2023-09 Prayer From A Foxhole

Between December 11th and December 18th, 1942.  A battle was being waged in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II where the Allied forces were pushing back the Axis forces through Northern Africa.  I have this imagery of sand and tanks with soldiers marching and fighting. Almost like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Except this campaign actually happened unlike the search for the Holy Grail by the great Dr’s. Jones. 

During this Battle of El Agheila, there were an estimated 450 Axis soldiers taken prisoner, 25 large guns and 18 tanks destroyed. The second Zealand Division reported 11 killed and 29 wounded.  Of those members who were killed, one soldier was found within a foxhole with a scrap of paper on his body.  This is what was written on that scrap of paper.

Stay with me, God. the night is dark, 
The night is cold; My little spark 
Of Courage dies. the night is long; 
Be with me, God, make me strong. 
I know that death is but a door. 
I know what we are fighting for; 
Peace for the kids, our brothers freed, 
A kinder world, a cleaner breed. 
Help me, O God, when death is near 
To mock the haggard face of fear, 
That when I fall - if fall I must - 
My soul may Triumph in the dust.

(Found on the scrap of paper on the body of a soldier and a foxhole in Tunisia after the battle of El Agheila)