget that such effort is also needed many times with friends and family. Meeting someone more than halfway can save a relationship. God is always there to provide that extra reserve when we need it and call on him for it.

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.

Arthur Davey was an ambulance driver in the evacuation to Dunkirk. Air raids interrupted several attempts to bring his convoy to the port, and he endured two days of anxious waiting outside the town, as the bombs seemed to fall ever closer. Finally, late in the afternoon of the second day, an officer came with instructions to move to the port, one ambulance at a time, in three-minute intervals. The officer promised that this time, there would be air cover for the embarkation. Davey described what happened next:

When we reached the quay, and drove onto the huge concrete jetty, now holed with craters, and jagged at the sides, where bombs had torn away sections of the concrete, no ship was waiting. We turned off our motors, and proceeded to wait for the ship or the bombers. After about 20 minutes, it seemed hours, had passed, about 30 planes appeared high in the sky, from seaward we thought they were our own at first, then, when they dived, we knew that the promised air protection was merely a ‘nerve tonic.’ 24

The British soldiers apparently used the term “nerve tonic” to describe lies told in tense times to calm them down. I doubt that the practice was widespread, because such a breach of honesty would destroy a regular unit over time. Soldiers have to trust their officers and vice versa. The same is true in all organizations, including our families. It’s easy to make promises that we fail to follow up on later. We all are tempted to downplay the negative and to give hope for something good to come. However, false hope is good for no one. Sooner or later, reality must prevail. We can all deal with reality better than a loss of trust in a parent, friend, or employer.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

The evacuation of the army from Dunkirk offered hope and a brief respite for the British people. However, the Germans continued their drive through France, and the fate of Great Britain hung in the balance. Many British politicians were beginning to consider accommodations with Hitler that would allow the nation to avoid complete catastrophe. They wondered what would happen when the country stood alone against a Europe dominated by the Nazis. In this hour of fear and uncertainty, Winston Churchill addressed the nation to illuminate the difficult, but clear path ahead:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender! 25

Looking back we can now appreciate these bold words as heroic and inspiring but how easy it is to forget the uncertainty prevailing at the time they were spoken. It must have been tempting for Churchill to hedge his bets. He could have alluded to the possibility of some accommodation with Hitler that would have guaranteed Britain’s continued existence. He knew, however, that there was only one difficult path to long-term survival.

The apostle Paul also painted a clear picture of our spiritual path and the urgency required to successfully pursue it. He left no room for half-hearted efforts.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

From the opening of the war to the evacuation at Dunkirk, the British Army suffered one traumatic setback after another. It became a soldier’s battle at every point as the “fog of war” descended over the vast battlefield. Coordination was difficult, reliable information scarce, and rumors were rampant. The junior officers, sergeants, and individual soldiers saved the army from disintegration by taking the initiative to keep their units together in the confusion of retreat. It was not pretty, but it worked. Instead of the greatest military disaster in British history, the army’s successful retreat and miraculous escape from Dunkirk became a source of national inspiration and hope. As one historian noted:

Dunkirk had started something. The spirit of Britain was roused, a vast flame of self-sacrifice and endeavour which swept the country and kept it going through the next dark eighteen months. In this campaign there had been no differentiation by rank. Everybody, from the commanding general downwards, had faced the same conditions, the same dangers and the same hardships. All the privileges of peacetime had disappeared and there grew from it not only inter-service co-operation but also that tremendous comradeship that carried the forces through Alamein and Normandy. 26