GEOG 3010 Military Geography

Chapter Précis for Chapter 1 and Chapter 2

All through history, military operations have failed or succeeded on the capability of chief officers to integrate environmental surroundings into their strategies. Commanders and theorists have often comprehended the essential and potent connection between warfare and geography, although the majority have disregarded or undervalued the significance of topography and weather with calamitous results (The United States, 2008). In the text, Battling the elements: weather and terrain in the conduct of war, three former American soldiers in collaboration with a geographer examine the relationship between renowned wars in history and their geographic constituents, depicting what role factors such as vegetation, topography, weather, and climate have taken in battle. This paper will provide a précis of chapter 3 and chapter 7 of this book and offer a detailed explanation of an explicit environmental factor and then examine various battles which stress its impact in military operations.

Chapter 1: Troubled Waters (River Crossings at Arnhem and Remagen)

In this chapter, the authors are emphasizing on the role played by rivers during times of war. They argue that even though rivers are important in warfare for defense purpose, they also act as obstacles hindering the operations of soldiers. For instance, during the time of American Revolutionary Warfare, the British realized that close monitoring of Hudson River would hinder the activities of the colonials crossing to back up their allies. In addition, during the Second World War, soldiers encountered massive fatalities near Cassino, Italy, in their disastrous attempt to cross a highly guarded, swampy, and sheer-banked River Rapido. Rivers erode large masses of soil during their rapid and turbulent flows to form marshy shallow waterbeds which pose a great challenge to soldiers when trying to cross them (Datz, 2004). Armies can cross a river using various means such as capturing an old bridge, constructing a new one, paddling a raft, swim across or sometimes fly over the water body and land on the other side. The method to be used depends on various conditions such state of the river and distance separating them and their enemies. The authors emphasize on the role played by the Rhine River during the era of Adolf Hitler in Germany. They provide several qualities of the river and their effects during the capturing mission of Hitler (Winters et. al, 1998, Chapter 7).

Chapter 2: Clouds and Fog (The Bulge and Khe Sanh)

In this chapter Winters et. al., (1998) explains occurrence of extreme weather conditions such as low clouds and fogs which they describe as enemies of naval, air force and troop movements. Clouds and Fogs occur when minute water droplets or ice crystals remain indolent in the atmosphere to the extent of cooling below the dewpoint temperature. Some of the formed clouds especially the largest equatorial ones are associated with hurricanes and tornadoes along the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Such extreme weather conditions Winters et. al., (1998) reports that they hampered Allied air operations. German Soldiers’ visibility while on the land could reduce to approximately less than 1000m. During the Khe Sanh, one of the most publicized wars of the Vietnam era in 1954, land-hugging fog covered the ground and endangered the lives of more than 6000 marines in the battlefields. 

References

Datz, I. M. (2004). Military operations under special conditions of terrain and weather. New Delhi: Lancer.

The United States. (2008). Special military operations. Washington, D.C.?: U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration.

Winters, H. A., Galloway, J. G. E., Reynolds, W. J., & Rhyne, D. W. (1998) Chapter 7: Troubled Waters (River Crossings at Arnhem and Remagen). In Battling the elements: weather and terrain in the conduct of war (1st ed., pp. 141-147). Baltimore: John Hopkins University press.

Winters, H. A., Galloway, J. G. E., Reynolds, W. J., & Rhyne, D. W. (1998). Chapter 3: Clouds and Fog (The Bulge and Khe Sanh) In Battling the elements: weather and terrain in the conduct of war (1st ed., pp. 60-98). Baltimore: John Hopkins University press.