22
BAMOS June 2017
Article
Weather , climate and warfare : the impacts of weather and climate on deaths in the Australian Military
Clem Davis , clem . davis @ anu . edu . au Hon . Lecturer , ANU and retired Bureau Meteorologist . Volunteer guide Australian War Memorial ( AWM )
The impact of weather and climate on the deaths suffered by the Australian Army over different wars can be divided into two areas : those who died in battle ( how much did weather and climate affect these battles ?) and those who died of disease and illness . For instance , one reason why the Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) actually took part at Gallipoli was due to the weather in England . The AIF was on its way to England when it was passing through the Suez Canal . The authorities suddenly realized that the facilities would not be available for the AIF to handle a British winter so they were offloaded in Cairo instead ( Bean , 1941a , pp 111 – 112 ).
While Killed in Action or Died of Wounds remain the most significant percentage of deaths suffered by Australians in war , the impact of disease and illness on the strength of our armies have a considerable effect and are possibly under-reported . Not only do the hospitalisation rates affect the strength of armies but the deaths through illness and disease also reflect a considerable percentage of the overall deaths .
Conditions at Gallipoli were terrible and resulted in considerable medical issues with respect to disease and illness ( Bean , 1941b , Vol 1 Part 1 chapters XII , XVI and XVII ) and the impact of climate and weather on these issues was considerable . Poor food , poor hygiene and dead bodies in summer resulted in flies by the billion and such diseases as enteric fever and dysentery were rife . When winter set in , there were respiratory diseases and frost bite . Nearly half of the men who served at Gallipoli were evacuated at some point in time as a result of being a casualty or through disease and illness . Around 25 % of all the deaths at Gallipoli that occurred after 9 August ( end of the attack at Lone Pine ) were due to disease and illness ( Davis , 2015 ). Over the whole Gallipoli campaign and especially after the battle of Lone Pine more men were evacuated as a result of disease and illness than from being wounded ( Bean , 1941b , Vol 1 Part 1 pp 346 – 348 ). In fact the admission rate to hospital for disease and illness for the AIF overseas for the whole of 1915 was 1456 / thousand / year ( Bean , 1941b , Vol 1 Part 1 pp 451 ). During the winter of 1916 / 17 on the Western Front , 20 % of all the deaths in the AIF were a result of disease and illness ( Davis , unpublished research ). How many of these deaths may have been related to the severe winter ? Analysis of available temperature data from
Paris to Oxford indicates that this winter was the coldest winter in the region for 22 years ( Davis , unpublished research ).
Epidemics spread rapidly through men massed together and living cheek by jowl . Poor hygiene , poor food and poor physical conditions of the men all have their impact on the spread of such epidemics , and the efforts by the Medical Corps to address these issues can be found in the Official Histories of both WWI and WWII as available on the AWM website . Yet , one of the main reasons for both the direct and indirect impacts of disease and illness is largely not mentioned : the role of weather and climate .
For instance , in the Boer War — which is our third largest war in relation to deaths — just over 600 men died out of an estimated 16,000 volunteers with around half dying of illness and disease , particularly typhoid and cholera . While it can be considered that these diseases can be influenced by the weather and climate , I have not been able to find any significant research on this impact .
Similarly , the impact of weather and climate during the following conflicts in which Australia has been involved is an area for considerable further research . In WWI , the severe winter of 1916 / 17 in the Western Front , the fighting in the desert , the rates of malaria in the Jordan Valley in 1918 and the outbreak of Spanish Flu in 1918 could all have been influenced by the weather and climate . In WWII there was the desert , aviation , the jungles and the possible effects on Prisoners of War that need to be investigated . In Korea it was of course the severe winters while in Vietnam it was back to tropical weather , especially during the monsoon season .
While such discussion is better left for academic studies , in this article I would like to relate the stories of some of those people who may have died as a result of weather and climate either directly or indirectly .