BATTLESCAPES: The Impact of Terrain on War and Military Strategy

1-245320

The landscapes and heritage of past conflicts, defensive and offensive structures, and much more are brought together in this comprehensive study. From the medieval English Fens to the 20th century Iraqi Marsh Arabs, landscapes have fostered resistance and dissension. Harnessed by people under threat, the landscape has influenced strategies and tactics.

Water and wetlands halted campaigns in the Florida Everglades and in the Franco-Prussian War of the late 1800s. In the WWII, the Dutch flooded the polders to halt the Nazi advance. In 1938, the Chinese nationalist forces breached the flood-dikes of the Yellow River to halt the Japanese advance. Mountain ranges and deserts have long provided landscapes for resistance fighters. Libyan fighters held off invading Italian forces by operating from the caves and valleys of the Green Mountains, and the Welsh defended their mountainous principalities against the Angevin Normans. Contains 40 color illustrations and 60 mono illustrations.