Myron Eberle - Faith Strengthened in Battle

An American soldier called Myron Eberle recalled this incident from the N-W Europe campaign fifty-two years later in 1997:-

This incident took place about the 18th of January, 1945, in a wooded area about one mile outside of a small Belgian Village named "Petit Thier". I had taken command of "C" Company a few days earlier, on the road from Vielsalm to Petit Thier, when Captain Walsh was severely wounded by mortar fire. Petit Thier was, and is, a small village with a sizable road running parallel to a ridge which was occupied by Germans, and we were assigned to move to the village and meet a tank outfit, which we would support, or vice versa!  

We did arrive after dark, after having taken some casualties from the enemy fire, as we traversed the road directly in front of them, at a distance of probably one thousand yards.  The company consisted of three officers and about sixty men at that point. As we left the village the next morning, at right angles to the road, and went off into the forest along a small road, or trail, without the benefit of the tanks, the forest, which we soon entered, was dense, and the snow was so deep, that instead of attacking in a front, we were forced to move in single file, and have the lead man break the path through the snow. This was so tiring that the lead man was rotated to the rear of the company after about 50 yards of forcing his way through the snow which was nearly three feet deep in the woods. The progress was slowed by occasional enemy fire, which resulted in everyone hitting the ground, and then moving forward after being prodded.

This went on for the day in question until we reached a clearing in the woods. A firebreak was laid out somewhat like a street corner, since we had a clearing in front of us, and a clearing on our right, and we were in the northwest corner, with the Germans occupying the northwest corner, and who knew what in the other two corners. We had no support on our left flank, and did not know if any other of our sister companies were across the clearing to the southeast.

Directly in front of our position was a small haystack, and perhaps three or four at the most, cows eating from the stack. We had a nice wooden bunker built by the Germans on our side of the clearing, and they had another one on the other side, in which they had mounted a machine gun which would fire at targets of opportunity. We were going to have to attack this situation, and since it was almost dusk, I decided to wait until dark and see if we could cross the clearing on our right, then move across the clearing toward the southwest corner, and come up on the flank of the Germans. It always seemed easier to me to avoid head-on attacks, if possible, and so after dark, I started out with a patrol to see if we could cross and find another outfit.

Radio contact, we did not have, so we did not know that about ten yards into this clearing was a small shack, perhaps a pump house, set on a stone base, and we got this far along, when I rolled over on my side and called out to someone still in the woods, at which time the German machine gun ripped out a burst and slammed me on my back from a sideways position, looking at my arm I could see where the bullet had gone through my sleeve, and while no pain accompanied the hit, this was typical since shock made the initial trauma area numb. I concluded that what I had was a nice million dollar wound, and crawled back to our woods, calling off the patrol.  Getting into the bunker, I tried to turn the company over to another officer, and told him it was a good hit for me, and here are the maps, "You take over". He wanted to see how much damage was done, and with some light in the bunker we started pulling off clothes.

The bullet hole in the outer field jacket was almost exactly center on my arm, but the wool sweater had a shorter mark, and the wool shirt even less, finally, my wool underwear had perhaps a one inch mark, and on my skin there was a red mark, it had not even broken the skin! So I put all of the clothes back on, feeling gypped out of a good million dollar bullet hole. (Any wound which was not incapacitating, was considered a good deal, back to the rear for a little rest, and in the vernacular, a $1,000,000 wound!)  

The next day the machine gun was still there, and they had mortars which would occasionally throw a round into our area. As a consequence, I ordered an attack to be made directly across the perhaps 50 yard wide area, with Joe Colcord starting from a position down the line which would not be directly in front of the gun, and the bunker, and started another platoon directly at the bunker. They were almost immediately pinned down, and were trying to hide behind the haystack, and the cows, so that I decided to get out there and get the attack moving, and moved out to the stack, possibly 15 yards from our woods.  

At this time, while ordering some actions to take place, the Germans started to shell the haystack with mortar rounds, not a big explosive shell, but deadly enough. The next described sequence remains one of the most vivid of my entire life. While issuing orders, the thought popped into my mind with no preliminary warning, that "I was going to die, right now!" My response was not spoken, but it was none the less a response, and it was "Well, all right God, if it is time", and with my response came over me the most peaceful, serene, joyous feeling that everything was going to be wonderful and death was going to be a marvelous experience!! Almost at the same time, this inner conversation had taken place, a mortar shell landed on the back of the cow I was trying to hide under, and the cow fell over, away from me, and was dead!

 It is my belief that God, our Father, Gave to me the opportunity to know that my time was up, and based upon my response, decided to give me some additional time on earth, for his own reasons, of course.  I heard no voices in my ear, saw no visions, but received a message that now was the time, and my consequent beliefs are that death will not be very frightening when we actually get there, God does indeed want us for his own, and will give to everyone the same loving thoughts to comfort them through.  

I have never been able to tell this story without becoming very emotional, and writing it is the same, through my tears, which must be tears of joy, the remembrance of that moment of light, and love, in the middle of one of my worst experiences is still present, and leads me to believe that we need not fear, as we have been told many times in Christ's own words.  I have absolutely no remembrance of what transpired the rest of that day, except that we did not finish the attack, but pulled back to our side, and the following day when we were to launch an all-out attack, the Germans had vanished into the night.

 "Gloria in Excelcis Deo," we are to remember that He loves everyone, not just those from one side, or the other, and I am sure that He does not love any war, no matter how just!

D-Day Memories - Louie Harvard

Louie Harvard owed his life to his Bible.  Literally

Before going ashore on Utah beach on D-Day he was handed a Bible which he placed in the left breast pocket of his uniform.  He landed safely with his company, Company L of the 4^th Division but a few days later came under heavy fire near Cherbourg.  Shrapnel ripped through his uniform and would have headed straight to his heart but for being intercepted by the Bible in his pocket and deflected onto his arm.

He was evacuated to a Field Hospital and presented with the Bible by one of the doctors who treated him.

Louie’s family donated the Bible to the Utah Beach Museum in Normandy, where it can still be seen today.

 

D-Day Memories - Leslie Cruise Jr.

As the dwindling band of D-Day veterans prepare to make their way to Normandy to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the landings, one man making the long trip from Philadelphia.

As a Private 1^st Class, Leslie Cruise had already endured an agonizing 24-hour postponement of his mission but now he carried his equipment on board the Douglas C-47; rations, canteens, first aid pack, clothing, rifle and bayonet, ammunition, smoke grenades and an anti-tank mine.  However his most important piece of equipment was in his left breast pocket – a New Testament given to him by his mother.  He patted it and said a quiet prayer to himself:-

God help me to commit myself to the task ahead and help me to be a good soldier, and save me from harm.

Earlier in the evening he had gathered for a service led by his chaplain, Capt. George Wood.  A prayer was said which Cruise remembers to this day:-

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father who art above us and beneath us, within us and around us, drive from the minds of our paratroopers any fear of the space in which Thou art ever present.  Give them the confidence in the strength of Thine everlasting arms.  Endue them with clear minds and pure hearts that they might participate in the victory which this nation much achieve in Thy Name and through Thy Will.  Make them hardy soldiers of their country as well as Thy Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Amen

 

Palmer was parachuted into Normandy early on D-Day and was part of a Platoon which held the strategically important town of St. Mere Eglise until the tanks of the 4^th Division relieved them nearly 48 hours later.  His, and the chaplain’s prayers, had been answered.

 

 

 

D-Day Memories - William Nesbitt

William Nesbitt died in 2012 at the age of 97.

Sixty-eight years previously he was one of the first Americans to land on Omaha Beach on the world-changing day of 6th June 1944.

It turned out to be a good thing as some of the Army medics drowned during the Omaha Beach invasion. They had an additional 40 to 50 pounds of weight to carry after filling up the vest pockets with supplies.

The son of a minister and a devout Christian, Nesbitt escaped death a few times.
While waiting to go on to the beach, he stood aboard an explosive-laden landing ship. An aircraft buzzed over, flew out to sea and returned to drop three bombs around the ship.
“If they (the bombs) had been one or two feet closer, I would not be here,” Nesbitt said.

“I believe God wanted me to experience D-Day because it has had such a profound influence in my life. Because of the lessons I learned on the bloody sands of Omaha Beach, I was better able to minister to the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical needs of those who came to me for help,” Nesbitt wrote in “Lessons Fom D-Day.”

Nesbitt was a Medical Officer with the US 7th Naval Battalion, providing temporary care for the wounded until they could be evacuated back to the UK.  Descended from a long line of ministers, doctors and military men, Nesbitt feared that he had not given enough to the dying men on the beach, despite dodging bullets and mortar fire to treat injured soldiers.

"I was no more a hero than the farmer raising wheat, the housewife welding ships, or the labourer digging ditches."

"I didn't even choose to go into one of the bloodiest battles that the world has ever seen; I was given orders to go.  And like any officer or sailor, I obeyed my orders and did my duty to the best of my ability."

While waiting to go on to the beach, he stood aboard an explosive-laden landing ship. An aircraft buzzed over, flew out to sea and returned to drop three bombs around the ship.

“If they (the bombs) had been one or two feet closer, I would not be here,” Nesbitt said.

"There were heroes on Omaha Beach that bleak, cold day.  Like the Army sergeant who strapped 70 pounds of plastic explosives on his back and ran through 50 yards of intense enemy fire to blow a hole in a seawall that was blocking the advance of our tanks and troops."

Nesbitt saw some gruesome sights that day, "The scene was appalling.  At the water's edge, body parts of our own troops floated, and corpses rolled in and out with the waves like logs.  Hundreds of dead and dying were scattered over the vast stretches of beach."

"The vision of hundreds of casualties lying quietly in rows, lonely, in pain, silently pleading for someone to comfort them, lingers in my mind.  If only I had seen the need to go down those rows and kneel beside each men, say a prayer, offer an encouraging word, take a message for a loved one."

This led to Nesbitt re-evaluating his priorities.  When he returned to medical practive in California after the war, rather than treating ailments, he decided to treat the whole patient - both the physical symptoms and the psychological ills which accompanied those problems.  This was fulled by his regret at not providing spiritual as well as medical comfort on D-Day.

He helped to found Refugees International, a group that worked with victims of such conflicts and travelled to Thailand to work with refugees from the Cambodian wars and led the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship programme at the University of Wyoming.

Nesbitt summed up the importance of D-Day towards the rest of his life

“I believe God wanted me to experience D-Day because it has had such a profound influence in my life. Because of the lessons I learned on the bloody sands of Omaha Beach, I was better able to minister to the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical needs of those who came to me for help,” Nesbitt wrote in “Lessons Fom D-Day.”

Onwards with Onward Christian Soldiers

The other big news today is that I had to go and sit before a `Progression Panel' at the University of Birmingham.  The purpose of the panel, made up of three leading academics from the Department of History, was to assess my progress to date and comment on my suitability to progress to work at Doctoral level for the next four years.  Fortunately they passed me, although not after some very challenging and thought-provoking questions.

So all I have to do now is to come up with an 80,000 thesis (not a problem; in fact the only problem is limiting myself to 80,000 words) and an extra £9,000 in course fees.

Therefore if any readers of this blog know of any organisation or individual with an interest in war and religion who would be able to sponsor me for some of those fees, I would be keen to hear from them.  If anyone wanted to make a direct donation, anonymous or otherwise, then the account I have set up for this work is:-

Halifax Bank

Account name: John Broom

Account Number: 00095755

Sort Code: 001271

There is a story of war and religion in the twentieth century needing to be told.  I intend, with the assistance of providence, to tell it.

Bible Stories of World War One

Activity has been slow on the blog this year, mainly down to the fact that I have spent many hours travelling the country finding World War One Bible stories for a project the Bible Society have been engaged with.

I have found around thirty individual case studies of people for whom the Bible played an important part of their war experience; as combatants, as conscientious objectors and as women serving on the home front and as nurses.  Many of those have made it on the the Bible Society microsite here:-

http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-bible-society/our-work/world-war-1/

It has been a pleasure and a privilige to come across such wonderful people from the past as Lilian Hayman, Bert Brocklesby and David Jones.  It has also been of invalubale assistance to have some financial assistance towards archival visits.

However, as my next blog post will indicate, it is now time to refocus my efforts on the PhD Thesis about the Christian service personnel of World War Two, of which more later...