r/WarCollege • u/3016137234 • 1d ago
Question In areas of intense mountain combat (for example, the Alps in WWI), were intentional avalanches ever a part of anyone’s tactical doctrine in any meaningful way?
Hypothetically, you’re the Austrians trying to take higher ground from the Italians. Would intentionally shooting artillery above them to trigger an avalanche to bury them be something that was considered or implemented on any scale? Or triggering one to disable a resupply/evac route? On the one hand it seems like an obvious tactic, on the other it also doesn’t seem like something that would have necessarily been predictable enough to try to do regularly, given the supply situations when you’re that high up/cut-off from your supply base
Also interested in other areas/operations/wars, the Alps were just the first thing that came to mind
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In areas of intense mountain combat (for example, the Alps in WWI), were intentional avalanches ever a part of anyone’s tactical doctrine in any meaningful way?
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r/WarCollege
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22h ago
Oh I’m aware of what they are, just wasn’t sure if this would fall under their purview