View Full Version : Ever wonder about the temps at famous battles?
D-Day: 59 F (water temp was 54 F, that's freaking COLD azz chit to wade through, considering that many were totally submerged in it)
Iwo Jima: 68 F
Dak To/ Hill 875 (Central Highlands of Vietnam, Nov. '67): 95 F during the day, down to as low as 55 F at night
Gettysburg: Day 1 was 76 F, Day 2 was 81 F, and Day 3 was 86 F (still pretty warm for wool uniforms!)
Holy shit I had no idea D Day was that cold.
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Holy shit I had no idea D Day was that cold.
Yeah, and with the water that damn cold it'd be awhile before you warmed up! Of course having 88mm and 8mm rounds zipping and blasting all around you might take your mind off of it a bit. Adrenalin and all.
Gotta figure Normandy is right across from southern England, so latitude isn't favorable for warm temps, even in early June.
Iwo Jima: 68 F
Given it's location, that's surprising. Most Pacific conflicts were hot, humid and mostly miserable tropical locations.
Don’t take this bad but it is October and 97 degrees in GA so funk all dat
/surliness
The_War_Wagon
10-04-19, 19:20
Gettysburg I knew about. Hiked BOTH the Billy Yank & Johnny Reb trails in ONE day - with a buncha Cub Scouts - 22 years ago, about this same time (early October).
It was 89 that day - PLENTY hot in a Scout uniform (short sleeves and shorts!). I could only IMAGINE those dark BLUE uniforms in July... http://www.whitegryphon.com/Smileys/faintthud.gif
No, but definitely interesting. Thanks!
FromMyColdDeadHand
10-04-19, 20:29
Given it's location, that's surprising. Most Pacific conflicts were hot, humid and mostly miserable tropical locations.
At Iwo Jima Air Base, the summers are long, hot, oppressive, wet, and overcast; the winters are comfortable and mostly clear; and it is windy year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 65°F to 87°F and is rarely below 62°F or above 89°F.
Surprised me.
crusader377
10-04-19, 20:55
Here are some other battlefield temperatures:
Battle of Moscow 1941-42: lowest recorded temperature: -49 F
Battle of the Chosin 1950: -35 F
Napoleon's Invasion of Russia" -40 F
Surprised me.
Gotta figure Iwo was invaded in February of 1945, and it was hardly a tropical jungle island (in the sense that it didn't lie within the tropic lines). It's latitude is roughly the same as the Bahamas, so it wouldn't be unheard of for a 68 F day during the winter months.
Don’t take this bad but it is October and 97 degrees in GA so funk all dat
/surliness
Yeah, it was 99 here two days ago. Hottest day on record for October in TN period.
Here are some other battlefield temperatures:
Battle of Moscow 1941-42: lowest recorded temperature: -49 F
Battle of the Chosin 1950: -35 F
Napoleon's Invasion of Russia" -40 F
I didn't go with the lowest numbers. Your point is very valid, in fact more valid physiologically than those I mentioned. Sure, 110 F with some humidity will kill your ass in extreme situations, but not as quickly as hypothermia.
Thanks for the cold input!
Don’t take this bad but it is October and 97 degrees in GA so funk all dat
/surliness
I'm visiting GA in a few weeks. Get your shit together before I come.
I'm visiting GA in a few weeks. Get your shit together before I come.
It’s hot as unholy Hell. But okay
It’s hot as unholy Hell. But okay
Same all the way to North Alabama, at least. 95 today, but we are supposed to cool off and get some welcome rain tonight/tomorrow. I have been here for about 17 years and have never seen it so dry here.
Andy
D-Day: 59 F (water temp was 54 F, that's freaking COLD azz chit to wade through, considering that many were totally submerged in it)
Iwo Jima: 68 F
Dak To/ Hill 875 (Central Highlands of Vietnam, Nov. '67): 95 F during the day, down to as low as 55 F at night
Gettysburg: Day 1 was 76 F, Day 2 was 81 F, and Day 3 was 86 F (still pretty warm for wool uniforms!)
I have to admit, of all the stuff I have thought about, that was no one of them, but additional data points of interest! I only thought about that variable where it was clearly part of the misery they faced like the Ardennes Counteroffensive as it was obviously damn cold.
My Grandpa told me that he was never more cold in his life than he was in Korea, and that was after he was in The Battle of the Bulge.
My Grandpa told me that he was never more cold in his life than he was in Korea, and that was after he was in The Battle of the Bulge.
Holy shit. Those were both some cold-ass environments. IIRC both the Bulge and Chosin had not-usual extremely cold fronts/winter blasts moving through when the fighting occurred, i.e. it got cold as hell in both places normally in the winter, but as chance would have it majorly cold winter weather hit during those battles.
I have to admit, of all the stuff I have thought about, that was no one of them, but additional data points of interest! I only thought about that variable where it was clearly part of the misery they faced like the Ardennes Counteroffensive as it was obviously damn cold.
Given the long, dry, high temps for the past few weeks I started wondering about how hot/cold it was during major U.S. battles.
For instance, you always hear about storming the beach on D-Day. It's June, right? Should be tolerable. Then you dig a little and see the high that day was 59 F and the water was 54 F. If you stayed in it that long you *technically* could die of hypothermia (more likely the German 8's and 88's would've got you first). Or how I've always read where Gettysburg was approaching 100 F (somewhere in the 90's), a scorching July stretch. It turns out that the first few days in July of 1863 were actually not that bad for southern Pennsylvania in July.
There are quite a few people on here who are into minutia, myself included. Thought it would interesting to spread it around!
That's why "We Were Soldiers" is one of my favorite films about Vietnam.
Started off honest, "Fing grass...Fing heat." Bad enough to fight a war, but if the shit starts and I'm filling like an armpit or it's so cold I can't feel my hands, then somebody needs to call "time out."
There were days where I felt like I was gonna drop just mowing my lawn in August.
Coal Dragger
10-06-19, 01:06
Don’t take this bad but it is October and 97 degrees in GA so funk all dat
/surliness
Not looking forward to my Atlanta trip in November at all.
We had a platoon field exercise on top of a South Korean mountain in February and my canteens froze solid while I was wearing them. That's pretty cold, but with Mickey Mouse boots and the Army's modern cold weather gear, I didn't suffer too much. The folks who had only lived in the South thought they would freeze to death in our heated tents.
I remember reading a book by a Korean War vet who said the nights felt like they would never end and seeing the sun come up was a gift because it meant you survived until dawn.
Andy
I knew a WW2 vet who was an aircraft mechanic in the pacific theater.
He said it was so hot for so long that when it dropped down into the lower 90s, they would get cold and put on warm clothing.
I hate the cold.... and I grew up near Buffalo. The grit of those who came before us is truly remarkable, truly. I don’t think I’d have cut it.
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I knew a vet who landed in France fall of 1944.
He got off a nice warm luxury liner that had been converted to a troop ship and started sleeping in a tent. He said he was more afraid of the cold than the bullets
MountainRaven
10-07-19, 15:17
D-Day: 59 F (water temp was 54 F, that's freaking COLD azz chit to wade through, considering that many were totally submerged in it)
I remember listening about the actors in Saving Private Ryan complaining about being hot in their heavy, wet wool uniforms. Which makes me think that they weren't filming in June in northern Europe.
Still, worth remembering that most GIs were wearing wool uniforms. Wool is remarkably good at insulating, even when wet. Plus they were wearing wool-lined Parsons- or tanker jackets and many of them had assault vests (which would mostly get discarded by July for being too heavy and too hot).
So the biggest issue, I think, would just be the weight of a wet woolen uniform. Plus the cold working its way up through the metal of the landing craft, through the rubber and leather boots and into your feet kept warm solely by thick wool socks....
Further, the liberation of Paris occurred in August of 1944, and the average high in Paris in August is something like 78°F. By which point, US troops were performing amphibious assaults in southern France and the rest of August and the first part of September was basically spent trying to keep up with retreating German armies. And the next major offensive in the West wasn't until the middle of September, by which time temps in Europe are starting to fall again (average highs in Nijmegen in September are 67°F - Arnhem is usually a bit cooler).
titsonritz
10-07-19, 15:44
Washington's boys dealt with temperatures that ranges from 29 degrees to 33 degrees for their Delaware crossing, with brisk winds coming out of the northeast. Two soldiers died of hypothermia before reaching the Christmas Day battle the next morning and young Jocko Graves had frozen to death in the spot where he was ordered to stand watch with the lantern still burning in his clenched frozen hand. Washington was so moved by the boy’s dedication that he commissioned a statue of “The Faithful Groomsman” to stand in honor of Graves at the General’s estate in Mt. Vernon.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/graves-jocko-1764-1776/
The winter war
The winter of 1939–40 was exceptionally cold with the Karelian Isthmus experiencing a record low temperature of −43 °C (−45 °F) on 16 January 1940.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War#Weather_conditions
I remember listening about the actors in Saving Private Ryan complaining about being hot in their heavy, wet wool uniforms. Which makes me think that they weren't filming in June in northern Europe.
Still, worth remembering that most GIs were wearing wool uniforms. Wool is remarkably good at insulating, even when wet. Plus they were wearing wool-lined Parsons- or tanker jackets and many of them had assault vests (which would mostly get discarded by July for being too heavy and too hot).
So the biggest issue, I think, would just be the weight of a wet woolen uniform. Plus the cold working its way up through the metal of the landing craft, through the rubber and leather boots and into your feet kept warm solely by thick wool socks....
Further, the liberation of Paris occurred in August of 1944, and the average high in Paris in August is something like 78°F. By which point, US troops were performing amphibious assaults in southern France and the rest of August and the first part of September was basically spent trying to keep up with retreating German armies. And the next major offensive in the West wasn't until the middle of September, by which time temps in Europe are starting to fall again (average highs in Nijmegen in September are 67°F - Arnhem is usually a bit cooler).
Does France count as Northern Europe? Either way could just have been a hot day/week. June 6 2019 Normandy France was 85°. June 5th was 90° and 7th was 88° The year before it was 59° Or maybe they didn't film in June. Or late June. This year it was in the 90s
MountainRaven
10-07-19, 21:32
Does France count as Northern Europe? Either way could just have been a hot day/week. June 6 2019 Normandy France was 85°. June 5th was 90° and 7th was 88° The year before it was 59° Or maybe they didn't film in June. Or late June. This year it was in the 90s
Northwestern Europe. Sorry.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Northwestern_Europe_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg/1024px-Northwestern_Europe_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg.png
D-Day: 59 F (water temp was 54 F, that's freaking COLD azz chit to wade through, considering that many were totally submerged in it)
As many times as I have read or watched something about D-Day, I have never given a thought to the water temperature...those were some hard men.
Here are some other battlefield temperatures:
Battle of Moscow 1941-42: lowest recorded temperature: -49 F
Battle of the Chosin 1950: -35 F
Napoleon's Invasion of Russia" -40 F
Hard to fathom that. Those temps are not fit, for man nor beast.
As many times as I have read or watched something about D-Day, I have never given a thought to the water temperature...those were some hard men.
A lot of them got sea sick and threw up their breakfasts before getting dunked.
A lot of them got sea sick and threw up their breakfasts before getting dunked.
I’d be all types of sick.
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