Word: mountainous
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Lesson from Greece. World War II has proved that only specialist troops can fight skillfully in the mountains. In Norway, British mechanized outfits were no match for Germany's mountain men. Greek mountain troops made life miserable for the Italian invaders until German experts arrived. Today Germany has some 15 mountain divisions; probably a tenth of all Axis soldiers have been trained to fight in the hills...
...real campaign, mountain troopers travel with elaborate equipment for their double duties. They take along winter's skis and snowshoes, boots and parkas, ski wax and sleeping bags, summer's saddles and harness, light uniforms and raincoats. Out-of-season equipment is stored at a main base, the rest taken into the field. No other troops tote so much...
Thick Going in Thin Air. Strategy and tactics are not very different in mountain fighting, but carrying them out is more difficult. Traveling uphill is slower than walking on the level, coming down is faster for men (especially on skis) but maddeningly slow for mules. The rare mountain air forces frequent rests, even after man & beast are accustomed...
...picked its mountain troops from among skiers, horsemen, mule-skinners, mountain climbers, trappers, prospectors, guides. Short to medium-sized men, the Army has found, tire less quickly at high altitudes. Fear of high places (acrophobia) is not always a disqualification: many a man who has felt nervous on a stepladder quickly learns a mule's aplomb on precipice edges...
...which had no ski-and-mule troops until 1941, is far behind the Axis. A new camp abuilding in Colorado (elevation 9,500 ft.) will train a whole division. This is only a small start. Of possible U.S. theaters of war, nearly a fifth are mountainous: e.g., Alaska, the Canal Zone, Iceland, Malaya, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece. In such terrain, where mechanized divisions stall, the U.S. may some day have to depend on its mountain troopers and slogging, sure-footed mules...