Every year the anniversary of Dunkirk, D-Day and Jerusalem follow closely, to a lesser or greater extent (due to the Jewish lunar calendar). Are they connected and what has the Bible to say?
The Miracle of Dunkirk was from Tuesday 28 May to the eve of Tuesday 4 June 1940. D-Day was on Tuesday 6 June 1944 and 23 years later Jerusalem was re-united on Wednesday 7 June 1967. The 79th anniversary of Dunkirk's end is 2 days before the 75th anniversary of D-Day, which is 5 days after the 52 anniversary of Jerusalem Day. There are 210 weeks between Dunkirk and D-Day and there are 8401 days from and including 6 June 1944 to 7 June 1967 which is 1200 weeks and 1 day. Israel began the advance to Jerusalem on Tuesday 6 June 1967.
Dunkirk was the evacuation of an army about to be annihilated.
“On 23rd May, King George VI requested that the following Sunday should be observed as a National Day of Prayer. Late on the Saturday evening the military decision was taken to evacuate as many as possible of the Allied forces. On the Sunday, the nation devoted itself to prayer in an unprecedented way. The same day an urgent request went out for boats to cross the English Channel to rescue the besieged army, a call ultimately answered by around 800. . In a decision that still baffles historians.. for three days the German tanks and soldiers stood idle while the evacuation unfolded... bad weather on the Tuesday grounded the Luftwaffe, allowing Allied soldiers to march unhindered to the beaches. In contrast, on Wednesday the sea was extraordinarily calm” How Prayer Saved Britain
Why weren't they given another form of miracle, that of a win against odds? Rather they were given a miracle to retreat. This retreat, not for one year or two but four long years allowed the Germans to form a wall of strong defences along the whole coast of Europe. Think on it.
D-Day was chosen due to logistics of the invasion, a full moon, a low tide and the weather. D-Day weather is often called a miracle. Dwight Eisenhower thanked God and asked all to “beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” Eisenhower in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas, on June 4, 1952, was reported in Time magazine to say: "This day eight years ago, I made the most agonizing decision of my life. If there were nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an almighty and merciful God, the events of the next twenty-four hours did it.... The greatest break in a terrible outlay of weather occurred the next day and allowed that great invasion to proceed, with losses far below those we had anticipated."
This was almost the same message Britain's wartime leader, Churchill, had delivered on October 31, 1942: "I sometimes have a feeling of interference. I want to stress that. I have a feeling sometimes that some Guiding Hand has interfered. I have a feeling that we have a Guardian because we have a great Cause, and we shall have that Guardian so long as we serve that Cause faithfully." hwalibrary.com
Eisenhower is quoted as saying,“It gives you courage to make the decisions you must make in a crisis, and then the confidence to leave the result to a higher Power. Only by trust in God can a man carrying responsibility find repose.” azquotes
It wasn't perfect weather– it was something beyond perfect, it was fit for purpose. The key factor for the invasion to work- for the forces to not be instantly repelled - was they had to make it onto land – and for that they had to surprise the Germans. They had worked for some time to fool the Germans that the invasion was to be at Calais. On June 5 when they had hoped to invade, as the tide was right, the weather was predicted to change become very bad: a storm would come in. They decided to wait. The storm came in.
“On the other side of the English Channel, German forecasters also predicted the stormy conditions that indeed rolled in as (James Martin) Stagg and his fellow Brits had feared. The Luftwaffe’s chief meteorologist, however, went further in reporting that rough seas and gale-force winds were unlikely to weaken until mid-June. Armed with that forecast, Nazi commanders thought it impossible that an Allied invasion was imminent, and many left their coastal defenses to participate in nearby war games. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel even returned home to personally present a pair of Parisian shoes to his wife as a birthday present. .. weather stations, in particular one at a post office at Blacksod Point in the far west of Ireland, proved crucial in detecting the arrival of a lull in the storms that Stagg and his colleagues believed would allow for an invasion on June 6. As rain and high winds lashed Portsmouth on the night of June 4, Stagg informed Eisenhower of the forecast for a temporary break. With the next available date for an invasion nearly two weeks away, the Allies risked losing the element of surprise if they waited. In spite of the pelting rain and howling winds outside, Eisenhower placed his faith in his forecasters and gave the go-ahead for D-Day. The weather during the initial hours of D-Day was still not ideal. Thick clouds resulted in Allied bombs and paratroopers landing miles off target. Rough seas caused landing craft to capsize and mortar shells to land off the mark. By noon, however, the weather had cleared and Stagg’s forecast had been validated. The Germans had been caught by surprise, and the tide of World War II began to turn. Wattsupwiththat.com , history.com
The weather of D-Day is famous. The 'window' of relative calm was only 'seen' in prediction by the American team. “A single ship stationed six hundred miles west of Northern Ireland to record the weather, however, began to report a rising barometer. Out there in the mid-Atlantic, the pressure kept rising. The wind had shifted to the northwest, driving the craft into the beaches with the wind at their backs. At the end of the day, under a partly sunny sky, 59 degrees Fahrenheit with force 4 winds, the Allies had a firm hold on the beaches. They had lost twelve thousand men, but that is a fraction of the seventy-five thousand they were estimated to lose had they not had the element of surprise. Why were half the division commanders and a fourth of the regiment commanders at a war games exercise in Brittany planning for the invasion defense? Why were the torpedo boats in the harbor? Why had so many men been relieved of the heavy tasks of building the defenses and sent for a little rest and relaxation? (German Captain Heinz)Lettau was confident-and right-that there would be a force 4 wind on June 5, 6, and 7. Ergo, there could be no invasion. What the Germans failed to find out was that the Allies thought force 4 was just fine.” medium.com
From this we can see how the weather wasn't 'perfect', but it was as if it was part of the perfect deception!
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: (Psalm 148:4-8)
A comment regarding D-Day and the Holocaust is that the D-Dav invasion was just too late to matter. It was to take till April 1945 to begin to liberate the concentration camps.
“As important as D-Day was to the overall Allied victory, it came too late to make much difference in the Holocaust. As the Allies were coming ashore, the last large community of Jews in occupied Europe, in Hungary, was being deported and murdered. Jews would continue to die right up until the end of the war. More than five million had already been killed by D-Day.” ushmm
It can't be coincidence. It's as if the timing of the 4 years between miracles was perfectly placed to ensure that destruction. Just as the British and Allies were leaving Dunkirk in June 1940, famously the St Louis with Jewish refugees was being turned away from America and Canada, finally turning back to Europe on June 6. Why give miracles when it seems too late? Except it wasn't too late. If the Third Reich had been allowed to continue there would not have been anything left, but in fact there were Jews left, about 3.5 million, over a quarter of a million of whom were displaced had no place to go.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: (Jeremiah 3:14)
As to timing it cannot be co-incidence but one of the first Jewish victims of Hitler was Arthur Kahn executed at Dachau 12 April 1933. (His name meaning 'Son of the Warrior-King Priest', the eldest son of Levi 'joined' and Martha 'lady of the house'). His youngest brother Lothar being denied a professional education in Germany, as he was a Jew, chose to be a machinist. Thanks to relatives he, his other brother and parents made it to America in 1943. In the US as a machinist he was useful and was trained as an engineer in the lead assault at Omaha beach on D-Day. Lothar means 'famous army' Kahn in German means 'small boat'. He was in a small boat with the famous army in first wave to Omaha beach, the very first minutes of the invasion. Though most died about him, and he was prevented from blowing up the obstacles, he eventually made it though with the successive waves of infantry.
“In fact, a day after the invasion they got me to interview some German prisoners (machine gunners) who told me, ‘We killed them and they kept coming, there was nothing we could do.’” Huffpost
Lothar as Jew at D-Day was not alone. Hal Roth (d2013) was one of those at Omaha Beach 'who kept coming' and who fought for 2 months in France before being captured by the Germans. He won the Bronze Star and Purple heart. Lt. Sol Goffstein (d2005), who took part in the landing at Utah Beach. went on to receive the Bronze Star for his participation in the crossing of the Moselle River in France. stljewishlight.come
The 21 400 Canadian troops who landed on Juno beach were primarily co-ordinated by a British Jew, David Teacher...over 4 000 of the soldiers who landed on the four Normandy beaches on D-Day were Jewish. They made up 4,2 per cent of the Americans; one per cent of the British; and 1,5 per cent of the Canadian forces. sajr
Why so many Jews there then? It was time.
Before the war many thought they were Europeans. Now they weren't. Many hadn't heeded the call of 'the fishers' to Zion since 1897, who argued that Jews weren't European and warned that a Jewish Nation was needed. But when the doors were open before 1939, not many went. Britain closed the doors to the Holy Land in 1939 just before many would desire it. Why did God not prevent this? Britain was reduced by the war as if punished for that: they lost prestige and Empire. Eisenhower led on D-Day and he was an American, ironically of German-Swiss origin.
We cannot say what God is to do with his clay! It was woe upon woe to Jews, but that came with blessings that other peoples never had. Many millions died in Communist China and Russia for nothing. We cannot be partisan as a servant of Christ. We are first citizens of the Kingdom of God.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)
This means our perspective of the world is structured by how Christ would see the world. Despite the leaders of his day wishing to kill him, contrary to the law, Christ said that the leaders,“sat in Moses seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe.” (Matt 23:3). This is entirely consistent with the message in the book of Daniel that all the leaders of the world in the sequence of empires and nations are appointed by God, directly even the basest or lowest (Daniel 4:17). From this stand point we can understand that there was a purpose in the rise of Third Reich and its leaders. They were favoured. Post war self-justification can't hide how many admired the progress of the Third Reich before the war, even in Britain and America. We consider and listen to what Moses said to the descendents of Israel, as they became a nation.
“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.” (Deut. 28:65-67)
We might consider Jeremiah,
But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. (Jeremiah 16:15-16)
D-Day was a miracle of the weather to confound all, to give power to man with a German name “iron hewer” who knew that the power was not his but God's, because then was the time to finish the work of the hunters and take the displaced hunted people and make them a nation in the Holy Land, who would then be given by miracle the Holy City 1200 weeks later. A victory back in 1940 would have been for freedom of democracy. In deed the role of America was to allow the half of Europe not under Communism a choice and the servants of Christ some space. But Europe chose the tyranny humanism. The slow victory from 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 was a huge sacrifice of 4,414 killed on D-day alone and 36,663 ground and 16,714 airmen killed and in addition many civilians (Wikipedia) in the operation for – the liberation of Jews – and the making of Israel. Think on it, what do people think of when they think of the liberation of Europe? The end of the Holocaust.
For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. (Isaiah 43:3-7)
Why? Because it was to be the end of the time of Christ's people, the wandering Jews, being led captive to death in the nations, and it was the beginning of the time to favour Zion. Because Christ's Prophecy was to be fulfilled: It was time: D-Day.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:24-28)
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