Show weather enters big ig business field of worlds armies navy trade and farms farm s za by WALTER A SHEAD st staff correspondent there is one thing in which the r nations farmers and our military leaders have a common i stake an element which can upset the most carefully laid na 1 military plans and the most 1 ti I meticulously planned agrical tural program the weather L the farmers success in planting and harvesting and american combat success in combined land sea se air aa oper operations actions can cai come only through close observance ser v ance of the scientific predictions of the weatherman for the weather is often used as a military weapon by our military i strategists and our farmers are 1 I dependent upon the vagaries of the weather to harvest a record production or a crop failure no military operation whether it I 1 is a minor sortie by a group of fighters a bombing mission on an enemy city naval bombardment of a jap island a ground attack in china or a large scale invasion is never blueprinted unless latest weather information is first consulted success of an attack is of dependent upon I 1 clear weather though american forces have profitably exploited bad weather to make offensive strikes against the enemy our military strategists were quick to recognize the importance of accurate meteorological data and so have greatly expanded the network of observation posts trained thousands of officers and enlisted men and adopted new technological devices to guarantee reliable forecasts together the the navy and the U S weather bureau weather systems form a vast network of information research observation and forecasting reaching from the united states to all parts of the world observation units vary in size from two men occupying a hut on oft an isolated atlantic or pacific isle to a major research station with a full staff of specialists the maintains several major research centers and more than 1000 observation and forecasting stations reaching from the arctic to the antarctic and its weather report system spreads and rn moves ves as rapidly as the fighting fronts the nerve center of this vast scattered weather force is in the pentagon building in washington where approximately 50 persons watch the weather in all regions of the world and prepare long range forecasts and special studies to guide our high strategy planners I 1 navy maintains stations the navy maintains about 1400 observation and forecasting stations including 14 major weather centrals in some instances units may be aboard flagships or aircraft carriers or on advanced island bases and the units may consist of one man on a small ship or a full fledged central with a full complement of or more officers and men how the navy weather bureaus have grown since 1940 may be seen by the fact that in that year navy under the bureau of aeronautics consisted of less than officers and men in about 50 units whereas today the personnel totals about officers and men assigned to the 1400 units the staff of weather specialists numbers officers and men and the force of observers alone has grown from 50 to se service arvice provided by these thousands of forecasters in 7 0 R T G at 4 V 43 ak MAU wa 4 ll 11 7 I 1 1 11 dao 54 m 1 a N xao 2 A this photo shows the effect of v island this truck is really mired eludes technical operation and interpretation of results recorded by radio sonde a small box containing a sing single l tube etu short wave transmitter sent aloft on i the tran transmitter r gives temperature and humidity readings I 1 at various heights there are also repair technicians schooled in the maintenance of delicate weather instruments communications men who radio or teletype weather reports back to headquarters and aircraft weather reconnaissance fliers who observe conditions along the flying routes according to our military men ac formation the and the navy weather forces have been made possible by the careful selection of men from the ranks to specialize in weather information by intensive 0 o P A N X X 1 4 aa V IAZ IA Z X germany took advantage of bad overcast weather with rain and snow to make their counterattack counter attack in the belgian bulge in the ar dennes low visibility and cold kept our superior air force grounded until clearing weather gave us a break break station training and by releasing personnel from the weather bureau for military duty and replacing them by new civilian recruits weather important weapon according to our military men accurate evaluation of weather plus the constant flow of up to the minute meteorological information from all theaters of war make it possible to use weather as an important weapon cited a as examples of weather strategy is the sicilian invasion plotting of prevailing winds and of the movement of cold air front over italy indicated our invasion ships would encounter rough seas on the ro gg g agg f 11 0 bynm 7 7 z 02 0 axy F 4 m g I 1 1 1 51 huzl v 0 21 6 4 Z aw W rr fm OV I 1 kam A W aa 7 wap V el excessive rain has caused a landslide on a military road somewhere a the italian front 14 I 1 ae M A Q on the soil on a south pacific journey from north africa but at the same time our forecasters predicted tranquil waters in sicilian harbors and the almost miraculous calming of the seas as our landin landing 9 craft neared the sicilian shores has become a military classic admiral halsey took advantage of the cover of a zero zero storm after raiding the marshall and gilbert islands with visibility zero and ceiling zer zero 0 his ships large and heavy enough to ride out the storm were meanwhile safe from enemy air attack at detail plotting of the upper air strata enabled our forces to la lay down a smoke screen to blot out our vessels and our planes from japanese ack ack and dive bombers low wind velocity was required so that our screen would not suddenly veer and cover our target instead conditions were exactly as predicted and ordered gitany other instances of the use of weather forecasts by our militarists are given tor for instance in the normandy invasion weather was bad and the sea choppy but the forecasts were that severe conditions would prevail for at least 21 days after the D day chosen axis are weather conscious both germany and japan are extremely weather conscious and both have used weather particularly bad weather to screen their activities for instance germanys germanas Germ anys battle of the bulge in the Ar dennes was undoubtedly arranged to coincide with bad weather that would keep our superior air strength incapable of decisive blows while german ground forces numerically stronger at that point smashed through A clearing break in the weather came ultimately and our air power went into action to help stop the german offensive according to the navy the japs agrenot are not as far advanced in weather technique as either germany or our own military in at least one instance a japanese plan of action did not work out as scheduled because of their weather miscalculations they attempted to bring reinforcements to new guinea under a 1 storm front so that our planes could not spot their movements an unexpected or miscalculated shift dissipated the storm storefront front the troop and supply armada was spotted by our reconnaissance planes they were attacked and destroyed by the in the famous battle of the bismarck sea methods used by various countries in weather forecasting vary the and the navy nsf us the norwegian theory of air masses and polar fronts and the long series of daily weather charts of the world prepared by the weather bureau as a basis research essential almost endless research wa was s necessary to code the worlds weather data starting in 1942 the weather bureau in cooperation with the military services started in this task using all available weather veather information in the northern hemisphere for each day since 1899 this information was re plotted and reanalyzed transferred into a standard code and into a punch card system in this way 30 years of weather were charted and analyzed within a year from the areas studied by the army high priority sections where military action would most likely take place a similar card system was evolved and total weather tabulations to date cover about 55 million cards at present about cards are recorded each mo ith |