This remarkable photo shows men and women queueing to pray in Westminster Abbey on Sunday 26 May 1940 after King George VI had called for a National Day of Prayer.
Over 335,000 men – fathers, sons and brothers – were stranded on the beach in northern France. Churchill said: “I thought – and some good judges agreed with me – that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked…The whole root and core and brain of the British army…seemed about to perish upon the field or to be led into captivity.”
Nothing seemed to happen at once and next day, 27 May, the German High Command crowed: “The British army is encircled and our troops are proceeding to its annihilation.”
But on 28 May a storm of extraordinary fury grounded the German Air Force, followed by a great calm settling over the English Channel for several days, which allowed a fleet of vessels to rescue the 335,000 men, giving us a fighting chance to continue to defend Europe against the Nazi threat.
Taken from a leaflet entitled ‘When the nation prayed and acted – the providential hand of God in WW2’. Send an sae to the office if you would like a copy of this and a leaflet on prayer.