The acts of providence that led to the defeat of Germany during World War II were numerous. In this article, we will provide only a very small sample:
- The decision of the German army to halt their advance on Dunkirk which allowed over 330,000 allied troops to make a miraculous escape. Had the Germans continued their advance, they would have likely conquered the entire British force, and possibly caused England to surrender. After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French before they could evacuate to Britain. However, in one of the most perplexing decisions of the war, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk. Generalobersten (Colonel-Generals) Gerd von Rundstedtand Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate to avoid an Allied breakout.The halt order was approve on 24 May, 1940, with the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). The army was to halt for three days, which gave the Allies sufficient time to organize the Dunkirk evacuation and build a defensive line. Despite the Allies’ gloomy estimates of the situation, with some in Britain even discussing a conditional surrender to Germany, in the end more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued.[10 Von Rundstedt later called this “one of the great turning points of the war.”[14][15][16]
- The amazing success of the evacuation of the British army was nothing short of miraculous. The War Office made the decision to evacuate British forces on 25 May. The docks at Dunkirk were too badly damaged to be used, but the East and West Moles (sea walls protecting the harbour entrance) were intact. Captain William Tennant—in charge of the evacuation—decided to use the beaches and the East Mole to land the ships. This highly successful idea hugely increased the number of troops that could be embarked each day and on 31 May, over 68,000 men were embarked.[21][39] On the first day only 7,669 Allied soldiers were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 of them had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 boats. Many troops were able to embark from the harbor’s protective mole onto 39 British Royal Navy destroyers, four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers,[4] and a variety of civilian merchant ships, while others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what came to be known as the little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain. It was such a tremendous success that the British viewed it as a great victory. Therefore, in his speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, Churchill stated: “we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.”[9]
- The fact that Operation Barbarossa, which the German invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed by a few weeks was a tremendous act of providence that proved to be the defeat of the Third Reich. The plan called for the invasion to commence on May 15, 1941. Instead, the invasion was launched six weeks later, on June 22 – a delay that ultimately proved fatal. Vital panzer units were rerouted to Greece to help Italy with their failed invasion, and the campaign there took six weeks. When these panzer units were re-used in the Russian invasion, many of them needed overhaul, and their crews were overworked. More significantly, it caused enough of the delay that prevented Germany from making enough gains before winter set in which eventually led to the stalling of the German army upon the arrival of winter. Germany had about three million personnel of the Axis powers – the largest invasion force in the history of warfare – that was used to invade the western Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometer (1,800 mi) front. Operationally, German forces achieved major victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union (mainly in Ukraine). However, despite these Axis successes, the German offensive sustained heavy casualties stalled in the Battle of Moscow at the end of 1941, and the subsequent Soviet winter counteroffensive pushed German troops back. Two major factors in the failure of the largest offensive in history was the worn out condition of vital panzer units, and the fact that the operation began six weeks closer to the Russian winter than planned.
- Another related factor was that the Russian winter of 1941 was the coldest winter of the 20th century – a pure act of providence! Additionally, the winter began earlier than usual. Winter is hugely advantageous to the defense, while stalling in the offense; and additionally, the Germans did not have protective clothing. For more information on the severe Russian winter of 1941, see http:// https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0477(1989)070%3C0271:TSWIET%3E2.0.CO%3B2
- Another tremendous act of providence was Japan bombing Pearl Harbor in 1941 which caused United States to enter the war and forced Germany to fight against another world power. The relatively little damage done by the Japanese planes to the United States base of Perl Harbor was outweighed many times over by causing the Axis to have an additional world power to fight. Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, “We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.”[134] To a similar effect, see Isoroku Yamamoto’s alleged “sleeping giant” quote. Even the tactical victory as quoted by Admiral Tadaichi is highly questionable. The American aircraft carriers were untouched by the Japanese attack; otherwise the Pacific Fleet’s ability to conduct offensive operations would have been crippled for a year or more (given no diversions from the Atlantic Fleet). As it was, the elimination of the battleships left the U.S. Navy with no choice but to rely on its aircraft carriers and submarines—the very weapons with which the U.S. Navy halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance. Additionally, Japan neglected Pearl Harbor’s navy repair yards, oil tank farms, submarine base, and old headquarters building.[56] All of these targets were omitted from Genda’s list, yet they proved more important than any battleship to the American war efforts in the Pacific. But the attack caused the United States to enter the war the same day of the attack, and provided strong feeling throughout the war years which led to full mobilization and an all-out effort and which ultimately resulted in the defeat of the Axis powers.
- A major turning point in the war was the second battle of El Alamein. For the acts of providence that changed the outcome of that battle, see https://actsofprovidence.com/the-battle-of-el-alamein/
- The amazing providence of D-Day which was a turning point in the war. See https://actsofprovidence.com/uncanny-coincidences-leading-to-the-successful-d-day-invasion/
