Durschmied - The Weather Factor

ALSO BY ERIK DURSCHMIED

• THE HINGE FACTOR

Copyright 2000, 2012 by Erik Durschmied

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61145-439-0

eISBN: 978-1-62872-503-2

Printed in the United States of America

For William and Alexander

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS

An author, describing real events, does not work in a vacuum. His critique of events that have led to (sometimes avoidable) dramas builds on work that has come before him, from Latin scribes to contemporary reports, though often downplayed or suppressed. And yet, everything has been written upafter the event!

Some of the events, though relatively minor in scale, can compare by their historical impact to the truly massive battles of recent memory. So, for example, while the affair in the Teutoburger Wald of AD 9 saw some 40,000 warriors facing each other, during the Battle of Moscow in 1941, 40,000 cannons thundered, and millions of soldiers died. And yet, big or small, every one of these events produced a pivotal point to history.

I have solicited the advice of eminent present-day historians to guide me in my choice. Other accounts, such as that of the Roman Tacitus, are well recorded and may be found in major libraries. I wish to express my gratitude to the writers whose own efforts provided a valuable foundation and inspiration for my own, in particular the geostrategist Gen. Pierre Gallois (French Airforce, retired) and the West Point historian, Col. Ken Hamburger (US Army, retired), the former German commando leader, Col. Otto Skorzeny (deceased), the expert on Irish history, Robert Kee, the survivor of the terrible typhoon and skipper of the USS Dewey, Capt. Raymond Calhoun, (US Navy, retired). Their personal accounts were crucial in making this book a reality.

I would also like to thank the many members of the various research institutes I consulted, and without whose help such endeavour would have been impossible: Deutsches Historisches Institut (Paris), Japanese Cultural Institute (Tokyo), Bibliotheque de la Ville de Paris, Institut Neerlandais (Paris), Library of the US Military Academy (West Point), Archives Nationales (Paris), Archives of the Irish College (Paris), Militrgeschichtliche Forschungsabteilung (Vienna), and other research institutions.

... winds light to variable...

When it rains, everybody gets wet. Popular saying.

If you talk about the weather, everyone listens.

What kind of a day is it? asks the sweet voice as your alarm goes off. You climb out of bed, grope your way to the window, stare bleary-eyed up at grey clouds and down into puddles, and you groan. Its raining. Many others groan at the same time. The farmer because the rainstorm has flattened his wheatcrop, the young couple about to tie the knot who know that their garden party is off, or the general whos just been told that his tanks are mired in mud. Their day is truly spoiled.

... winds light to variable... The weather forecast has become the principal morning information for millions. A nations humour varies with the weather, especially for those who do not work in a sheltered environment. Fishermen, construction workers and bicycle racers, they all have to suffer the caprice of the weather god. As do soldiers. Not to forget the insurance executive who trembles at the mere thought of a flood. To him, policy-wise, any natural disaster

is simply referred to as an Act of God.

Acts of God and the weather have had their profound influence on history. From the destruction of Romes legions to the first atomic bomb, the list is endless. And will continue to be so in the future.

The old man stared up at the gathering clouds. Theres only one thing to do now.

And whats that? asked his wife. Pray.

Then the wind came and destroyed all that man had untiringly built.

The Bible tells us so An Act of God

And, behold, I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein [is] the breath of life, from under Heaven. Genesis 6:17

The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11

You must build a boat, the dog said to his master, and put in it all that you would save; for a great rain is coming that will flood the land. A tribal tale from the Cherokee Indians of America.

One may well imagine the excitement, on that day in Nineveh, in Babylonia, when the spade of an archaeologist struck a solid object and out came the first of a thousand clay tablets, bearing cuneiform writing. It had been lying undisturbed in the ground for thousands of years. In honour of a mythical Sumerian king who reigned around 3000 BC they bestowed on it the name, the Gilgamesh Epic. Could this be part of the original bible? What George Smith translated in 1872 turned out to be the first recorded description of Noah and the Flood:

... I caused to embark within the vessel all my family and my relations, the beasts of the field, the cattle of the field, the craftsmen, I made them all embark. I entered the vessel and closed the door...

From the foundations of heaven a black cloud arose...

All that is bright turned into darkness... For six days and nights wind and flood marched on, the storm subdued the land. When the seventh day dawned, the storm was abated, the flood which had waged war like an army, and all mankind was turned into mud .. .

Recent research points to a biblical flood as having taken place around 5600 BC, in the Black Sea region. At that time, a solid rock wall, the Bosphorus, blocked off an interior sweet water lake from the Mediterranean. A sudden change in temperaturesudden by the Earths clock, meaning several millenniumsled to the melting of the Eurasian ice sheet. This brought about a rise in the oceans water level and the Bosphorus barrier collapsed 7,600 years ago. Without restraint, water poured into the Black Sea at frightening speed. An area of some 155,000 square kilometres became inundated. The deluge forced families of hunters and gatherers to migrate as far south as Egypt and Babylon, and this explains how primitive northern tribes ended up in the biblical land of the pharaohs. The tale of their miraculous escape (in Noahs ark) was carried over from generation to generation, and eventually written up in Genesis and Gilgamesh.

Sudden changes in atmospheric conditions will lead to cataclysms; gales and floods, rainstorms and droughts, scorching heat and bitter cold, the list of natures calamities is endless. Struck by the unexpected, or unpredictable, the impact of violent weather fronts in combination with the colossal forces of nature unleashed against us, leads on to disaster. Suddenly the world we live in changes and man goes down on his knees to pray for divine assistance. Sometimes it is granted, more often not.