Waiting for Orders

Chaplain McDonald arrived in Liverpool, England on August 6, 1944. England had already been at war with Germany since July, 1940, and had suffered considerably in the Battle of Britain. He visited a few churches damaged by German bombing. In Coventry he noted that the Cathedral’s charred frame gauntly enclosed the blackened Coventry cross, evoking a grim sorrow. Frederick also visited St. John’s, Red Lion Square, where he found the church completely destroyed. Unlike Coventry Cathedral, it would not be rebuilt. Within a week of arriving in England, Chaplain McDonald received orders for immediate departure to France, the details of which were top secret.

We were told we would remain for quite a while, being siphoned off as chaplains were killed, wounded or cashiered on the continent. Meanwhile, we were kept busy several hours each day reading and censoring soldier’s mail.

–Fred McDonald