Free Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II by Larkin Spivey Page B

27
    Another Stroke of Luck
    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 L ORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire.
    —Deuteronomy 5:24

F EBRUARY 28
    Spruance
    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
    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.
    —Joshua 6:20
     
     

Big guns firing from U.S. warship. (National Archives)

M ARCH 1
    Sink the Bismarck
    Revenge was the order of the day. The German battleship Bismarck had destroyed HMS Hood in the Denmark Strait. The British battle cruiser was the pride of the Royal Navy, and her sudden loss was one of the most shocking events of World War II. The British high command devoted every available resource to find