Cold-weather warfare

Cold-weather warfare, also known as arctic warfare or winter warfare, encompasses military operations affected by snow, ice, thawing conditions, or cold, both on land and at sea, as well as the strategies and tactics used by military forces in these situations and environments.

Cold-weather conditions occur year-round at high elevation or latitudes, and elsewhere materialize seasonally during the winter period. Mountain warfare often takes place in cold weather or on terrain that is affected by ice and snow, such as the Alps and the Himalayas. Historically, most such operations have been during winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Some have occurred above the Arctic Circle where snow, ice, and cold may occur throughout the year.

At times, cold—or its aftermath, thaw—has been a decisive factor in the failure of a campaign, as with the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939,^[1][2] and the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.