Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1940 WAR AND THE WEATHER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 15, 18 January 1940, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1940 WAR AND THE WEATHER

Though armies today do not go into winter quarters and hibernate like bears, as they used to do in the time of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, and for centuries afterwards, the weather still plays a great part in war. Europe just now, according to the news, is in the "grip of frosty colder than for many years past. Eastern and Central Europe always feel the severity of winter more than the West, having a continental climate away from the mitigating influences of the Gulf Stream, but this year the temperatures everywhere are well below zero. Equipped as they are for Arctic conditions; the opposing sides on the Finnish front have been frozen into a sort of armistice, with troops retiring from the exposure of advanced posts to the comparative warmth of the main lines of entrenchment. So, too, on the Western Front, where it is said'to be so cold that British soldiers manning the outposts within rifle range of the German lines are robbed of sleep. . . .Fires are forbidden, as the ' smoke would guide enemy patrols,and attract their artillery. Physical exercises and stamping of feet are not permitted, because the impact of heavy boots; on the frozen earth echoes like a shot. ..■■'. . The sentries suffer from the cold acutely. ' It may be presumed, that the Germans are feeling the pinch of cold even worse, because their rivers and waterways, on which they depend so greatly for the transport of fuel and other necessities, are frozen over from bank to Lank.,, It is stated that over a thousand vessels are thus im-:* mobilised on the Danube, the great channel of communication between Germany and South-eastern Europe, which furnishes Germany normally with so much of her food and fuel, especially oil. It may be that this alone would cause a postponement of any violent attempt to break the cordon of the blockade. ! While there may be certain advanr tages in such weather, such as the formation of ice on rivers and lakes and inundations, allowing the passage of troops, the balance i£ against mobility. Ice is apt to be brittle, and die last predicament of marching troops floundering through $roken«ice is liable to be worse than the first of fighting the cold. Experience in the Finnish war reveals that mechanisation is a drawback to mobility under such conditions, the lightly-armed Finns on their skis completely outmanoeuvring the Russians with their tanks. On the other hand, the inevitable thaw, when the warmer weather comes, will make for seas of mud in which tanks are still worse off. The fate of the Italians in the mud at Guadalajara in the Spanish civil war is a warning against over-mechanisation. On the other hand, the Germans were favoured by exceptionally fine weather in their blitzkrieg in Poland and swooped over the dry, hard, flat country ,in swarms of tanks and mechanised transport. If the autumn ,rains had come earlier in Poland last year, the story of the campaign might have been quite different.' Commenting on this aspect, the special war number of the "Round Table" says: Nothing like so clear a conclusion can be drawn from the triumphant success of the highly mechanised divisions. It is at least possible that, given bad weather and unfavourable ground, they might have been outflanked and cut off by Polish cavalry. There is hardly any side of war that the infra-zero weather now prevailing in Europe will not affect. The Daventry broadcast today stated that the weather was holding up air activity in Finland and tlHis giving the civilian population of Finland a respite from the almost incessant aerial bombardments of the past few days. The icing of wings is always a danger to aircraft,-and the danger must be enhanced by low general temperatures. At any rate, there are no reports of air raids at the moment either over Finland or elsewhere. At sea, especially in the North Sea, extreme cold is likely to paralyse the activities of shipping as well as of submarines, and here also there is a lull in the reports of casualties. It may therefore be taken, with a reasonable degree of certainty, that there will be no serious movement of troops so long as the present cold snap lasts in Europe. Nothing is said in the news about the weather in Britain —the censorship forbids that—but Britain can hardly be expected to have escaped the heavy frost that lies over the rest of Europe. So also in the Netherlands the canals will be frozen and the polders stiff with frost. This in, itself may account for the relaxation of tension and the belief tha-i the situation haSJ

improved. In any event, vigilance will riot be relaxed either in Holland or Belgium. Responsible authorities in Britain and France are fully aware of the danger, and Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief _.of the British Army in France, is reported as saying in an interview published in the Belgian newspaper "Le Soir": If Belgium were attacked or her neutrality, independence, and vital interests threatened, the French and British guarantee would operate with lightning rapidity. This time all would be ready. There will be no more gropings as in 1914. If the Germans come they will be well received. It will be seen, therefore, that the Allies are not trusting to the weather for the protection of their vital left flank on the Western Front. Sooner or later, it is expected, the German attack will come, though where precisely nobody knows. One thing is certain, and that is the. Allies will be ready.