TV: Weather at War

[Morgan Palmer]

FYI... History Channel (and presumably History Intl.) is running a series called "Weather at War". I don't know how many episodes it is comprised of, or how old it is. It goes from Napoleon to the present and back looking at how weather affected battles and wars.

Very interesting. Worth checking local listings. - mp

 

[Dan Cook]

the biggest example of weather in war imo would be the D-day invasion.

 

[Morgan Palmer]

Ha! That episode comes on at 4pm CST. (Tuesday)

 

[Jay McCoy]

I can think of a few examples from WWII including the "battle of the Bulge" with heavy fog preventing resupply to our troops and the typhonn that sank 3 destroyers in Halseys pacific fleet in dec '44. He almost lost the entire 3rd fleet to that one.

from the navy archives webpage...

"Three destroyers, capsized and sank with hundreds of lives lost -the sea claimed 765 Third Fleet sailors in all. Four light carriers were badly damaged, and another four escort carriers. A light cruiser was mauled, as were seven fortunate destroyers that weathered the storm, two destroyer escorts, a fleet oiler and a fleet tug. More than 200 planes were lost off the decks of Third Fleet carriers"

 

[Shawn Rutherford]

Not as critical...

Not as critical, but the "launching" of the Enola Gay (plan that dropped the atom bomb) along with others, was supposed to be pretty hairy for the pilots who had to take off from an aircraft carrier...

I believe they had to rev full throttle, face the wind, and pray to make it...

as I recall.... but then again, I watch too much History Channel

Shawn

 

[Greg Campbell]

Re: Not as critical...

Not as critical, but the "launching" of the Enola Gay (plan that dropped the atom bomb) along with others, was supposed to be pretty hairy for the pilots who had to take off from an aircraft carrier...

I believe they had to rev full throttle, face the wind, and pray to make it...

as I recall.... but then again, I watch too much History Channel

Shawn

You're probably thinking of Doolittle's raid against Tokyo. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay off Tinian island's 8500 ft runway. The bomber was overloaded by 15,000 lb and needed most of the run to get airborne. Still, it was not the "made-it-with-ten-feet to-spare" situation Doolittle faced.

Weather did play a role in both atomic attacks. Kokura was the primary target of Bock's Car, but heavy overcast send Fat Man to Nagasaki. Days earlier, Kokura dodged another bullet when skies cleared over Hiroshima...

-Greg