A heritage archive · 1939 — 1945
The history of the nations that stood — Poland, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the free world — and of a deliverance that men themselves ascribed not to their own strength, but to God.
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." — Zechariah 4:6
The Allied nations
When treaties were torn up and nations swallowed, a company of countries chose to stand — not because the odds favoured them, but because their word bound them.
1 September 1939
First to fight. Invaded by Germany from the west and the Soviet Union from the east, Poland never surrendered. Its government fought on in exile, its pilots flew in the Battle of Britain, and its soldiers stood at Monte Cassino.
3 September 1939
Standing alone after the fall of France, Britain refused terms. Under Churchill's leadership the nation endured the Blitz, won the Battle of Britain, and held the line until the free world could gather.
3 September 1939
Australia was at Britain's side within hours of the declaration. Her divisions fought in North Africa, Greece and Syria, and when war came to the Pacific her soldiers held the Kokoda Track at Australia's very doorstep.
3 September 1939
From the farthest corner of the earth, New Zealand sent her sons — 'where Britain goes, we go.' They fought in Greece, Crete, the Western Desert and Italy, at a cost per head among the heaviest of all the Allies.
The voice of the hour
Winston Churchill gave the free world its voice in 1940. Yet he himself refused the crown of victory — at Dunkirk he warned that wars are not won by evacuations, and after the war he described the nation as having been carried through what no human wisdom could have ordered.
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
The history
1939
Germany invades Poland on 1 September. Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand honour their word and declare war. Poland is crushed in five weeks, but her fight has only begun.
1940
France falls. At Dunkirk, some 338,000 men are lifted from the beaches by a fleet in which hundreds of little ships answered the call — many, then and since, called it a deliverance beyond human planning. Churchill warns: 'Wars are not won by evacuations.'
1940
The Few — among them Polish, New Zealand, Australian and Canadian airmen — break the Luftwaffe over southern England. 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'
1941
Germany turns on the Soviet Union; Japan strikes Pearl Harbor. Churchill, told of America's entry, later wrote that he 'went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.'
1942
El Alamein halts Rommel in Egypt; the Australians and Americans break the Japanese advance in New Guinea. Churchill calls Alamein 'the end of the beginning.'
1944
On D-Day, 6 June, the Allies land in Normandy. Poles fight at Falaise and Monte Cassino; Australians and New Zealanders press on in the Pacific and Italy. The long road home begins.
1945
Germany surrenders in May, Japan in August. Across the Commonwealth the church bells ring again — and the thanks of the nations are given, in Churchill's own spirit, not to men but 'to God, in whose mercy we have been preserved.'
A nation on its knees
Seven times between 1940 and 1944, at the King's call, Britain and the Commonwealth stopped to pray. Those who lived through those days did not speak of luck. The page records them humbly: the deliverance was asked for, and it was given.
26 May 1940
National Day of Prayer as the army was trapped at Dunkirk. Westminster Abbey was filled; the evacuation that followed rescued over 338,000 men.
8 September 1940
A day of prayer on the eve of the Battle of Britain's decisive week. One week later, 15 September, the Luftwaffe was broken in the sky.
23 March 1941
A day of prayer as the Blitz fell on Britain's cities through the winter.
3 September 1941
The second anniversary of the war, kept as a day of prayer across the nation and Empire.
18 March 1942
A day of prayer in the war's darkest spring, with Singapore fallen and the desert army in retreat.
3 September 1942
Kept again on the anniversary — weeks before the tide turned at El Alamein.
3 September 1944
A day of national thanksgiving, five years on — with France liberated and the end in sight.
The prophecies
Long after the guns of 1945 fell silent, Scripture speaks of another gathering of nations. Ezekiel 38–39 foretells a great coalition — Gog, of the land of Magog — coming "out of the uttermost parts of the north" against Israel; Revelation 20 places Gog and Magog among "the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth."
"Thou shalt come from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the north, thou, and many peoples with thee." — Ezekiel 38:15. The identifications below are the traditional scholarly correspondences; they are debated, and this page presents them with humility rather than certainty.
The far north
The steppe peoples north of the Black Sea — commonly identified with the lands of modern Russia and its neighbours.
The north
Peoples of Anatolia and beyond — associated with modern Russia, Turkey and the Caucasus.
The east
Modern Iran — the one name among the list that has survived nearly unchanged.
The south
The Upper Nile — modern Sudan and Ethiopia.
The west
North Africa — modern Libya and her neighbours.
The far north
Peoples of Anatolia and the Cimmerian steppe — modern Turkey and the Turkic lands.
The last gathering
The prophets speak of a day when the nations will be gathered once more — not by treaty this time, but by the God of heaven Himself. "I will gather all nations," says the Lord through Joel, "and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat" (Joel 3:2). Zechariah sees the same gathering: "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle" (Zechariah 14:2) — a coalition of the whole earth, turning as one upon the city and the people of Israel.
Ezekiel's war of Gog, Joel's valley of decision, Zechariah's siege of Jerusalem, and Revelation's gathering to the place "called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Revelation 16:16) are held by many to be scenes of one and the same coming conflict — the last rebellion of the nations against God, mirroring in a greater key what the world tasted in 1939–1945.
But this war will not end as human wars end. "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives" (Zechariah 14:3–4). Revelation 19 sees heaven opened and Christ returning — "in righteousness he doth judge and make war" — and the armies of the nations broken not by another coalition of men, but by the King of kings Himself.
As the deliverance of 1940–1945 was not won by man's strength, so the last war will not be. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." The page therefore ends where faith has always ended: the nations rage, but the Lord reigns — and He will come again.
"Even so, come, Lord Jesus." — Revelation 22:20
Remembrance and the future
Some fifty million lives were taken by the war. The monuments do not glorify the men; they mourn them. And the lesson handed down to the future is not that nations are strong, but that freedom is fragile — preserved, in the end, not by human greatness but by the mercy of God and the ordinary courage He gives.
"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." — Psalm 20:7
