| If, at some future veterans' convention, the uniformed | | | | Indeed, weather was most unkind to Napoleon, and it is |
| weathermen of World War II get to swap | | | | not a little ironic that an important American weather |
| experiences, their tales easily can hold their own with | | | | station was established at St. Helena, the tiny South |
| hair-raisers from any other branch of the service. The | | | | Atlantic Island where the French Emperor spent the |
| "Mets", as they were called, can jingle plenty of medals, | | | | last six years of his life. The station was small, but its |
| and, as for variety-few other outfits will be able to | | | | reports helped formulate the forecasts for the busy |
| match the meteorologists. They traveled by snow | | | | Air Transport Command routes between South |
| tractor and dog team to Greenland's frigid ice cap, and | | | | America and Africa. Both sides in the recent war |
| they carried their own equipment through torrid jungles | | | | employed weather as a weapon. The Germans took |
| of the South Pacific. They parachuted into the Balkans | | | | advantage of the unusually good dry weather that |
| ahead of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy. They | | | | prevailed in Europe during the summer of 1939, when |
| jumped with the airborne spearheads on D-day in | | | | they rolled westward through France, Belgium and |
| Normandy. They flew in one-man fighters ahead of | | | | Holland. |
| regular bombing formations, and they rode in B-29s | | | | In 1943 they sent their great ships, Gneisenau and |
| over Tokyo. Weather is a vitally important factor in | | | | Scharnhorst, slipping from the port of Brest through the |
| modern warfare. | | | | English Channel to more secure hiding places while |
| But accurate weather forecasting for military purposes | | | | squally, foggy conditions, and an exceptionally low icing |
| is a recent thing. Alexander and Caesar depended on | | | | level for aircraft held the British navy and the RAF |
| prayers and libations to bring favorable weather for | | | | helpless to stop them. Later still, the Germans launched |
| their campaigns. Weather forecasts in those days | | | | their Belgian Bulge counterattack and breakthrough at |
| were still in the chief magician's department. A | | | | a time when fog, haze and low-hanging clouds kept |
| thousand years later bad weather probably killed as | | | | the Allied airmen on the ground. Commanders fumed, |
| many Crusaders as did the scimitars of the Moslems, | | | | pilots chewed their nails, and weathermen scanned |
| although history often ignores weather. Spain's proud | | | | their instruments anxiously. Meanwhile, the German |
| armada came to grief in 1588 when a storm struck it in | | | | panzer units, set in motion because of weather |
| the English Channel. Napoleon disregarded the severity | | | | information from their own lines but the Ally's roared |
| of Russian winters and left most of his army frozen | | | | out to blast supply and communications lines, leaving |
| on the road to and from Moscow. Later a rainstorm | | | | the powerful German advance disintegrated into |
| hampered his artillery and lost him the Battle of | | | | chaos. |
| Waterloo. | | | | |
