Special Operating Event Jan. 2-4, 2025 Honors Father George Metcalf, W0JH (SK)
Depending on where you are in the world, cold and snowy weather conditions may have made their way to your front door. This can be great for some but for most, this can hamper plans to do anything other than stay inside and drink hot cocoa (something I am not complaining about).
During World War II, when poor weather almost cost the war for the Allied forces during the Battle of the Bulge, one amateur radio operator was asked to do something about it to turn the tide of the war—writing a prayer for fair weather.
Father George Metcalf, W0JH (SK), was an Episcopal priest serving as an enlisted chaplain under General George Patton, who commanded the U.S. Third Army in Normandy, France. In Father Metcalf’s words, the general was an “SOB” who made “remarks he was always sorry for,” though he was also a religious man in his own way, he told the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho.
It was this alternative brand of spirituality that led Patton to make a special request of Father Metcalf. Patton wanted the chaplain to find a prayer that would help clear the weather. This request, while small in nature, was crucial.
The battle, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major offensive campaign on the Western Front for the Axis. It began on Dec. 16, 1944, and was meant to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and split the front.
If successful, Nazi forces would have been able to surround the four Allied armies and crush them, forcing a peace treaty that would be favorable to the Axis. During the early stages of the assault, it seemed like this would be the outcome.
Nazi forces needed three key elements during the campaign: surprise, speed, and bad weather. At first, they had all three as fog and low-hanging clouds locked the allied air forces out of assisting ground troops in repelling the assault. For seven days, the battle favored the Axis as they pushed inward to complete their assault.
Desperate for something to change, Patton asked Metcalf if he could find a prayer for fair weather that would part the clouds protecting the Nazi forces in the Ardennes Forest in Luxembourg and Belgium.
With the help of Father James O’Neill, the Third Army’s head chaplain, the two combined elements of Anglican and Catholic weather prayers into one that would help the Third Army. The result was “Patton’s Prayer,” that was printed on around 500,000 cards and distributed throughout the army.
You can read it below:
Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken 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.
On the seventh day of the campaign, the morning of Dec. 23, there was sunlight and blue skies. Not long after, there were allied planes bombing Axis forces, slowing their brutal conquest, according to the Times-News.
Allied forces completely repelled the attack on Jan. 25, 1945.
Of course, there’s no solid proof that the prayer caused the weather to clear. Sometimes all you need is what’s in front of you, and what the soldiers saw that day following the creation of the prayer were clear skies.
Father Metcalf led an extremely interesting life and his time in the military has been documented well by himself. He released a book called “With Cross and Shovel”, if you’d like to learn more about his life.
Special Operating Event
Hams looking to honor Father Metcalf can do so Jan. 2-4, 2025, 1600Z-2300Z, special event station W0JH, hosted by the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association (SARA) of Stillwater, Minnesota; 3.860, 7,260, 14.260, 21.360, in primarily SSB. For many more details about the event, click here.
Per the event’s QRZ page, Father Metcalf and his wife, Mary, purchased 100 acres in 1959 to establish their home near Afton, Minnesota. Special event station W0JH will be operating from this area.
