engleski

THE INFLUENCE OF GEOLOGY ON BATTLEFIELD TERRAIN AND IT’ S AFFECTS ON MILITARY OPERATIONS IN MOUNTAINS AND KARST REGIONS: EXAMPLES FROM WW1 AND AFGHANISTAN

During the World War I conflict between the Austrian and Italian army, Austrian engineer units constructed hallways in the karst region of Soča river. Those hallways, karst phenomena (caverns, caves) and other fortifications, gave the Austrian army a tactical advantage. The construction principle of caverns is the consequence of the geological structure of the terrain. We are watching another military conflict in Afghanistan. In country where many armies in history have been defeated, where the terrain morphology condition a guerilla tactic, where the function effect of modern military technology is limited by battlefield configuration and with low military value of individual target, we are creating a "picture" of the possible view of the future battlefield. Al-Qai'da operatives in east Afghanistan take advantage of the opportunity of geological structure of the terrain and construct tunnel network across natural caves. Although the tunnel network in Afghanistan is constructed mostly in sandstones and metamorphic rocks, we may partly compare it with Austrian hallways. In that sense this work shows the influence of geological structure of the terrain on the effect of military operations in mountains and karst regions, and the analogy between military operations on the Soča river and military operations in Afghanistan.

Military geology; “ geological intelligence”; mountain warfare; karst regions; terrain analysis

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