Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/541

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��night of drenching misery and the follow- ing dawn, when the place where the trenches had been was turned into a sea of mud, with the sentries mired, engulfed and drowned at their posts.

History is repeating itself, but on a vastly enlarged scale. General January and General February have fought for Russia against Germany, just as they once fought against Napoleon. Taking into account its effects upon the civil popula- tions, cold weather has caused more suffer- ing and loss of life in the present war than in a dozen previous wars. In the Meso- potamian campaign the British forces suffered terribly with the heat. Marches were made when the thermometer stood at 110 degrees and over. "We cannot carry enough water," wrote an officer of the Royal Field Artillery, "and one's tongue soon swells when the sun is up." The temperature in the hospital tents was reported as 130 degrees. Imagine the joy (?) with which these same soldiers received from home a consignment of "bullet-proof" vests, consisting of several inches thickness of a heavily woven woolly material!

They Licked the Moisture on Water Bags— It Was So Hot

Ignorance of climatic conditions has

��been responsible for many serious blun- ders during the war. The failure of the British campaign at the Dardanelles was partly due to the fact that the e.xtreme dryness of the country was not realized and totally inadequate provision was made for water supply. Water had to be transported long distances on mule-back. When the mules carrying the water-bags reached the troops "the men would rush up to them in crowds just to lick the mois- ture that exuded through the canvas." In the hottest weather of August the sol- diers were reduced to a pint of water a day. Eventually an immense reservoir, with distributing pipes, was built in the Anzac region. In the same region during the following winter, troops from northern Australia, who had never before seen a snowstorm, were treated to severe bliz- zards, which caused much suffering and illness, as neither clothing nor shelter were appropriate for such weather.

Similar blunders have occurred in every war. The horrors of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow furnish a monumental example of what results from ignoring climate. In the year 1719, a Swedish army under General Arnfeldt was almost annihilated by cold weather on the moun- tainous frontier of Norway and Sw<>dp»^ Heavy rainfall and resulting flcoos led

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��Mud, mud, mud! Rivers of it — seas of it. The horses are up to their middles and a truck lies mired up ahead. Yet shells reach guns and the Allied advance is as relentless as Fate

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