THE
WAR
THE
WEATHER
& GOD
by
G.F.
Vallance
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Chapter 4
Our heaviest
loss in Night Bombers, in raids over Germany up to December, 1942 was
thirty-four in one night; and they have been officially accredited as being
lost mainly “BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER.”
Then again,
H.M.S. Price of Wales, the pride of the Navy, together with H.M.S. Repulse,
were sunk by Japanese bombers, as we know, and the official cause given as,
that Admiral Phillips trusted to CLOUD cover, but that it broke, and his
Vessels were seen.
YES – IT WAS
“BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER” that our mightiest Battleship afloat was lost.
Think also of the remarkable escape of the Gneisenau and
Scharnhorst, together with the Prinz Eugen, from Brest Harbour, and here again
I cannot do better than quote from the Daily Press of February 14th,
1942.
The “Daily
Express” says:
“Why were
the ships able to steam so long up-Channel in daylight before they were
observed? The answer may be that
visibility was so bad that our reconnaissance missed this fleet escorted by
aircraft, over the vast spaces which the landsman never quite visualizes when
he thinks about the sea.
Then it will be asked why Phillips lost the
Prince of Wales and Repulse by air attack, while we failed to get the
Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau or the Prinz Eugen….
The answer is that the German
weather bureau did a good job for the German captains choosing a day for them
when heavy cloud obscured the sea.
Phillips, too, relied on low cloud. But the clouds that dispersed in
Malaya for the Japanese, stayed thick in the English Channel for the
Germans.”
While the “Daily Mail” says:
“How
did the Germans manage to get out without being seen?
Because of
the Weather. They could not have
done it yesterday. But on Thursday
visibility varied between three and five miles and there was a cloud ceiling
of, at best, only 1500 feet in the Channel.
There
was no moon on Wednesday night. These
were perfect conditions for the German enterprise.
How
did the German fleet manage to get so far? It was 11 a.m. of Thursday, when
they had already steamed some 400 miles from Brest, that they were sighted.
The
answer is again the weather.”
On March 28th, 1942,
the “Daily Express” said:
“The
R.A.F. intends to step up the bombing offensive against Germany on the largest
possible scale at the earliest possible moment. There has been some delay.
It is due to the diversion of bombers elsewhere; concentration on Brest
to stop the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; disappointments in the deliveries of
aircraft last autumn; and above all the winter weather.”
On 10th April, 1941,
our Prime Minister speaking in London, said, that “only Weather is
holding up Britain from launching a great Blitz. The R.A.F. is WAITING FOR
GOOD WEATHER.”
And the “Daily Express” of April
21st, 1942 said:
“It is true that the Germans a year
ago attempted to sustain their attacks on us in almost all weathers. But in doing so they shattered their
long-distance bombing force. By May, 1941,
the first great long distance bomber force which the world has ever seen was
exhausted, and the attack on Britain had been called off.
For
however little people realize it, the weather is still a more deadly
enemy to the bomber pilot, than all the defences of the enemy.
But
our bomber force must not be smashed, as it could easily be, by attempting to
use it in impossible weather conditions.
In
such conditions it is no good for us to accuse Bomber Command of
over-caution. For not only will bad
weather inflict appalling losses, it will prevent the pilots doing really
worthwhile damage.”
And how often
since then, has a heavy raid had to be “called off” after the planes have
actually been briefed and bombed up, and even in April 1944, “recalled
from over enemy territory” IN DAYLIGHT, “Because of the Weather?”
Even by
taking the chances which the waging of war demands, bad weather presents an
obstacle to the operation of big bomber forces, which none of the amazing
technical developments of the war have yet solved.
But 1942 also
saw the great German drive into Russia with its sweeping victories. What part did the Weather play in this great
battle? Let us see.
We have only
space enough to quote a few press extracts but they will sufficiently tell the
story for us.
“Daily Express” 15th
May, 1942:
German
radio commentators and front-line reporters were less boisterous last night
about the progress of operation on the Kerch front.
We are being
spared nothing in this battle” a reporter said.
Our
heavy weapons could not be brought into action and our aircraft were pinned to
the ground.
We
could only advance step by step.”
“Daily
Mail”: 20th July, 1942:
“The
Germans last night blamed the weather for the slower pace of the advance
on the Southern front.
German
controlled Paris radio stated that the German advance in South Russia
continued, but was being slowed down by the “deplorable weather.” Heavy
rains had transformed the ground and reads into seas of deep mud.
The waters of the River Don were very high and the
countryside was “menaced” with floods.”
But by
August that year there were two crucial battlefronts. One around Rzhev where the Russians were driving the Germans back
from Moscow; the other with the German hordes within sixty miles of Stalingrad,
but THE WEATHER intervened in BOTH.
“Daily
Express” 27th August, 1942, speaking of the advance on Stalingrad
said:
“The Red Army is not only outnumbered in men,
tanks, and planes, but the elements
have turned against them.
The
wind called “The Suhayi,”
which sweeps across the Volga Steepes during July and August is driving a
wall of flames and smoke
towards the Russian lines.
Behind
this screen, forming a gigantic flame thrower, the Germans advance without
being detected by Russian planes.”
Whilst the same paper reported the
following day:
“This
terrible battle for Rzhev has in it many characteristics of the battle of
Passchendaele.
In the first few days, directly
after the initial breakthrough of the German front line, there came rain.
The tanks
stopped, the lorries bogged down and the Stormoviks grounded. The assault slowed up. There was at this stage little resistance
from the Germans.
Then the
rain blotted out air activity too, and at night the Red Army strove
to bring up its supplies through the mud, and the Germans worked to
reorganize their defences along the second and third lines after the Gzhatsk
River line had gone.”
Yes,- the
Weather intervened as……[1]….many
times more during 1942, as we……..and 1944.
Thus we are not surprised………later that this same weather which…….tot the
very Gates of Stalingrad and ……… at one time only a few buiuldings separated
the German Forces from their final goal on the banks of the Volga) was to bring
relief to that hard hit noble Garrison.
That
“Restraining Hand” was in evidence.
The “Daily
Mail” of October 20th, 1942, had for its front page headline that
day,
“WEATHER COMES TO AID OF STALINGRAD.”
“Sudden
deterioration in the weather has brought unexpected relief to the sorely
pressed garrison of Stalingrad. Cold,
clear skies have given place to scudding cloud and heavy rain, which has
blinded and almost grounded the Luftwaffe, the Germans most dangerous weapon on
this front.
Today
it has been impossible for dive-bomers to b last a way for tanks and infantry.”
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But to return
nearer home; Mr. Churchill said, in the House of Commons, concerning our loss
of two more Cruisers, H.M.S. Dorsetshire and H.M.S. Cornwall and the Aircraft
Carrier Hermes that
“While the Japanese were
attacking ….mbo, our torpedo aircraft sallied out to attack the
carriers from which the Japanese attack was being delivered. Owing to
thunderstorms and low clouds they could not make contact on that day.
The
weather in the other part of the Indian Ocean was not subject to those
conditions of cloud and thunderstorm in which the Japanese carriers had
shrouded themselves.”
Whilst on
land, General Alexander’s Army had to march up a temporary road 6000 feet over
the hills of Burma into India.
……..soon, they would wash away
the……..the Japanese could come upon………ost
reached the top when the ……..and cutting off their pursuers.
BECAUSE
OF THE WEATHER
The great outstanding event of
1942, however, in the west, was verily the African Campaign, and what have we
to say of that?
The month of June, l942 was
a black one for the Allied cause. With
superiority in Men, Munitions, Tanks and Aircraft, our hopes were high for
early and complete Victory in the Middle East, but instead, came humiliation
and defeat, with the loss of Tobruk in the matter of hours, and our Forces
falling back many miles to El Alamein.
Mr. Churchill
declared in the House of Commons on July 3rd, 1942, that “we were
defeated under conditions which gave very reasonable expectancy of success.
We had in the
desert, he said, 100,000 men; the Axis had 90,000 (including 50,000 Germans).
Our superiority in numbers of tanks was 7-5; in guns nearly 8-5, including
several regiments of the latest howitzers and certain secret weapons.
We had air
superiority, and Rommel’s dive-bombers were ….. at Bir Hacheim and Tobruk, but
were neither ….. nor a massive factor in the battle.”
But it…so
happened that some time previously, July 1st, 1942, had been officially
appointed as the Day to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the
Dominion of Canada at Westminster Abbey, and on that day our King and Queen,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with several members of the War Cabinet,
Cabinet Ministers and Ambassadors were present in their official capacity.
The Daily Press of the following
day reported that at that Service a “SPECIAL PRAYER” was offered for
those fighting in Egypt and the Mediterranean.
If that prayer was just a cold
formality, as so many of us are used to hearing Sunday by Sunday, then little
could be expected of it, but if, as reported, it was really a “SPECIAL Prayer”
from the hearts of such an Official and representative body of our War-time
Leaders, are we right in thinking it merely a matter of co-incidence, that from
that VERY DAY-July 1st, 1942, Rommel’s advance was first checked, and then
repelled, and we never looked back, in N. Africa, from that day.
If special
prayer was offered, why should it be thought incredible, or co-incidence, for
God to answer that Prayer?
One thing
must be stressed, however, and that is that we have certainly failed to
recognize Divine intervention, and consequently failed to RETURN THANKS for it.
God will not thus be trifled with! If we sincerely sought His aid, why not sincerely RETURN thanks
and acknowledge that what superiority in Men, Munitions, Tanks and Planes COULD
NOT DO, God did within a few hours, when our Leaders PUBLICLY ASKED His aid.
We can hardly expect continuance
of Divine aid and blessing, if we thus fail to appreciate and acknowledge such
help, and we must not, therefore, be surprised if God permits further reverses
and retreats if we persist in our foolish way of trusting to the Arm of Power
and Might, rather than the “God of our help in ages past.”
It is better
to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes, wrote the psalmist long
ago. Do we believe it today?
I appeal to my fellow
countrymen. Let’s be honest and sincere
in this matter. Do we wish God to help
us? - Do we realize that alone we cannot do it! - Then let us heed this
indication of the path to Victory. If
we don’t, then let us say so, and be prepared to take the consequences.
If God has
shown us (and this is no isolate event) that He IS ready and willing to honour
TRUST in Himself, by thus answering a “Special Prayer” of a portion of our
Leaders; I ask, what may not be the possibilities of a truly NATIONAL
recognition of God in this way, and a PUBLIC seeking of His help?
Alexander
Clifford the well-known “Daily Mail” War Correspondents wrote on May 15th,
1943, of those eventful days of July, l942:
“In
the Summer of 1942 the Eighty Army was more of a traffic – jam than a fighting
force. At last the danger which had so
often menaced Egypt was becoming a fact.
And then,
by the merest hair’s breadth, we were saved.
Inperceptibly in the first four days of July, when
the Africa Corps came butting with ever-increasing feebleness against the
Alamein line, these forces were swinging in the balance back to level again.
And on the fifth morning in
July there came no attack on the Alamein line.
The balance had been tilted down on the side of the British. Egypt
was saved.
Whilst a
young Swedish Rfeporter who was in Berlin during those days writes in the
“Daily Mail” of Sept. 27th, 1943:
“No
light of hope pierced the gloom until the summer of 1942, when a miracle
happened in the desert-Rommel began his forward sweep and the fall of Tobruk
gave the Germans greater stimulas than any event sine the fall of France.
In
Berlin the people said to me “Perhaps Rommel will win the War for us yet,” and
absolute intoxication gripped official Berlin.
‘We
are going to strangle the Middle East with two great fists,’ said a
Wilhelmstrasse spokesman to me one day. ‘Soon there will be a great drive
against India to link up with Japan, and our parachutists will be in
Afghanistan.’
Then came El
Alamein the miracle of the Marne of this war.”
Concerning
which, another Correspondent with the 8th Army wrote, reported in
the “Daily Express” of Nov. 10th, 1942:
“Rommel’s
fleeing columns are having to retreat in the most depressing conditions
imaginable. Autumn rainstorms which
scarcely touched Alamein before the Rommel line broke have been falling in Axis
territory for several days past.
It
has been a miniature monsoon. The road along which the enemy fled is
almost washed away in places.
Torrents
of water are running down wadis off the escarpments, boiling over the road,
making watersplash after watersplash on their way to the sea.
The
sand is sodden into brown mud for miles, in which vehicles stick and small
lakes have been formed in low-laying areas.
Lowering
skies have been drenching Rommel’s retreating army. Hailstorms have beaten down, soaking them to the skin in their
thin shoddy cotton uniforms.
German
and Italian stragglers trudging along towards imprisonment resemble mud-caked
trench rats of the last war more than bronzed desert rates of this one.
They
must feel that even the weather has turned against them.”
Whilst on our
side, Lt. Gen. Lumsden said, “that it was a bitter disappointment to him that sudden
bad weather made it impossible for us to finish up Rommel’s army completely
right on the spot.”
Following the
break through at El Alemein came the landings in North Africa, the full story
of which we have not yet heard, but let me quote the words of one who had
inside information at the time, for they very forcefully bring home my point.
G. Ward Price
of the “Daily Mail” wrote in that paper on the 14th Nov., 1942
“Only
the thoughtless can fail to realize how great a part Providence has
played in the swift and successful transformation of the war situation upon
which our hopes are henceforth founded. Those who have heard something of
the inside story of the dramatic events of this historic week are reminded of
that dispensation that smoothed the waters at Dunkirk.
The
Allied General Staff had been warned by weather experts that after October
lst the Atlantic swell off the coast of Morocco would probably be too high for
landing operations. So it was- with
the exception of last Sunday, the date for which the landing had been
planned.
In
this, skeptics may see no more than a fortunate ‘co-incidence,’ but it is not
the only feature of a great undertaking that will suggest to others the need
for expressing their gratitude to God, when the victory bells begin their
cheering chimes.”
Speaking of a later stage in the
N. African Campaign, Mr. Elmar Davis, Director of the American Office of War
Information said:
“General
Mongomery has clearly outsmarted the out-generalled Rommel, but Rommel withdrew
under cover of a sandstorm, so his losses have not been so heavy as we
hoped.
That
sandstorm saved Rommel from the air pounding. Once more he got out with
most of his stuff intact and he will be in a position to fight a good delaying
action.”
“The Times”
of Oct. 27th, 1942, said further, concerning the Madagascar
Campaign:
“The
weather played a leading part. The country was hidden in a vast blanket
of cloud and the valley below was invisible. The mist was one of our best allies. It gave perfect cover for infantry movements
and attack, and together with the fact that we had had two days to
prepare our plans and register artillery targets, it best explains our
success.
Without
losing a man here, the British took 800 prisoners.”
So much then for 1942. But
what of 1943?
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