War and Geography

“Those who do not know the conditions of mountains and forests, hazardous defiles, marshes and swamps, cannot conduct the march of an army.”   SUN TZU, THE ART OF WAR


There has always been a potent and omnipresent synergy between the environment, or physical geography, and battle. 

Over the centuries efforts to dominate an adversary by military force have led to a grim progression of weapons, techniques, and principles, all designed more or less to gain control of space and lines of communication. Furthermore, aggressive human endeavor and the resulting repetition of conflict make it a near certainty that even more formidable and destructive wartime devices will appear in the future. Through all of this, past, present, and future, it is clear that basic elements of geography are always important factors in the conduct and outcome of battle.

Thus, by examining connections between a number of military operations and their basic geographic components, this class will show seemingly evident factors such as weather, climate, terrain, soil, and vegetation are important, cogent, and sometimes decisive in combat. It also demonstrates that war and the environment are intertwined in a complex, diverse, and often capricious fashion, the result being an ever-varying military cacophony incorporating repetition, counterpoint, juxtaposition, inversion, and reversal, all within the evolving framework of space and time. That is, comparisons of battles affected in a major way by one environmental factor may, in some cases, reveal distinct similarities and parallels, while in other conflicts the setting and outcome may be very different because of changes in circumstance technology, and judgment. One characteristic, however, remains unchanging; in combat an environmental advantage for one side always means some degree of misfortune for the other, and that situation can easily reverse itself on the next battlefield.

To keep things in proper perspective the student should know that this class is not intended to be a newly definitive work in military history or a technical analysis of contemporary physical geography. Instead it combines established facts and concepts from both disciplines to show that relationships between the environment and combat are highly variable, often unpredictable, and always formidable. 

Finally, the overarching message of the following lessons is that, despite the evolving technology in warfare, physical geography has a continuous, powerful, and profound effect on the nature and course of combat.


Introduction
War and Geography 

Week of  1. Storms, Fair Weather, and Chance
Kamikazes, Dunkirk, and Normandy 

Week of   2. Too Much and Too Wet
The Civil War Mud March and Flanders' Fields 

Week of  3. Clouds and Fog
The Bulge and Khe Sanh 

Week of  4. Invading Another Climate as Seasons Change
Napoleon and Hitler in Russia 

Week of  5. Forests and Jungles
The Wilderness and the Ia Orang Valley 

Week of  6. Terrains and Corridors
The American Civil War's Eastern Theater and
World War I Verdun 

Week of  7. Troubled Waters
River Crossings at Arnhem and Remagen 

Week of  8. Glaciers Shape the Land
Alpine Fighting and the Road to Moscow 

Week of  9. Peninsulas and Sea Coasts
Anzio and Inchon 

Week of  10. Island Battles
Tarawa and Iwo Jima 

Week of  11. Hot, Wet, and Sick
New Guinea and Dien Bien Phu

Week of  12. Heat, Rock, and Sand
The Western Desert and the Sinai