1941: Geography

Geographic factors, both directly and indirectly, are playing a major role in the progress and direction of present military and naval action in the second World War. Intensity of military activity rises and falls and changes locality with the procession of the seasons, assuming major importance in one theater when seasonal conditions make movement easiest, and battle most advantageous there; and then as the weather changes, the force of the struggle dies down in that particular area, only to flare up elsewhere under weather conditions more favorable for successful operation of armed forces.

Geographic Factors in the German Campaign in Russia.

One of the best illustrations of the importance of climate in military campaigns is the rapid advance of the German army into Russia from the Murmansk peninsula on the north to the Black Sea on the south, while open conditions of summer and autumn were most favorable for the kind of aggression in which it was so skilled; and its subsequent hasty withdrawal almost to the point of rout when weather conditions became so inclement that it could no longer maintain its successful type of offensive. The Russians, well accustomed to rigorous winter were able to turn that same inclemency to their own advantage in pushing back the Germans and defeating them in every major engagement. The Germans, realizing the disadvantage under which they were maintaining their Russian front, turned their primary attention, and diverted vast numbers of troops and great quantities of equipment toward Mediterranean shores where winter weather is much more conducive to health of men and successful military strategy, than it is on the bleak steppes of Russia. Their troops and their equipment were both much more effective in Mediterranean winter conditions than they were in the Arctic conditions that prevailed at the time on the great plains of Russia. In the Russian cold German airplanes were seriously handicapped in their offensive activity, troop movement was exceedingly difficult, and health and morale of the German soldiers suffered severely. The German campaign in Russia in the winter of 1941-42, duplicated on a larger scale but in a lesser degree, the experiences that Napoleon's army barely survived in its retreat from Moscow.

Another very important geographic factor in the Russian campaign as it developed was the barrier effect of the rivers. At almost every river the Russians were able to make a stand against the rapid German advance and slaughter their enemy by thousands as they attempted the exposed crossings of the rivers. Again and again the Russians, holding the enemy on river banks, gained sufficient respite from the pursuing Germans to save their armies from encirclement and destruction. Lacking any high mountain bastions where they might make a stand, the Russians made their rivers chief barrier to the mechanized movement of the Germans. The so-called 'blitzkrieg' which had won so many complete successes for the Germans elsewhere in western Europe, was so slowed down by the rivers of Russia that it was no longer irresistible as it had been in France, the Low Countries, and the Balkans.

In this delay of the German forces, river barriers were supplemented by the loessial soils. In the black silt soils of Russia, which become a sea of mud with every rain and melting snow, the mechanized units of the German army found it almost impossible to move forward swiftly until winter freezing began, and hardened the mud. The Russians, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, their knowledge of their winter climate and the adaptations that had to be made to it, and their long experience with mud, were able first to slow down the German advance, then to stop it, and finally, as winter developed its full intensity, to take the offensive themselves and push the Germans back from territory that they had won earlier at heavy expense of men and munitions. The forbidding character of the Russian land as well as the fanatic love of the people for Mother Russia defeated the German purpose, and expectation of quick conquest.

Military Strategy in the Balkan Mountains.

The Balkans afford an example of the effect of mountainous relief upon military strategy. Throughout Yugoslavia particularly, guerrilla warfare has been eminently successful in sustained opposition by rebellious elements of the native population against German occupation. Again and again organized groups of guerrillas have emerged from their mountain fastnesses in the rough country of the Dinaric Alps and the Rhodope Massif and their rugged spurs, and deployed themselves against the forces of occupation, sometimes with marked success. Only by utmost vigilance and exertion have the Germans and Italians been able to retain their grasp upon the Balkan area with all its advantages for rebellion. Just as the Russian campaign so clearly illustrates the influence of weather and climate upon military activity, so do the Balkans reveal the effect of high relief and rugged terrain.

Geographical Elements in the Pacific.

Problems of military and naval strategy in the Pacific are of a wholly different character, affected almost entirely by the elemental factor of distance. Despite the almost incredible improvements in transportation and communication of the last quarter century, distance remains a vital factor in the development of the Pacific war between Japan on the one hand and the United States and her allies on the other. Because of her relative proximity to the Philippines, Malaya, and the East Indies as compared with United States and Britain, Japan was enabled to strike first and with almost overpowering effect against the scattered bases of the Allied forces. Having once gained initial superiority, she increasingly exploited her advantage in the matter of distance. As the campaign progressed the effect of distance became increasingly disadvantageous to the allies and increasingly favorable to Japan. It became more difficult for the allies to move up reinforcements and equipment and maintain their lines of supply and communication, whereas it was easier and safer for Japan to establish and support her advanced forces. Because the Japanese, fully aware of their exposed and open position had duly considered distance and provided against its disadvantages, the Allies were forced to change their whole strategy after the battle of Pearl Harbor, the landing of Japanese forces successfully upon the Philippines and in Malaya, the relatively easy occupation of Hongkong, and the successful establishment of Japanese bases in Borneo, Celebes, and other islands in the west Pacific. Long-range Japanese bombers supported by fighting planes based upon landing fields quickly established and conveniently distributed, early achieved the mastery of the air and the sea as well. Just as climate in Russia, rugged relief in the Balkans, and favorable weather in the Mediterranean have been important elements in the European campaigns, so has distance given Japan her early superiority in the Pacific War.

The most encouraging element in the situation of the United States and her allies is their undoubted superiority of resources, strategic location, and geographic advantages. Utilized to the full by competent and well-trained men, these factors of superiority should turn the tide of war to final victory for the democracies. Though threatened by the growing efficiency of air attack, the naval forces of Britain and American retain their dominance of oceans of the world. The influence of sea power upon history, outlined forty years ago by Capt. A. T. Mahan of the United States Navy, remains still effective though greatly modified by air power.

As a consequence of all this play of geographic factors in the war, and the problems arising from the war, there has been renewed and accelerated activity on the part of geographers throughout the world, and particularly in the United States. The whole American public, for example, as must be the case with the rest of the peoples of the world, has become acutely conscious of how vital it is to have a thorough understanding of geographic fact and geographic relationship. As never before, too, economics, history, sociology, political science, and international relations must be interpreted largely through the medium of geography. By incredible improvements in the means of transportation and communication distance has been broken down as a barrier among the nations of the world, and all the peoples and all the lands of the earth have become one intimately associated neighborhood, wherein none can be sufficient unto himself.

Geographical Organizations and Publications.

In America the Association of American Geographers, that small but highly trained group of professional geographers who have devoted themselves to assiduously to the facts and principles of their science, has taken the lead, so far as geographic knowledge is concerned, in mustering the man and mind power available for use by the nation in this crisis. The services of many of its most capable members have been requisitioned by the Government, and practically every member is making some definite contribution to basic preparations for defense and ultimate victory. At its annual convention in New York, Dec. 29-31, inclusive, the Society devoted itself primarily to discussion of war problems and the most effective methods of solving them. Prof. J. Russell Smith of Columbia University was elected president to take the place of Prof. Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto; Prof. Nels Bengtson of Nebraska University was elected vice-president to succeed Prof. W. Elmer Ekblaw of Clark University; Prof. Ralph H. Brown of the University of Minnesota was elected secretary to succeed Prof. Preston E. James of the University of Michigan who has assumed charge of the Latin Division of the Office of Coordinator of Information; Prof. Guy-Harold Smith of Ohio State University was reelected treasurer; and Prof. Robert B. Hall, of the University of Michigan was elected to succeed Prof. Lewis F. Thomas of Washington University, as director to serve three years. Prof. Derwent Whittlesey of Harvard University continues as editor of the official organ of the Association, Annals of the Association of American Geographers. The Annals has published four numbers the past year, all of them with a rich content of basic geographic material, chiefly by members of the Association. Such important articles as 'Geography and the Defense of the Caribbean and the Panama Canal,' by G. S. Bryan; 'The Defense of Greenland,' by William H. Hobbs; 'Alaska in Relation to National Defense,' by Johnson E. Fairchild; 'Petroleum Utilization in Peacetime and in Wartime,' by John W. Frey, help to demonstrate the trend of thought within the Association.

The National Geographic Society of Washington continued its praiseworthy popularization of geography by its monthly magazine, The National Geographic, of which every issue is full to the brim with descriptive and interpretative text and highly educational illustrations. From time to time the Society issues a map of regions vitally important in the popular thought of the day. For many years the National Geographic Society has served the purpose of making millions of Americans acutely geography conscious.

The American Geographical Society of New York during the past year achieved new heights in the value and opportuneness of the scholarly articles, most of them highly professional and technical, which it has presented in its Geographical Review. For many years the Geographical Review has remained the most important geographical publication in the world. In its pages have been published the most important results of scientific explorations, mapping expeditions, and other research projects in geography. Both theoretical and applied geography form the material of the articles presented in its pages, and it invariably issues the best maps, publishes the best reviews of new books and current literature, and summarizes most ably and selectively the geographic news of the time.

Now in its eighteenth year Economic Geography has completed seventeen volumes of authoritative and basic material in the specialized field which it embraces. Many of the foremost geographers of the country, as well as the ablest investigators among the younger students of the subject in America and elsewhere, contribute regularly to this magazine. The subject with which it is concerned has been, and continues to be, of paramount importance to those who are more concerned with the application of geography than with its theory or technique. More than thirty fundamentally significant articles on various phases of the subject of economic geography have been published the past year.

Like the rest of the magazines in the field of geography The Journal of Geography, which is the voice of the National Council of Geography Teachers, reveals a distinct advance in the quality and significance of the articles published within its pages, just as the National Council of Geography Teachers remains the outstanding organization of the men and women who are shaping the pedagogical trend and emphasis of the subject.