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after the Teutonic knights' fiasco with Alexander Nevsky, the people who had to live under winter conditions figured it out; winter was the time to cocoon.
neither Germany nor France are really considered winter wonderlands.
That's precisely why I didn't include these campaigns in the (not exhaustive, but long enough) list of wars between Nordic countries.
By the way, these wars kept happening for six centuries after Alexander Nevski's victory on the Lake Peipus. It looks like it took them a lot of time to figure out cocooning is better than fighting a war... "People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them." - Jean Monnet
There was no way around the problems in Stalingrad with the technology of the day. No amount of preparedness would have helped.
Diesels have problems on cold days. Steel sticks due to frozen humiditiy, people get cold and sick, etc.
I get a kick out of how everyone extrapolates something different from my statement.
The Battle of the Bulge was also fought during an exceptional winter in Europe, by the bye. The problems with the matériel underlie my point - harsh winters do not lend themselves to fighting.
Although in this case, the snow was the problem, more than the cold, as was the case in Stalingrad, which also occurred during an exceptional winter.
Snow was more the problem than cold, but temperatures during the Battle of the bulge reached -20°C, and that was combined with strong winds. Exceptionally cold for the region, not to mention for the equipment of the US Army. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
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