Howard - Sun, Sand and Survival: An Analysis of Survival Experiences in Desert Areas

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Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.

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SUN, SAND and SURVIVAL

An Analysis of Survival Experiences in Desert Areas

by

Richard A. Howard, Ph.D.

ADTIC Consultant

Contents

Desert survival presents unique problems not met in other non-temperate areas. Recognizing this, the Arctic, Desert, Tropic Information Center commissioned Dr. Richard A. Howard to assemble and analyze desert survival experiences of World War II, for the purpose of increasing our knowledge of desert survival techniques and procedures. To know what World War II survivors did, what they thought, and what they recommended after having experienced desert survival conditions is of paramount importance. Sun, Sand and Survival relates and evaluates these experiences.

Dr. Howard, ADTIC consultant, has had long experience in the survival training of military personnel. He is the author of the ADTIC Publication T-100 999 Survived which analyzes 1,000 tropical survival experiences. Dr. Howards desert study analyzes 382 successful desert survival episodes and mention is made of an additional 142 individuals who were lost. The stories show how men without desert background or mental conditioning met their desert problems. They include examples of men who left their group and were never heard of again. In the light of our present knowledge of the water requirements of the human body, we know that many could have survived had they had a better understanding of the requirements imposed by the desert. More survivors would have returned in better health and endured less discomfort if advance knowledge had been readily available.

Sun, Sand and Survival will contribute materially to the briefing of pilots and crews who operate over desert terrain. It gives first-hand in-formation on what to expect in a great variety of desert areas. It shows definitely that deserts are not all alike. Used in connection with ADTIC Publication D-100 Afoot in the Desert and Air Force Manual 64-5 Survival , it gives the reader a thorough grasp of techniques and procedures of desert survival.

PAUL H. NESBITT

Chief, ADTIC

The military operations of the United States Air Force over desert terrain took place primarily in the opening phases of World War II. At that time our forces were scarcely organized for the activities they were to undertake. Briefing for desert operations was inadequate; survival training had not been organized; survival manuals were not yet written; emergency equipment was not available either to be carried in the aircraft or to be dropped to survivors on the ground; and rescue organizations to locate and return the survivors were still to be formed. However, men flew over deserts and some of them came down on desert terrain and walked home to tell about it. The experiences of these desert survivors have now been studied and it is felt that analysis of these experiences will give some indication of what problems men must face in desert emergencies.

This study is a topical approach to the problem of desert survival. The stories forming the basis of this study represent first-hand experiences of men who walked the desert. The things these men saw, the problems they faced, the hazards they endured, and their adaptations, improvisations and solutions to their problems will be considered under such topics as navigation, health, rest, shelter, and hazards of the environment. This study has been requested by the Directorate of Requirements of the United States Air Forces. It is hoped that the study will prove useful not only to the program of instruction in survival procedures conducted by the USAF throughout its field of operation but to operating units of the Air Rescue Service, the preparation of rescue kits and materials, and the compilation of survival manuals and specific information on areas where the USAF operates today. I have tried to prepare a readable account of what the airmen of 1940-43 endured in the desert with the knowledge that todays fliers can learn from the difficulties as well as the determination, stamina, and ingenuity of the men who lived these stories.

The British Air Force in conjunction with units from New Zealand and South Africa began military operations against the Italians in the desert areas of East Africa in 1940. These operations spread to the western deserts in North Africa against the combined Axis forces the following year. With the entry of the United States into this global conflict, small units of the AAF joined the Desert Air Force in North Africa and were incorporated into the DAF. Urgency demanded that many of these American units receive their desert training co-operatively, and it was only after several months of such training that the Ninth Air Force was established as an independent operational unit. With the invasion of Morocco and Tunisia the USAF came into its own as an operational force and remained that way until the defeat of the Axis forces in North Africa. The Allied air units, operating from the east and the west, experienced desert conditions of the most severe type. In addition to the fighting units the transport planes of the Air Transport Command also flew routes over some desert areas in Africa.

The desert was left behind as an active theatre of operational warfare when the attack shifted to southern Europe and the invasion of Europe began in Sicily in 1943. From 1943 until the end of the war in Europe, only a few outfits operated over desert areas.

The desert training center in southwestern United States was not used to any great extent by the USAF in preparation for the war in North Africa. Only a few survival stories have been gleaned from training operations over the North American deserts.

IT is considered desirable to limit the scope of this study to experiences of military men, primarily Air Force or flying personnel. A great deal has been written about desert areas by explorers and commercial travelers who have had emergency experiences in deserts. However, all of these men had a background for the area and were mentally if not physically prepared for the desert. It is felt they would not represent the same sample as the airmen or soldiers who survived in the desert.

The period during which these events occurred was also unusual, but one that was to be expected in wartime. The number of men and vehicles operating in the desert regions was certainly abnormally large. The chances of encountering patrols or attracting passing military aircraft represented conditions not duplicated by explorers who were isolated. Military men, for example, who could often depend on water from the radiators of abandoned vehicles in the desert or who found rations on the vast sands of the desert certainly had a different set of chances of survival than the casual traveler of today or a generation ago. For these reasons the stories considered in this study are the experiences of Air Force personnel as they occurred in wartime.