Battling the Elements: Weather and Terrain in the Conduct of War

Throughout history, from Hannibal's crossing of the Alps to Rommel's desert warfare, military operations have succeeded or failed on the ability of commanders to incorporate environmental conditions into their tactics. Military leaders and theorists have alwyas understood the fundamental and potent relationship between geography and warfare, though many have ignored or underestimated the importance of terrain and weather with disastrous results. In this text, a geographer and three former US Army officers examine the connections between major battles in world history and their geographic components, revealing what role factors such as weather, climate, terrain, soil and vegetation have played in combat. Each chapter offers a detailed explanation of a specific environmental factor and then looks at several battles which highlight its effects on military operations. Terrain has perhaps the most obvious influence, and the authors look at battles such as Bunker Hill, at Stonewall Jackson's manoeuvres in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862, at the topography of Gettysburg and the impact of land forms in the Battle at Verdun in 1916 to analyze the varying military consequences. Equally essential to the conduct of war has been an understanding of rivers and shorelines and the book recounts a number of island battles (including Tarawa and Iwo Jima), flanking amphibious assaults (Anzio during World War II and Inchon during the Korean War) and river crossings (Napoleon's tragic retreat across the Berezina in 1812, Market-Garden in 1944 and the Allies' good fortune in capturing the lone remaining bridge over the Rhine at Remagen in early 1945). Other geographic factors can also have a major impact on the conduct of war. Discussing the weather, for example, the authors describe the devastating effects of cyclones on Kublai Khan's 13th-century efforts to cross the Korean Strait and invade Japan. Seven centuries later, fortuitous conditions favoured the 1940 British evacuation at Dunkirk and the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy. Climate, the authors assert, plays many roles in warfare. They point to the temperate but constantly humid conditions in northwest Europe which made World War I battlefields, Flanders in particular, muddy quagmires which offered neither side a decisive advantage. In contrast, the long and frigid winters typical of Russia contributed greatly to the suffering and eventual demise of invading armies commanded by Napoleon and Hitler. Dense vegetation proved formidable for both Confederate and Union troops during the American Civil War - notably in the two Battles of the Wilderness - and for the French at Dien Bien Phu and for the Americans in Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley in 1965. The text details dozens of battles to illustrate the complex, diverse and often capricious effect of physical geography on war without oversimplifying this relationship or implying that environmental factors predetermine the outcome of a battle. The analysis posits the view that those who know more about the shape, nature and variability of battleground conditions will always have a better understanding of the nature of combat and at least one significant advantage over a less knowledgeable enemy.

Harold A. Winters is a professor emeritus of geography at Michigan State University.

Gerald E. Galloway Jr., who retired as a brigadier general after serving thirty-nine years in the U.S. army, is secretary for the U.S. Section of the International Joint Committee.

William J. Reynolds, a retired colonel and Vietnam veteran, is northwest regional manager for Science Applications International Corporation.

David W. Rhyne, a retired lieutenant colonel, teaches at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Hanover County, Virginia.