Prayer and a sense of the divine are, for believers, private expressions of personal relationships with God. Exploration of religious practice and sensibilities is an example of history at its most intimate and least understood. Religion in wartime in particular is often maligned or misconstrued. Citing the old aphorism that there are no atheists in the trenches, foxholes and—in the case of airmen—the cockpit, it is often assumed that men turn to God for less than spiritual reasons. The personal narratives of a group of Australian airmen prisoners, however, highlight a nuanced appreciation of the idea of God that includes profound belief, atheism and a secular appropriation of religious tradition. This paper analyses the private records of Australian airmen of Stalag Luft III, a Second World War German prisoner of war camp, to reveal the place of God and faith in their captivity. It considers how they drew on religious beliefs, practices and sensibilities to actively manage wartime incarceration; ameliorate the negative consequences of it; and make sense of the deaths of fifty airmen in the post-Great Escape reprisals.