As a member of the Army (infantry) in Germany in April of 1945 while on the march through a German forest looking for German machine gun nests and snipers with my platoon on the outer flank to the right when suddenly without warning of any kind artillery shells began to fall right in the middle of my platoon. The other platoons were not struck with the attack.
The shells were bursting in the tree tops as well as on the ground. Several of my men were hit with the shrapnel. I felt that I was also going to be hit with shrapnel and was terribly afraid for my life.
I knew from my experiences in church when I was young that there was a God, and that he could answer prayer. There was no time to speculate on whether he would or would not answer. I fell against a tree and prayed this prayer, whether aloud or in my mind I don’t know but I said “If you will save me I’ll serve you.”
No sooner than these words were said, or thought, an artillery shell fell about five to six feet behind me and if it had exploded I would have been cut to pieces. But, it did not explode. One of my men was about the same distance from the shell on the other side of it. He looked at me and said “That was ours.” I said “Yes I know”. That was the end of the conversation.
My attention was now on the men who had been hit by shrapnel. One young man who was a ministerial student had been cut wide open in the front. His lungs were showing, blood gushing, people screaming on every side. I got up and ran about 100 yards behind our position to get the medic who traveled with our company. I commanded him to come on and help these men. He seemed reluctant to do so but I insisted. Many of the other soldiers thought I had gone berserk because I was up running around while they were laying down in case another barrage came in, which was usually the case. I knew of course that God had had a hand in my being able to take care of the business at hand. (April 1945)
There were other times during the war, after that experience, that I was close to danger (penned down in the middle of an open field with German artillery and mortars firing at will and our having to crawl on the ground for hundreds of yards to get out of the clearing and hearing the whistle of shrapnel passing my ear while laying there), but I never felt that I would be hurt by it because God had saved me and I felt secure.
God intervened and I have lived to tell this story about his protecting hand on my life.
