CHAPTER B Arctic winter 1939/40

107 Pages·2006·4.07 MB·English

Booklet on Naval War
changes Climate
A fascinating theory on the impact of
naval warfare on climate
Arnd Bernaerts
iUniverse, Inc.
New York Lincoln Shanghai
Booklet on Naval War changes Climate
A fascinating theory on the impact of naval warfare on climate
Copyright © 2006 by Arnd Bernaerts
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C
ONTENTS
Chapter A.How to change Climate................................................................1
AdolfHitler started World War II in September 1939,and ini-
tiated the longest and biggest climate change of the last cen-
tury. This book is about oceans, wars at sea and climate
changes.It focuses on two major climate changes,which hap-
pened because man abused oceans through naval warfare two
times during the last century.
Chapter B.Arctic winter 1939/40 ..................................................................8
The severe winter period in North Europe lasted from mid-
December 1939 until April 1940.It was the coldest for more
than 100 years.Allowing navies to participate in a war at sea,
in Northern Europe natural heat reservoir,is like hastily stir-
ring a hot soup to cool it down for quick consumption.Once
the heat storage ofNorth Sea and Baltic Seas has been dimin-
ished,water will warm again only during the next year sum-
mer.
Chapter C.The three years cold package & the war ..................................40
The statistics for the war winter temperatures between 1939
and 1942 is nothing less than a “Big Bang”.In five out of six
locations nothing comparable has ever happened since tem-
perature observations have been made
Chapter D.20th Century Climate changed by the Naval War....................63
The chapter will focus on the warming trend (1918-1939) and
on the cooling trend (1939-1980). Naval war and supply
across the seas became part of ocean physics for a long time.
Correspondingly climatic changes during WWII have two
distinct periods,namely the period before Pearl Harbour and
the period thereafter.From September 1939 until early 1942,
naval warfare was largely confined to European waters, than
war at sea became a global matter.
v
vi Booklet on Naval War changes Climate
Chapter E.Climate changes today ..............................................................87
The book shows that the war activities on sea during WWI
and WWII correlate perfectly with the only two significant cli-
matic changes between 1900 and 2000.The first one started in
1918 and lasted until 1939, while the second started in the
winter of 1939/40 and came to an end in the early 1980s.The
temperature rise during the recent 25 years can have “new
causes”,but it might as well be a resume ofthe steep tempera-
ture rise between 1918 and 1939,interrupted by WWII.
C A
HAPTER
How to change Climate
Do you want to have a freezing winter? Start a war at sea!
Do you want to change global climate? Start a global naval
war!
One cold wave after the other took hold of Northern Europe in what was
called an arctic climate,since mid-December 1939.Nothing similar has hap-
pened in more than 100 years. Only three months earlier, more than 1000
naval vessels went out on sea and turned the waters of the North-and Baltic
Sea upside-down. Day and night, week after week, many thousands of ships
criss-crossed these seas,millions of“sea fountains”sprang up,being caused by
shells,bombs,depth charges,sea mines,torpedoes.Ships and airplanes sank to
the sea bottom with hundreds.
By mid-February 1940, The
New York Times (NYT,the 14th of
February 1940) reported another
arctic cold wave:
“Europe suffered tonight in the
paralysing grip of the bitterest cold
in more than 100 years”.
“At least 56 people died from
Scandinavia to the Danube”.
“The cold wave extended from
the Arctic fringes of Norway and
Finland to the Netherlands and
Hungary”.
1
2 Booklet on Naval War changes Climate
“The Netherlands Weather Bureau recorded the lowest temperature ever
recorded in this country, 11.2 degrees below zero Fahrenheit” (-11.2 F corre-
sponds to-24°C).
“Water transportation in the Netherlands is completely paralysed.The canals
have been covered with thick ice for more than six weeks. Hundreds of persons
abandoned their homes in the face of crushing ice packs boiling up from ice-
blocked canals,rivers and seas”.
“In Copenhagen the temperature has dropped to 13 degrees below zero
Fahrenheit (-25°C)”.
“The Baltic Sea was frozen over for the first time in many years.Islands along
the coast of the Netherlands and the Baltic were isolated. All day they sent out
SOS calls for coal and foodstuff”.
“In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, more than 10,000 persons suffered severe
cases offrost-bite.At least five persons froze to death in the three Baltic countries
where temperatures reached-54 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-47°C) for the
first time in 150 years”.
The unusually pronounced cold winter in Northern Europe went on for
many weeks.In Sweden,all cold records were broken during the 19th/20th of
February, with 32 degrees below zero F (-35.5°C), the coldest temperature
since 1805 (NYT,the 23rdofFebruary 1940).
The political factor
If war at sea changes the climate, such an event would have tremendous
political implications. If there are significant political implications in 2006,
there must have been in 1939 too,but unfortunately no one knew what was at
stake at that time.
In the summer of 1939, a major world war was looming. British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain tried desperately to persuade the German
Chancellor Adolph Hitler not to push the world into another major war.The
threat of the climate change was not among the argument list that
Chamberlain used to convince his opponent. His efforts were in vain. Hitler
wanted a war and he started it in September 1939.The war lasted six years and
initiated the longest and biggest climate change ofthe last century.
This book is about oceans, wars at sea and climate changes. It focuses on
two major climate changes, which happened because man abused oceans
through naval warfare two times during the last century. The last and most
Arnd Bernaerts 3
dramatic climate change occurred
sixty-five years ago,generated three
arctic winters in Northern Europe
and cooled the world down for four
decades.
Fifty million people were killed
and the infrastructure and econ-
omy of many countries was ruined
during World War II (WWII). But
there are more tragic consequences
that have not been seriously tackled
yet.With the beginning of the war,
in 1939,the warm climate switched
to a cold phase, which lasted four
decades.Now,more than halfa century later,leading politicians and scientists
warn us that climate changes are the greatest threat to the mankind. They
claim that the threat is caused by the industrial release of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere.This works like a greenhouse effect that determines the earth’s
temperature to rise.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared recently that there was “no
bigger long-term question facing the global community”than the threat of a
climate change1. Unfortunately, the focus is misplaced. It is not the atmos-
phere which determines the fate ofthe climate.It is the ocean who does it.
War at sea determined two major climate changes:one in 1918,at the end of
World War I,and the other in 1939,at the beginning of World War II.If the
oceans,as driving force of the climate,had influenced scientific research since
the early days of meteorology,150 years ago,then it would have been possible
to stress that the advent ofthe two World Wars and the extensive fighting at sea
were a real threat for the normal course ofthe climate.
How could the course of international conflicts have been managed if the
world’s leading statesmen ofthe 20thcentury had been concerned with the cli-
matic changes due to the impact that a war at sea could have had on the ocean
and on the climate? Could World War II have been prevented ifglobal climate
change had been as much a concern as it is today? Or would the leaders have
tried to persuade the navies at war to leave oceans and seas out ofthe conflict?
Would Hitler have reconsidered his war aims if the United States had warned
4 Booklet on Naval War changes Climate
him oftheir immediate implication in the war in case his decision had been to
launch 1000 naval ships out on sea in an attack that risked generating a sub-
stantial climatic shift?
But,during the last 150 years,no one alerted the warring nations that going
out on sea to fight a war would have an inevitable impact on the oceans status
and, consequently, on the climate. No one sent effective diplomatic notes to
Hitler,demanding him to cancel all military activities in the oceans,in August
1939.
The inevitable happened. Within four months after the beginning of
WWII,Northern Europe was plunged into the coldest winter in more than 100
years. Since December 1939, Europe endured arctic conditions that had not
been experienced since the Little Ice Age,in the 18th/19thcentury.And neither
the scientific community nor the political leaders had any idea about the con-
nection between the war and the arctic temperature conditions.
It is an irony that the deputy and chief of German Armed Forces,Herman
Goering2,in a speech designed to boost the morale ofthe German population
striving to overcome the unbelievable difficulties of a cold and snowy winter,
could get away with the statement he made on the 15thofFebruary 1940:
Nature is still more powerful than man.
I can fight man but I cannot fight nature
when I lack the means to carry out such a battle.
We did not ask for ice,snow and cold—
A higher power sent it to us.3
Arnd Bernaerts 5
Herman Goering was wrong! Huge naval fleets out on fighting missions can
easily turn nature’s wheels.Adolf Hitler and the German Reich were responsi-
ble for the sudden transformation of both regional and global climate.While
the war continued for five more years and the war at sea became global after
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, in December 1941, Hitler’s actions did not
only generate three extremely cold winters in Europe but also initiated four
decades of cold that lasted from 1940 until the early 1980’s.All this happened
after extensive and devastating naval activities in the Atlantic and Pacific
regions.
But this simple fact had not been paid any serious attention. This book
focuses on the two wars at sea,from 1914 until 1918 and from 1939 until 1945,
when seas and oceans were turned into battlegrounds and huge water areas
were turned upside-down by naval vessels and war activities such as shooting,
aerial bombing,torpedoing,sea mining,and depth charging ofsubmarines.
The scenario of autumn 1939
On the 1stof September 1939,Germany launched land,air and sea attacks
on Poland.Soon,the Nazis deployed5,000 planes upon Poland.On the 25thof
September 1939, 240 German planes bombed Warsaw, dropping 560 tons of
bombs (including the first bomb of 1,000 kg).30 transport aircrafts dropped
70 tons offirebombs.Meanwhile,1,000 batteries shelled the city day and night.
Warsaw burnt for many days. The sky above Central Europe was filled with
smoke and dust.Poland surrendered before the end of the month.Total casu-
alties are estimated at 1 million, including 200,000 dead people and 700,000
war prisoners.
On the 3rd of September, Great Britain and France declared war to
Germany. Several hundred-kilometre military defence zone between France
and Germany (the Maginot Line and the Westwall) were put into full opera-
tion immediately. Two million soldiers faced each other in September 1939.
Since October, the number increased to over three million. Attacks and
encounters occurred frequently. One of the first attacks during the first war
week saw 700 French tanks and planes moving seven miles over the Saarland
border,while 300 air planes attacked German positions in an industrial region
and ammunition area, some 125 miles further north. Similar encounters
occurred frequently, week-by-week, month-by-month, until Germany
attacked and occupied the Western Europe countries,in summer 1940.