The Miracle of Dunkirk is well-known; less so are the prayers behind it. Britain pleaded with God for its soldiers to be saved and found their cries answered in an unlikely and remarkable fashion.Some of this effort is owing to Rees Howells and the students at the Bible College of Wales which he founded. According to Norman Grubb’s book Rees Howells: Intercessor, Howells viewed Hitler as satan’s agent to prevent the spread of the Gospel since at least 1936."In fighting Hitler we have always said that we were not up against man but the devil,” Howells said.When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, Howells was confident of victory. “The Lord has made known to us that He is going to destroy Hitler and the Nazi regime, that the world may know that it was God and God alone who has scattered the dictators,” Howells wrote..HARDING: A Welsh Bible College delayed the Second World War.In December 1939, Howells published his book God Challenges the Dictators — Doom of Nazis Predicted. "We may have many a setback before He does so,” Howells wrote of the expected Allied triumph. “It may be that we, like the Israelites, will have to cry out to God in our extremity for the help which will certainly come."Howells and 100 students prayed daily, usually with three meetings, though sometimes whole days were set aside for fasting and prayer. Diaries of the gatherings recorded Howells’ words."We are going up to the battle, and I am sure of victory as of the dawn. If you know you have faith for something, would you not go on until you got it? I would like this to ring out to the world: 'The Lord, He is the God!'" Howells said.Such confidence was by faith, not by sight. Holland surrendered to the Nazis on May 15, 1940, and the Nazis invaded France. The next day, Howells said, "The position is most serious in France, but even if the French and British are fighting against such great odds, the Lord is able to help them."On May 17, Howells encouraged his students on their prevailing role in prayer. “You are more responsible for this victory today than those men on the battlefield. You must be dead to everything else but this fight."Two days later, Howells said, “These Nazis will not destroy civilization. When they get near enough, God will deal with them.”When British and French troops were cornered at the French port of Dunkirk, their doom seemed inevitable. Nevertheless, from then until the end of the Second World War, the college prayed daily for victory from 7 pm to midnight.On May 21, French Premier Paul Reynaud said, “It is only a miracle that will save us.” In a radio address, King George VI called for Sunday May 26 to be a day of national prayer. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet attended just such a service at Westminster Abbey."The English are loath to expose their feelings, but in my stall in the choir I could feel the pent-up passionate emotion, and also the fear of the congregation — not of death or wounds or national loss, but of defeat and the final ruin of Britain,” Churchill said.But, back at the Welsh College, faith was prevailing. On May 28, an unnamed student gave voice to the common sense their prayers had broken through. "I feel sure something has happened,” he said.Two days later, Howells said, “From a worldly standpoint there is no hope of victory; but God has said it. I could not come tonight and ask Him to intervene because we have already said that He is going to intervene. Instead of bad news about our soldiers, if He is on the field of battle He can change that and make it very good news…We state in plainest terms: The enemy will not invade Christian England.”On continental Europe, a series of miracles was already taking place.At 8 pm on May 23 Hitler ordered Army Group A and its Panzer tanks to halt their advance. At that point, they were already closer to Dunkirk than most of the British forces. The pause, which lasted three days, allowed the latter time to retreat towards Dunkirk and establish defences.Air force chief Hermann Goring convinced Hitler the Luftwaffe could handle any evacuation attempt. Neither Goring nor Hitler could have anticipated how specifically the weather would conspire against their cause..HARDING: Second World War vets I met were most memorable.As the evacuation began May 26, the English Channel became unusually calm. This enabled everything from navy ships, ferries, privately owned motor boats, and even row boats to make repeated trips across the channel to rescue stranded soldiers.Chief of Staff of the German High Command Franz Halder complained in his diary May 30, “The pocket would have been closed at the coast if only our armour had not been held back. The bad weather has grounded the Luftwaffe and we must now stand and watch countless thousands of the enemy get away to England right under our noses.”Initially, Churchill expected the evacuation would only spare 20,000 to 30,000 men. Churchill could later tell Parliament that 335,000 men had been “carried out of the jaws of death and shame to their native land” in “a miracle of deliverance.”The reasons for Hitler’s decision to pause the blitzkrieg and consolidate his forces have been a source of lasting debate in the years since. When the Miracle of Dunkirk was celebrated across British churches on June 9, worshippers were confident of this one thing: God had intervened and made a way when none seemed possible.
