France and WWI question

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've been reading a lot lately about World War I - the damp, the cold, the mud, the rats. Was it just that it was winter and the men were not outfitted properly or was it unusual weather for France? I've never been to France but I don't tend to think of it being esp. damp and cold there.

[KJB]

I think your description of the climate in the winter in the middle and northern parts of France is probably pretty accurate and not unusual.

[Laura Corin]

It's not American-Mid-West cold, but my experience of northern France, Belgium and The Netherlands was of chilly, misty rain. There's a big climatic difference between northern France (influenced by the Atlantic and English Channel) and the south (Mediterranean).

 

Laura

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you both. This helps my reading (or my comprehension of my reading, rather)!

[Sharon H in IL]

I like that counter-example: American Mid-West cold. The suffering would have been so much worse if northern France's climate had been like that of Missouri or Illinois. [shudder]

[Laura Corin]

I like that counter-example: American Mid-West cold. The suffering would have been so much worse if northern France's climate had been like that of Missouri or Illinois. [shudder]

 

A quick look at Google maps has me estimating northern France to be roughly on a latitude with the US/Canada border. The Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift are crucial to the climates of northern Europe.

 

Laura

[dirty ethel rackham]

Not just the Gulf Stream, but proximity to oceans and large seas have a mitigating effect on climate extemes. The Great Lakes have an effect on surrounding land, but not nearly as much as an ocean. Here in the Chicago area, Lake Michigan has an effect. In the summer it is cooler by the lake. In the winter, it is warmer by the lake (by a few degrees.) Areas southeast of the lake experiences "lake effect snow" which can be 6 inches or more than the surrounding communities.

[Soph the vet]

Several of the years of WWI were particularly cold and rainy/snowy, too. If you want a very good description, read Martin Gilbert's The Somme.

I'm going to check this one out. We are in the middle of WWI right now. We're reading "The Yanks are Coming" and my ds8 has commenced digging trenches in the front yard snow (more coming today).

[mcconnellboys]

To add to the problems of the weather, so many men living week upon week in those trenches just churned the quagmire into more of a mess than it would have been if left untouched. If you're familiar with farms, you'll know how cows will churn a low-lying area or any area that holds the least water after rain and the ground will get so messed up that even after it finally dries out, it takes forever for it to even out again and be easily walkable.... Rats will be attracted to refuse and there would have been tons of that, plus more warmth with all the men in the trenches, another attractor. For me, the thoughts of the fungal diseases, lice, and other such things they endured is the worst of it. Yuck.