View Full Version : Natural Disasters in Wartime


Jack the Ripper
Apr 17, 2005, 01:08 AM
Recently i read that over 80000 soldiers were killed by avalances in Austria in the first world war. Can anyone think of other natural disasters involving soldiers during wartime? If so, did it change the outcome of anything?

#1 Person
Apr 17, 2005, 02:08 AM
The storms during the Spanish armadas advance on England. Causing severe damadge.

Verbose
Apr 17, 2005, 02:11 AM
The Russian winter.

Everytime.

kittenOFchaos
Apr 17, 2005, 04:44 AM
Too many instances to list...nature doesn't go on hold for War.

~Corsair#01~
Apr 17, 2005, 05:32 AM
Do plagues count?

FriendlyFire
Apr 17, 2005, 06:35 AM
Kamakazi (mongol fleet)

Adler17
Apr 17, 2005, 07:25 AM
1. 9 AD: The German tribes, unified under Arminius lost nearly the battle of Teutoburg forest on the 2nd day. Arminius knew he had only one chance to attack- and many of his best men are already dead, wounded or exhauste. On the third day when he wants to give the order to attack a thunderstorm came up. The thunder was frightening the Romans but gave the Germans the belief Thor helps them. Additional due to the rain the Romans couldn´t nearly fight, the leather shields were wet and not suitable now. Also the rain prevents the archers to shoot and to go in formation. Varus commited suicide when he and his officers were surrounded by Germanic warriors...
2. Kamikaze I, II, the devine wind. Twice Mongol invasion fleets are destroyed by a typhoon. Japan was saved.
3. The Mountain warfare in the Alps, 1915- 1918. Although being outnumbered and bad equipped the Austrian soldiers manage to stop the Italian abush and although there were 18 or 19 battles in the Isonzo area none of the Italian offensives were successful. With German help the Austrians attack and can knock off Italy more or less out of the war in 1917. The only major battle the Italians win was several days before the Austrian surrender...
4. General Winter, Napoleon and Hitler. I think here I am sure everyone knows.
5. Kamikaze III, 18.12.1944: A huge typhoon strikes the huge invasion force of the USN en route to the Philipines. 3 destroyer sunk, CV Cowpen, Cabot, Lexington, Ticonderoga, Essex and Langley additional BB USS Iowa heavilied damaged, out of order for the planned invasion, 790 seamen died. The invasion had to be postponed. Japanese losses: zero. What the whole Japanese navy was not able to do the storm does.

Recommended books: The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmied.

Adler

FriendlyFire
Apr 17, 2005, 09:43 AM
Also things which affect food.

i.e german Turnip winter of 1915

Or during Alexanders campaign: Hes fleets which was meant to be hes logistical support failed to arrive due to weather. I think 54,000 of hes troops died of strvation, thirst.

Solomwi
Apr 17, 2005, 12:50 PM
One that's always intrigued me is epidemic that hit the Assyrian army during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC. For all its far-reaching implications (imagine a world in which worship of Yahweh basically ceases 700 years before Jesus walks the earth), it may well have been a simple matter of King Hezekiah recognizing that any army camped outside Jerusalem would have a difficult time without water and preparing accordingly.

sydhe
Apr 17, 2005, 01:29 PM
Although not really a disaster, a war between the Lydians and Medes was ended by a total eclipse.

The Spanish Armada was decimated by storms on their long voyage home.

Squonk
Apr 17, 2005, 04:28 PM
There was a Zawichost battle in MA between Poles and some Ruthenians during which a cliffy river bank collapsed and so, Ruthenian army was destroyed
But I think it was more of a divine intervention :mischief:

Jack the Ripper
Apr 17, 2005, 10:18 PM
Do plagues count?

definately

Nobody
Apr 18, 2005, 01:13 AM
not really the weather, but i think i heard some huge amount of japense got crocdilifed during world war 2

Smellincoffee
Apr 18, 2005, 10:43 PM
Black Death & the Hundred Years' War might qualify.

Jack the Ripper
Apr 18, 2005, 10:53 PM
not really the weather, but i think i heard some huge amount of japense got crocdilifed during world war 2

I've heard about this... i found something about it in a book:

It happened on the night of 19-20 Feb. '45. Allied troops that invaded Ramree Island trapped around 800-1000 Japanese troops in a swamp, and by morning there were only 20 left. The rest were eaten. Had all of the other japanese lived who known what could've happened.
_______

While we're all talking about epidemics, i think the spanish flu epidemic in 1918/1919 can be linked to WWI

hbdragon88
Apr 26, 2005, 06:58 PM
Some battle in World War I, I think it was called Paschendale? Eariles and one of the wettest seaons...men and horses literally got sucked into it.

silver 2039
Apr 28, 2005, 07:59 AM
The plague in Athens during the Penopplesian War that killed a large portion of the pouplation along with Pericles and caused Sparta to defeat Athens.

Verbose
Apr 28, 2005, 08:22 AM
The plague in Athens during the Penopplesian War that killed a large portion of the pouplation along with Pericles and caused Athens defeat to Sparta.
I doubt that. The Plague hit Athens in the first years of the war and it still dragged on for a generation after the event.:)

Verbose
Apr 28, 2005, 08:26 AM
If disease is included almost all warfare before the 19th c. was heavily impacted by it.

Before colonial medicine especially in Africa the native soften withdrew in order to wait for disease to kill off the European invaders.

From Bruno Latour, "The Pasteurization of France":
Lémure, an army doctor, describes in 1896 the Madagascar expedition: ”The Hova government was counting on the fever to prevent our soldiers from getting to Antananarivo. It was depending on that weapon much more than on bullets and shells made in England” (1896, p. 47). Without firing a single shot, the Hovas were content to force the French to bivouac in the plain: ”Two months were enough to reduce their numbers to half and even to a quarter, leaving some battalions existing only in name—all sick and 5000 dead, that’s the balance sheet (out of 24,000 men). Which proves that the expedition was above all a business of sanitation” (p. 50).