Is the weather always neutral in war? Ike didn’t think so

On the eve of D-Day, let’s talk about war, not love (and put Burns’ “Red, Red Rose” in the back burner). Weather was very much involved in war, Normandy invasion was no exception and it is neutral. Ike disagreed, he wrote, “Some soldier once said, ‘The weather is always neutral.’ Nothing could be more untrue.” In Tunis, Italy, France, and Germany, mud was a formidable barrier to Allied advances (see photo).

Ike was worried about the weather for D-Day 21 months before the event; he wrote to Patton on September 5, 1942, “I am searching the Army to find the most capable chaplain to assure a fairly descent break in the weather when the big day comes.”

The final conference of D-Day preparation took place on May 15, 1944; King George VI, Churchill and generals by the score were there. All set to go; the day and time to attack was in the hands of the weather. Ike needed the darkness (night) to conceal the greatest armada (4000 ships and several thousand smaller crafts), the moon light for air bombardment (11,000 first-line aircrafts), and low tide so that Rommel’s beach obstacles could be exposed and removed.

Ike met with the Meteorologic Committee twice a day (9:30 PM and 4AM); let’s not forget the ‘weather men’ were our heroes, too.

German meteorologists were convinced June 5-7 couldn’t be the days of attack; German Field Marshal von Rundstedt had stated that the Allies would need four consecutive days of good weather for a cross-Channel assault and no such four day clear weather was forecast. Rommel went home on June 4 for his daughter’s [Lucie] birthday. German navy thought the seas too rough to send out their patrol boats. The German defenders knew the long-waited attack had begun when the first shots were fired at them.

Lawrence Cancelmi the weather is NEVER neutral in battle....napoleon would attest with conviction....history should have taught the german army to always think of the weather, and in two instances they failed to read the opponent's manner of utilizing the climate....al stewart's road to moscow descrides the battle of stalingrad very well, including general gudarian.[inventor of the 'blitzkrieg'] to the exile of many of the russian army to siberia for being prisoners of the german army