One aspect of the war concerned us in a more personal way. Swansea, in South Wales, is a big industrial centre, with factories then supplying important war materials, and it has a large oil refinery on its outskirts. It is also a port with large docks, and when the seas of Eastern Europe were closed to British shipping, because the enemy controlled the seaways of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France, from 1940 onwards, the Western Approaches were of vital importance for essential supplies of food and materials. After the fall of France in June 1940, Britain stood alone until the entry of the United States of America into the war at the end of 1941. For months all our industrial cities and ports were heavily bombed and Swansea did not escape. When the air raids began, Rees Howells was in a dilemma. All the property was the Lord’s and each building was a monument to his faithfulness in answer to prayer. Could we ask him then to protect us as he had his people in times past? Should we use air raid shelters? Rees Howells would never take unnecessary risks and always sought a word from the Lord in any uncertainty. We can never forget the evening meeting when the Lord spoke clearly through Exodus 12:13, ‘and when I see the blood I will pass over you.’ From that night we had the absolute assurance that no harm would come to any of the buildings and that we ourselves were safe under that precious blood, so much more precious than the blood of the Passover sacrifice. 

It was an eerie feeling sometimes to hear the whirr of enemy planes directly above us and the sound of exploding bombs. Sometimes we would look out of upstairs windows and see in the distance the fires lighting up the dock area, a constant centre of attack, or watch the fires in buildings nearer at hand in the city. But from that night none of us went into shelters except for the children in the day school, in accordance with government regulations, which insisted upon adequate shelters for certain buildings, especially schools. Civilians were not allowed out on the streets during an air raid apart from the wardens whose duty it was to watch the streets and look for casualties. The school had many day pupils as well as the missionary boarders, and although the heaviest raids were usually at night, they did occur in daylight hours, especially in the earlier days of the war. It became commonplace for lessons to be disrupted and sometimes they had to be continued in the shelters provided. 

—The Intercession of Rees Howells