General George Patton’s Third Army led the Allied break-out of Normandy in late July 1944. By the end of September, it stood poised to enter Germany after liberating much of France during the drive across Europe. However, what the Nazi Army could not do at that point, the weather did. Europe’s unusually wet fall bogged down Patton and the rest of the Allied forces for the next two months, as they waited for the roads to dry.
The situation became so frustrating for Patton that on another rainy day in early December, he asked his Army chaplain, James O’Neill, for a weather prayer. By O’Neill’s account, the general said the weather would need to change if they were going to win the war. The chaplain composed this prayer:
“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have to contend. Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously harken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
Patton liked it and ordered O’Neill to print 250,000 copies on prayer cards to distribute to the entire Third Army. On the reverse side of the cards was a Christmas greeting from the General. Patton then questioned the chaplain as to how much praying the Army was doing. O’Neill believed not much: when there’s fighting, everybody prays; but when it’s quiet, everyone just sits around and waits for things to happen. The General responded, “Chaplain, I am a strong believer in prayer. There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out; that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always the unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call it getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything. That’s where prayer comes in.” Patton added, “A good soldier is not made merely by making him think and work. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or working—it’s his ‘guts.’ It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself.”
Patton referred to the account of Gideon in the Bible who, despite being greatly outnumbered, fought bravely and prevailed because the Lord was with him. (See Judges, Chapters 6-8). The General observed that his men should be praying, wherever they were—or eventually they would “crack up.” Patton instructed O’Neill to put out a training letter for all the chaplains in the Third Army on the importance of prayer. It was circulated to the Third Army’s 486 chaplains and to every organizational commander down to the regimental level—3,200 letters. Recounting how God aided an army in the story of Gideon, O’Neill exhorted his fellow chaplains, “We must urge, instruct, and indoctrinate every fighting man to pray as well as fight. In Gideon’s day, and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories.” O’Neill’s training letters and prayer cards went into the Third Army’s ranks starting 12 December 1944. Events on the battlefield turned dramatically on 16 December.
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