Battling the elements : weather and terrain in the conduct of war / Harold A. Winters ... [and others].

"Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Harrisonburg, Virginia"--P. facing t.p.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-306) and index.

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 Ia 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.

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. 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 of Battling the Elements offers a detailed and engaging explanation of a specific environmental factor and then looks at several battles that highlight its effects on military operations. Battling the Elements 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.