On December 7, 1941, Don Evans and his BYU roommates were in a somber mood after listening to the radio news broadcast that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. That attack set in motion an unforeseeable chain of events that would forever change Don’s life. Ahead lay trials that would have broken most men.
Don’s story is recounted in Missing: A World War II Story of Love, Friendships, Courage, and Survival, by Kenneth D. Evans. Born in Lehi Utah, Don was the quintessential all-American boy—high school student body president and star athlete. He joined the U.S. military with millions of other young Americans and went to war. Before shipping overseas, he married his high school sweetheart, Laura Jeanne. He promised to write her every day and trusted God with their future.
On Christmas Eve 1944, the letters stopped. Don’s P-47 fighter plane was shot down behind enemy lines in the Battle of the Bulge. Defying odds, he miraculously survived the crash. In his words. “After I saw my engine explode and my plane burst into flames, I offered a quick prayer for help and it became clear in my mind not only what I should do, but in what order I should do it. I think I had a guardian angel flying with me that day.”
The Ardennes Forest where Don crashed, was crawling with Nazi soldiers. On Christmas Day, lost, cold, and hungry, he was captured by Nazi SS Troopers. They stripped his coat, belongings, and dog tags, and started digging his grave. Don prayed and experienced his second miracle in as many days. Knowing just a few German words, he experienced a modern-day version of the Gift of Tongues and spoke to his captors in German. The SS put down their shovels and took him prisoner instead.
Don experienced other “little miracles” as he called them on a 200-mile forced march across Belgium and Germany, where he faced near starvation, freezing weather conditions without a coat, hat, or gloves, and abuse by guards. On the march, the POWs were caught in an Allied air attack and Don sought protection in the doorway of a rundown apartment building.
He later wrote, “At that moment my heart was full of hatred for my enemy. Suddenly, the door opened. A little old German Lady, dressed in tattered clothing, in a war-torn city, with bombs bursting all around her, with every right to hate me, her enemy, held out her hand and put some hard rock candy into my hand. Then she looked into my eyes and said, ‘Gott segne dich’ (God bless you). This little German woman’s compassion for me, her enemy, softened my heart and provided me with one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. And I can’t even begin to explain how good those little pieces of candy tasted.”
Don was eventually interned in Stalag Luft 1, a German POW Camp. He documented his prisoner experiences in two YMCA-provided notebooks. His narrative about how he and a few other “Mormon” POWs organized a small branch of the Church and administered the sacrament, is moving.
Don kept his faith and was buoyed up by remembering the promise in his Patriarchal Blessing, “The power of the Lord will bless you in times of danger and guide your footsteps… and you will return home safely when the war is over.”
Read more about Don Evans’s miraculous survival and unshakeable faith in Missing: A World War II Story of Love, Friendships, Courage, and Survival.
