Battling the Elements

Weather and Terrain in the Conduct of War

Harold A. Winters, Gerald A. Galloway Jr., William J. Reynolds, David W. Rhyne

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781421440255
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Throughout history, from Kublai Khan's attempted invasions of Japan to Rommel's desert warfare, military operations have succeeded or failed on the ability of commanders to incorporate environmental conditions into their tactics. In Battling the Elements, geographer Harold A. Winters and former U.S. Army officers Gerald E. Galloway Jr., William J. Reynolds, and David W. Rhyne, 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 and engaging explanation of a specific environmental factor and then looks at several battles that highlight its effects on military operations. As this cogent analysis of geography and war makes clear, 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: War and Geography
• 1. Storms, Fair Weather, and Chance: Kamikazes, Dunkirk, and Normandy
• 2. Too Much and Too Wet: The Civil War Mud March and Flanders’ Fields
• 3. Clouds and Fog: The Bulge and Khe Sanh
• 4. Invading Another Climate as Seasons Change: Napoleon and Hitler in Russia
• 5. Forests and Jungles: The Wilderness and the la Drang Valley
• 6. Terrains and Corridors: The American Civil War’s Eastern Theater and World War I Verdun
• 7. Troubled Waters: River Crossings at Arnhem and Remagen
• 8. Glaciers Shape the Land: Alpine Fighting and the Road to Moscow
• 9. Peninsulas and Sea Coasts: Anzio and Inchon
• 10. Island Battles: Tarawa and Iwo Jima
• 11. Hot, Wet, and Sick: New Guinea and Dien Bien Phu
• 12. Heat, Rock, and Sand: The Western Desert and the Sinai
• Conclusion
• Notes
• General Bibliography
• Index