THE WAR

THE WEATHER

& GOD

 

by

 

G.F. Vallance

 

 

---------------o---------------o---------------

 

Chapter 5

 

 

 

 

 

First came the very mild Winter of 1942-43; but for which, our Coal situation would have been critical in the extreme.

 

          A leading article in the “Daily Press” at the time speaking of this period said:

 

“Moreover Major Lloyd George (Minister of Fuel and Power), had the good fortune to strike an exceptionally mild winter for his first appeal to the public.

 

Without the weather, we doubt whether even now the gap would have been closed.”

 

Thus the weather had its part, even on the Domestic and Home Front.

 

And the North Africa Campaign was not yet through. Alan Moorehead of the “Daily Express” wrote on March 20th, 1943:        

 

“Everyone here is fed up with the weather. You could not have got at the Germans today however hard you tried.

 

Just when things were going well, with Gafsa securely in our hands and the enemy clearing out of El Guettar, 15 miles further on, down came another drenching rainstorm in the night, and it has gone on intermittently ever since.

 

By 8 am we were all soaked.  By 10 o’clock the country from one end of Tunisia to the other was under heavy mud that sent vehicles skidding off the roads, bogged down tanks and chilled infantry to the bone.

 

I am sorry to keep harping on the weather, but just for the moment it has taken charge of the war.”

 

But 1943 had more in store.

 

In a Nation wide Broadcast after the 9 p.m. News on Thursday, July 15th, 1943, Commander Anthony Kimmins, R.N., said concerning the invasion of Sicily in which he took part:

 

          “By all the rules, one expects fine weather and a calm sea in the Mediterranean at this time of the year.  But now it suddenly started to blow – a real blow, half a gale – from the north-west.

 

This meant that many of the beaches would have little lee, the surf would be terrific, it would be almost impossible for our landing craft to force through.

 

          We prayed that with sunset the wind would drop, but as the sun dipped the wind seemed to grow stronger. In spite of all the elaborate preparations, here we were, at the mercy of the elements.

 

          Our Admiral had made a special point of warning the captains of the landing craft that their job was not only to land the soldiers safely, but to land them fit and well. Now, as we watched them rolling, our hearts went out to those ‘pongoes’ and the agony of sea-sickness many of them must be going through.

 

          As the darkness closed down and the ships ploughed on, I couldn’t help thinking of some of the miracles of weather which had already favoured us in this war: Dunkirk, North Africa. Perhaps three times was too much to expect.

 

          Then it happened.  With barely an hour and a half to go before zero hour, the wind suddenly dropped, the white horses disappeared, and the swell went down.  It was almost unbelievable. As people stared into the darkness it seemed miraculous.”

 

          Yes, it was all ‘BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER!”

 

Following Sicily, came the Invasion of Italy and Italy’s Capitulation in September 1943, but the story of the Weather remained the same.  It can best be summarized to date, by bringing our record up to the time of writing (May, 1944) when the Allied Armies seem once again to be held by “That Restraining Hand” at Cassino, as well as on the Anzio Beachhead.

 

In spite of one of the very heaviest Air Bombardments ever, linked with a terrific Artillery barrage, the shelling of the Monastry of Assino, and all that human effort could do, Cassino was not taken, and we had to fall back. What were the reports that came through concerning that part of the Campaign.  Well, first we quote the “Daily Mail,” of Feb. 12th, 1944, before the attack opened.

 

“The new flare-up in the beachhead coincided with a warning from President Roosevelt, who yesterday held his first military conference for some weeks, that a ‘very tense situation’ existed there.

 

The Allies control the sea and the air, he said, adding: We are praying for good weather, which would be quite a factor in deciding the issue, because it would facilitate aerial and naval operations in support of the beachhead.”

 

Mr. Roosevelt’s warning was reinforced by Mr. Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, who said in Ottawa:

 

“We are witnessing the possibility of terrible reverses in Italy that may prolong the war not for days or months but for years.”

 

Paul Bewsher, “Daily Mail” Special Correspondent at N. Africa H.Q., cabled last night (11th February, 1944) that “good weather would enable the Allies to throw every available light and heavy bomber into the attack and that such an onslaught might prove the decisive factor in breading the German assault.

 

The present bad weather, by hindering the full use of air power, enables the Germans to use their tanks more freely than would otherwise be possible.”

 

Six weeks later, the same paper reported on March 28th:

 

“With ground fighting in Cassino at a standstill ten days after the Allies opened their assault, it was disclosed for the first time that Indian Gurkha troops were the heroes of Hangman’s Hill.

 

The Gurkhas scrambled two-thirds of the way up the craggy heights of Monte Cassino  on the opening night of the big attack, when sudden torrential rains hampered their footing and disrupted the crispness and cohesion of their attack.”

 

Whilst two months before this, a well known M.P. had asked the Prime Minister in Parliament if he were aware

 

“Of the false optimism in a recent speech by General Montgomery, in which he indicated the probability of the early capture of Rome.”

 

To which Mr. Churchill replied:

          “I don’t know about false optimism. There has been a lot of bad weather.”

 

So January, February and March 1944 still told the same story, as had been told since those days of Dunkirk 1940, and before; yet when the Home Secretary was asked, by Mr. R. Duckworth, M.P., in the House of Commons in March 1944 for another “Day of Prayer” before the opening of the Second Front he replied that “the Government did not see their way to adopt the suggestion of another day of National Prayer before the opening of the Second Front.”

 

As this booklet goes to Press (May 24th, 1944), that “Great Event” still remains an unrevealed secret, but the increasing realization that its success will largely depend upon  “The Weather,” can well be judged by the following extracts from the Daily Press of the past few days:

 

The “Daily Express” of the 1st of May said:

 

         “The Generals and Statesmen won’t decide it.  Some unhonoured, unsung men, sitting in a chart covered room, will nominate the actual day-without knowing it.  They are the Met. Men. Officially; they are  the Central Forecast Branch of the Meteorological Office.  Upon their skill and judgment may depend the fate of our landings in Europe.

 

General Eisenhower has asked for their prophecies for weeks ahead.  They will be given to him in general pictures to cover whole periods, and also for each succeeding day.

 

When the winds and tides are just right, Invasion Day may be at hand.

 

Point to remember is that the ‘Met. Men’ deal not with exactitudes but probabilities.

         

          That is the human element in the meteorological science.  It isn’t that they go wrong very often. But sudden changes in weather conditions do sometimes upset the forecasts.

 

Landings begun might be suddenly interrupted by the weather. The steady flow of reinforcements and equipment might suddenly be drastically curtailed.

 

          The weather is master of the strategy.”

 

Whilst the same paper reported on May 9th:

 

          “Western Europe has been dried and hardened for the Allied Invasion armies by the finest spring for fifty years.  This is the big weather news, as the Second Front approaches.

 

          Together they form a picture of a Continent parched by unseasonal months of sunshine even more than it was when Hitler struck four years ago tomorrow.  And they offer a pattern of ‘invasion weather’ which is essential to the timing and progress of Allied strategy.

                   

          Already, thanks in great part to the record spring, the Allied Air Forces have been able in the last two months to destroy more than 2,000 German planes in the air, and to drop nearly 150,000 tons of bombs on West Wall targets.

 

That is a softening up process which could never have been achieved without dry air bases and outstanding visibility over the Channel.

 

This is the sort of weather for which Allied Airmarshals were praying in Mid-March, when a spokesman said, ‘If only we can have sixty fine days.’ Since then, fifty fine days have passed.”

 

Yet, fully realizing all this, official recognition of the NEED of another day of National Prayer is not deemed necessary or advisable.

 

Is it, that we trust alone to our own strength to overwhelm the enemy and to gain the Victory?  One can only wonder, and regret that such a decision has been made.

 

Thank God, others set apart April 23rd, 1944 as a Day of National Prayer, and most of our Chapels and Churches as well as those in U.S.A. are to be opened for Prayer and Intercession as soon as the Invasion commences for which we truly thank God, but it would have been better and much more effective if it could have been done at the Government’s behest.  Perhaps then, No Second Front would have been necessary at all!

 

We can only leave the matter in God’s all wise hands, and pray individually that He will deal mercifully with us and according to His gracious purposes.

 

How true are the words of Gen. Anderson:

         

“Sometimes we are apt to take credit to ourselves for our accomplishments and not to thank the Almighty enough for His part.  There is a great spiritual force, as well as physical forces, at work in our army in this war.”

 

 

----0---0----