The Bismarck, probably Germany’s most famous battleship in World War Two, was sunk on May 27th 1941. The Bismarck had already sunk HMS Hood before being sunk herself. For many, the end of the Hood and Bismarck symbolised the end of the time when battleships were the dominant force in naval warfare, to be replaced by submarines and aircraft carriers and the advantages these ships gave to naval commanders. The Bismarck displaced over 50,000 tons and 40% of this displacement was armour. Such armour gave the Bismarck many advantages in protection but it did not inhibit her speed – she was capable of 29 knots. Launched in 1939, the Bismarck carried a formidable array of weaponry – 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.9 inch guns, 16 x 4.1 inch AA guns, 16 x 20mm AA guns and 2 x Arado 96 aircraft. The Bismarck had a crew of 2,200.

In comparison, HMS Hood (built 20 years before Bismarck) was 44,600 tons, had a crew of 1,419 and was faster than the Bismarck with a maximum speed of 32 knots. The Hood had been launched in 1918 and was armed with 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.5 inch guns, 8 x 4 inch AA guns, 24 x 2 pounder guns and 4 x 21 inch torpedoes. However, the Hood suffered from one major flaw – she did not have the same amount of armour as the Bismarck. The fact that the Hood was faster than the Bismarck by 3 knots was as a result of her lack of sufficient armour. Within two minutes of being hit by the Bismarck, the Hood had broken her back and sunk. On May 18th, 1941, the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen slipped out of the Baltic port of Gdynia to attack Allied convoys in the Atlantic. Grand Admiral Raeder had already had experience of large warships attacking convoys at sea. Ships such as the Graf Spee, Admiral Scheer (both pocket battleships), Hipper (a cruiser) and Scharnhorst (a battle cruiser) had already been at sea but had found that their power was limited by the fact that they were so far from a dock/port that could carry out repairs if they were needed. Such a difficulty meant that mighty ships such as the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were loathed to take on a convoy if that convoy was protected by any naval ship...

© 1999 Acharya S.

The purpose in exploring the connection between war and religion is to carefully examine deep wounds within the human familial body, particularly that arising from the last World War, a wound still very raw and representing far more than just a brief aberration in human history and in the mass human psyche. Indeed, WWII is a study of the entire human history condensed into decades. It contains all paradigms, ideologies and psychoses that possess the human mind. It represents a culmination of energies that have been fomenting and festering for millennia. And it is not over.

When one studies WWII, it becomes clear that no one group is entirely exculpable and no one is wholly to blame. It also turns out that this hideous affair, in which tens of millions were tortured and slaughtered, could have easily been predicted - and thus possibly prevented - had not history been suppressed, changed and censored for the benefit of a relative few. If there is one thing we can blame in the entire psychotic episode, it is censorship, now appearing in a milder form as "political correctness," which ordinarily would prevent us from discussing these painful and gruesome subjects. Yet the tendency toward fascistic censorship is just one of the ugly aspects of the human psyche required for such an orgy of insanity and violence to continue.

 The idea of a certain individual, group, nation or race being "chosen" or "superior" is another important factor. This megalomania is usually accompanied by a belief that a god or THE god of the entire cosmos is favoring this "chosen" or "superior" race, group or individual above all others, an arrogant conceit that should be evident as being false. This mental illness, also called religion, is profound in the human species, and is at the root of practically all wars, those of the 20th century included, despite claims by religionists that Nazism and Communism were "godless" and "atheistic," a charge also laid against early Christians for their disbelief in the typical form of the supernatural...

German rocket scientists had two unofficial research projects "on the drawing board" as early as 1930: a "pilotless plane" (or "robot bomb"), and a long range rocket. The Nazis were sufficiently impressed to give their leader Werner von Braun a rocket base and test-firing range at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast. By 1937 both projects were being developed by the Nazi German government. In 1940 it seemed that Germany had almost won the war - there was little urgency for new weapons. Britain stood alone - but refused to be defeated.

Nazis tried to crush RAF fighter plane resistance in the Battle of Britain; they tried to sap Britain's will to fight by bombing cities in the 'Blitz'. Both caused terrible damage, but failed. Operation Sealion, the German plan to invade Britain, was cancelled. Only then did Hitler give top priority to the long range rocket project. Thousands of people were sent to work at Peenemunde - most of them slave labourers. Test-firing the new fourth version rocket began in March 1942, and its fourth launch in Oct.1942 was successful. When Hitler heard the news he gave the immediate go-ahead to mass-produce the rockets, and to build concrete launching bunkers in the Pas-de-Calais.

The Gathering Storm : On 7 December 1941, the Japanese surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor destroyed a large portion of the U.S. Pacific fleet and thrust the United States into the Second World War. Following a moving speech by President Franklin D Roosevelt, Congress declared war on Japan the following day. Roosevelt stated that the "United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan." However, was the "date which will live in infamy" really a surprise attack, or were some high level American and British officials, possibly even Roosevelt and Churchill, aware of Japanese intentions well in advance?The attack came on the heels of the Japanese government's decision, under Premier Hideki Tojo, that the United States would take an active role in the Pacific theater in the event that Japan attacked Southeast Asia.

With the dramatic decrease in the amount of American oil and other raw materials being shipped to the Japanese, they realized that the only way to maintain the integrity of the Japanese military machine would be to assimilate the natural resources of Southeast Asia into the empire. Therefore, war with America was inevitable and unavoidable. With this in mind, the Japanese began negotiations with the United States while simultaneously preparing invasion plans of the American Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and British Malaya. One major component of these invasion plans was to neutralize the greatest threat to Japanese operations, the American Pacific fleet. With the presence of such a formidable opponent, which had established its home base at Pearl Harbor in May 1940, the Japanese realized that it would be difficult to subjugate Southeast Asia. If the majority of the fleet was eliminated in one massive assault, not only would they be able to conquer these territories, but they would also be able to fortify them as well. The attack on Pearl Harbor was devised by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in- chief of the Combined Japanese Fleet...