Natural disasters in military history

slum dog

me and mate were discussing whether militaries such as the us have strategy plans to cope with natural disasters while fighting a war. take for example the icelandic volcano when all of europes airplanes were grounded. imagine if this had happened on a larger scale, and affected the airspace of the middle east where air support is so crucial?
i was reading about the byzantine empire and how the theodosian walls were once breached soon after contruction because of an earthquake. i think its fascinating how military fortunes can be influenced by nature. the same thing in ireland also happened when the french tried to land off donegal, but were prevented by bad weather. although not a natural disaster, its still interesting how things don't always go to plan when things seem so promising.
are their any other instances in the past you can think of where natural disasters have affected the outcome of military history?

Manach

Would the Russian Winter count?. Especially in regard Napoleon's invasion of 1812. It caused the loss of the majority of his army and even the Russian army lost significant numbers to the elements.

slum dog

Manach wrote: »

Would the Russian Winter count?. Especially in regard Napoleon's invasion of 1812. It caused the loss of the majority of his army and even the Russian army lost significant numbers to the elements.

ya i suppose it would. do you think napoleon would have kicked ass had it not been for the russian winter?

Manach

It depends on which book you read.
In 1812: Napoleon's March Zmoyski the Russian leadership won only through a series of lucky breaks and the winter weather.
In Russia Against Napoleon by Lieven the Russian leadership won has they had a carefully crafted plan to lure the French deep into the Russian hinterland and let the winter decimate Napoleon's corp's.
I suspect the truth lies between those two viewpoints.

dubhthach

70 years ago this month the Battle of Moscow was raging. For the germans it didn't help that it was the coldest winter of the entire war period (1939-45) and they didn't have proper winter gear. Historically the Russians often talk about "General Mud" (the Rasputitsa) and General Winter.

With regards to Napoleon temperatures reached -37.5°C during the return trip

Charles Minard's graph showing the strength of the Grande Armée as it marched to Moscow and back, with temperature (in Réaumur) plotted on the lower graph for the return journey. –30 degrees Réaumur = –37.5 °C = –35.5 °F

With regards to climate another prime example is the near destruction of the army of of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin by Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn (Saladin). Which led to the fall of Jerusalem to his muslim army. In it's case it was due to lack of water that ended up resulting in causing a disaster for the Crusader army.

Sunnyisland

The spanish armada planed invasion of England was foiled by very bad weather AFAIK.

Nope, just checked it had minimal effect on the battle.

FiSe

The legend of Kamikaze and Mongolian invasion of Japan

jonniebgood1

FiSe wrote: »

The legend of Kamikaze and Mongolian invasion of Japan

Please explain more about the examples when they are being given. i.e. state the example and then explain how it was a military event that was effected by a natural disaster or event of nature.
Thanks
Moderator.

ReacherCreature

Actually the weather did have an effect on the Spanish Armada. Whilst sailing out of Portugal the fleet was sidelined by atrocious weather this consumed supplies and counted down days of the Summer.

Then when they approached England, the period just happened to have some of the worst storms ever recorded. After being heavily damaged in battle during Gravelines and the fireships incident, the Spanish made the decision to retreat. They happened to fall back into the North Sea - especially inhospitable this time of the year.

With the English chasing them the Spanish decided to head home around by way of Scotland and Ireland. More fierce weather there destroyed around twenty eight ships while four fell in combat. The ships had hundreds of men aboard.

Had the weather held off the Spanish might have been a capable force due to their troops' skill and commanders' experience. The poor numbers of Elizabeth's troops made the invasion more threatening. But over-planning, a complex invasion scheme and ships that were outclassed by English gunnery counters that Spanish threat. If the Spanish got ashore things would be very different in history.

Sunnyisland

Hitler was determined to reach Moscow before winter. By November, the Germans were only 19 miles (31 kilometres) outside the city. But the mud and winter weather—the worst in 20 years—stopped them. The German planes could not handle the subzero temperatures. Fires had to be set under the engines to help start them. The few heaters they had were used on the engines even though the mechanics’ hands froze to their tools. The Germans would never reach Moscow. Three million Russians and 800,00 Germans were dead.


http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=did%20the%20winter%20wether%20stop%20the%20germans&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDkQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.century-of-flight.net%2FAviation%2520history%2FWW2%2FAir%2520Power%2520on%2520the%2520Eastern%2520Front%2520in%2520World%2520War%25202.htm&ei=87n0TqysNMKphAep9oSnAQ&usg=AFQjCNEVaFQd4jIZuS5GPYAsgaa2DkKkGg



The cold weather had huge effect on Germany's attack/advance on the eastern front.

Delancey

The 3rd Battle of Ypres in WW1 also more commonly known simply as Passchendale.

The British offensive happpened in ( I think August ) which by bad luck was the wettest August in 80 years - it rained non-stop for 72 hours , the water table in that area was always on the high side so the extra rain had nowhere to drain to .... flooding combined with shelling turned the battlefield into a sea of mud through which nothing could pass.
All accounts of the battle make repeated references to the mud in which horses , mules and men drowned .

In what was known as Sir Patrick Dunns hospital in Dublin there was a plaque commemorating those medical graduates of Trinity College who died serving with the RAMC in WW1 , one of the entries read '' Lt. XYZ .... Drowned at Passchendale ''.

Fratton Fred

Agincourt wasn't too dissimilar in that heavy rain and the huge number of French soldiers churned up enough mud for it to become very difficult for the heavily armed knights to walk through. By the time they had made it to the English lines (and been funneled by the geography of the battlefield) they were either too exhausted to fight, or too cumbersome.

FiSe

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Please explain more about the examples when they are being given. i.e. state the example and then explain how it was a military event that was effected by a natural disaster or event of nature.
Thanks
Moderator.

Wouldn't try to explain it myself as this is uncharted territory for me, so this is what wiki says about it:

The Mongol invasions of Japan (元寇, Genkō?) of 1274 and 1281 were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer the Japanese islands after the submission of Goryeo (Korea) to vassaldom. Despite their ultimate failure, the invasion attempts are of macrohistorical importance, because they set a limit on Mongol expansion, and rank as nation-defining events in Japanese history. The Japanese were successful, in part because the Mongols lost up to 75% of their troops and supplies both times on the ocean as a result of major storms. The invasions are referred to in many works of fiction, and are the earliest events for which the word kamikaze, or "divine wind", is widely used. With the exception of the occupation of Japan at the end of World War II, these failed invasion attempts are the closest Japan has come to being conquered by foreign power in the last 1500 years.

Not really a natural disaster, just a bit of a rough sea in the right moment, basically, Spanish armada faith on the East...