GREAT BRITAIN: Days of Prayer

British clergymen and newspapers commented last week on certain possibly metaphysical aspects of World War II:

Since the beginning of the war, Great Britain has observed two national Days of Prayer.

The first was the dark Sunday, May 26, 1940, when the fagged-out British Expeditionary Force was fleeing under torrential Nazi fire toward Dunkirk beach. Five days later most of that Army got safely home through the fogs off Dunkirk.

The second Day of Prayer was Sunday, March 23, 1941, when Adolf Hitler’s Balkan advance seemed to have the implacable flow of volcanic lava. Four days later came the upset in Yugoslavia. The same week came the British capture of Cheren and Harar, the Italian naval defeat in the Mediterranean. Twice Britain’s prayers had been answered.