We don't take umbrellas to war.
Episode description
The weather played its part in the Great War, perhaps in more ways than first imagined. The Great War lasted over 1500 days, and over 600 saw rain on the Western Front. The winter of 1914 saw torrential rain and temperatures drop to -10 in France, and the autumn of 1917 in Flanders saw four months' worth of rainfall in just 33 days.
London's Met Office offered to help at the outbreak of war, but a terse telegram from GHQ rebuffed this offer. However, the increased use of aircraft and poison gas quickly made senior command understand the importance of meteorology, and the Meteorological Service of the Royal Engineers soon started providing masses of valuable data.
Who were these men, and what did they do? In this episode, we look at the work of "Meteor" HQ and their vital role as the war progressed.
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