September 3, 2025

Pleading for Divine Intervention

Image: Queue to pray at Westminster Abbey, 26th May 1940. Public Domain Image.

SEVEN NATIONAL DAYS OF PRAYER WERE HELD DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO DELIVER BRITAIN FROM INVASION.

By John Willans BD. Dip.Theol.

A factual account giving God the glory.

Seven National Days of Prayer were called for by the King at critical times throughout the War. After each one, the natural chain of events which had been occurring suddenly changed and deliverance took place. Looking back, the Bishop of Chelmsford Dr H.A. Wilson wrote:

‘If ever a great nation was on the point of supreme and final disaster, and yet was saved and reinstated it was ourselves…it does not require an exceptionally religious mind to detect in all this the Hand of God.’
Dr H. A. Wilson

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr William Temple further declared, ‘We believe that He [God] Who led our fathers in ways so strange and has preserved our land in such a marvellous manner has a purpose for us…’ (Part of that purpose was the eventual liberation of Europe). On every National Day of Prayer, churches were filled with people pleading for Divine intervention because no human help was available.

26 MAY 1940

The first National Day of Prayer took place in May 1940. The entire British Army was trapped at Dunkirk and so George VI called for a National Day of Prayer to be held on 26th May. In a national broadcast he urged the people of Britain to turn back to God in a spirit of repentance and plead for Divine help. Millions of people across the British Isles flocked into churches praying for deliverance and this photograph shows the extraordinary scene outside Westminster Abbey as people queued for prayer. Two events immediately followed. Firstly, a storm arose over the Dunkirk region grounding the Luftwaffe which had been killing thousands on the beaches. And then secondly, a great calm descended on the Channel, the like of which hadn’t been seen for a generation. It was only because of this Channel calm coming at this precise moment and lasting the length of the evacuation, that tiny boats were able to sail across and rescue 335,000 soldiers. Hitler was furious. Because of this sudden Channel calm people referred to what happened as ‘the Miracle of Dunkirk’.

16 AUGUST 1940

The second and third National Days of Prayer were held during the Battle of Britain. Hitler now sought to destroy the RAF and its airfields prior to invasion. As events became critical, the King called for a Day of Prayer at the height of the battle on 11th August 1940. During the following week Spitfires and Hurricanes managed to destroy 180 Nazi bombers. This brought temporary relief, however on 30th August, 800 enemy aircraft filled the skies intending to destroy RAF airfields.

As he reflected on events eight years later, General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces responsible for D-Day said:

‘This day eight years ago, I made the most agonising decision of my life. I had to decide to postpone by at least 24 hours the most formidable array of fighting ships and of fighting men that was ever launched across the sea against a hostile shore. The consequences of that decision at that moment could not have been foreseen by anyone. If there were nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an Almighty and merciful God, the events of the next 24 hours did it…The greatest break in a terrible outlay of weather occurred the next day and allowed that great invasion to proceed, with losses far below those we had anticipated…’
General Eisenhower

Almighty God responded to those heartfelt National Days of Prayer with deliverance and ultimately with victory over the forces of evil. Immediately after the Miracle of Dunkirk the German Army stood on the other side of the Channel with over two hundred divisions flushed with victory. Most of our weapons had been abandoned in France so all Britain had was less than one division of armed troops. No wonder people prayed for Divine intervention.

If Western Europe does become engulfed in conflict, let us remember that what God did before, he can do again. There is hope and deliverance if we turn to Him in repentance and humility as did the previous wartime generation.

For more eyewitness accounts, please watch the video A Dramatic Answer to Prayer. The Miracle of Dunkirk.

This article has been specially written to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John was born in Northern Ireland in 1960 and during The Troubles served in The Ulster Defence Regiment 3rd County Down Battalion from 1979 -1983. He felt called to full-time ministry and was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1985. As a church minister he was involved in providing pastoral support to those of the Wartime Generation. Listening to their experiences led him to write about God’s involvement with those caught up in the War at both at a personal and national level. As a reminder of God’s intervention at critical times during the War, he compiled the Wartime Miracles Leaflet which was distributed to 25,000 churches across the British Isles before the Pandemic. He also produced the YouTube video, A Dramatic Answer to Prayer; The Miracle of Dunkirk. He can be contacted by email.