War File: The Fog of War

It is possible to imagine a muddy, body-strewn battlefield early in the morning draped in an eerie fog, a quiet lull before the day's brutal events. What is harder to envisage is how this natural camouflage can turn the best laid battle plans into a chaotic free-for-all as mist turns certainty into speculation and doubt. Napoleon discovered the benefits of its sudden descent in his victory at Austerlitz in 1805, and nearly 140 years later it came to the aid of three German battleships in the infamous "channel dash" of World War Two. Operation Cerberus saw three of the Kriegsmarine's largest ships (Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen) successfully elude a British blockade thanks in part to a cloak of mist hiding them from scout planes and look-out boats. During the Battle of Khe Sanh fought in 1968 during the Vietnam War mist and fog again played a crucial role in the outcome of the fighting. This episode of "The Weather At War" examines the effects of fog on military engagements throughout history, as it appears without warning hiding what was visible only minutes before under a white veil.