Weather Case

Weather

Although temperatures on the Western Front were not as severe as the -40 degrees Celsius weather of the Eastern Front, temperatures were known to drop to -15 degrees Celsius, causing problems such as frostbite and later infection, not to mention making sleep nearly impossible. Winter supplies that "…these winters gave the men the most prolonged experience of cold, each night tested the men."

3 Squadron AFC Observer, Lt. Francis Joseph Tarrant wrote, in a letter to his mother, dated January 1st 1918, “We had no flying on Christmas Day, it was snowing all day…At present there is a very sharp freeze on. As I look out of my door, I can see a lot of French kids skating on the ice. All the pools are frozen hard”. Displaying the effect the weather had on all aspects of fighting on the Western Front during WW1. The Weather and the cold did not only affect the individual soldiers and the fighting condition of the Western Front, but also the surveillance tactics of both sides.

3SQN. (n.d.). Letters from the Western Front. Retrieved November 3, 2012, from 3 Squadron: http://www.3squadron.org.au/subpages/Tarrant.htm

Burrage, A. M. (2009, August 22). Memoirs & Diaries - War is War - Passchendaele. Retrieved November 3, 2012, from First World War: http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/burrage_06.htm

Butler A. C., 1943; Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, Vol III: P. 249.

Das, S. (2005). Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature. New York.

Cambridge University Press.

Dolden, AS, Cannon Dosser, Blandford Press, 1980, in Fewster, S, The First World War, Longman, Harlow, 1990, p. 25