History Main / DesertWarfare

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'': ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', ''VideoGame/HalfLifeBlueShift'', and ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'' all take place in the New Mexico desert, of which the Black Mesa Research Facility is build in and around of. During the Xen and subsequent Race X invasions that happen, the HECU, Black Ops, Black Mesa Science Team and Security Force fight against the AlienInvasion as well as each other, with the Xen and Race X aliens themselves also competing. Ultimately, following the Nihilanth's death at Gordon Freeman's hands, the Race X Invasion ends up triumphing, with their main opponents becoming the Black Ops team sent to replace the HECU following their failure to contain the invasion. [[spoiler:After the Black Ops themselves end up being overwhelmed as well, they resort to [[NukeEm detonating a nuclear warhead]] in Black Mesa, ending the invasion for good.]]

* ''''Franchise/StarWars: Film/AttackOfTheClones'': The desert planet of Geonosis becomes the site of the first battle between the newly-formed Republic Clone Army and Separatist droid forces.

* ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'': The desert planet of Geonosis becomes the site of the first battle between the newly-formed Republic Clone Army and Separatist droid forces.
* Referenced in, of all things, ''Film/TheBigLebowski'; Walther compares his experiences from Vietnam with the upcoming Operation Desert Storm.

->''"On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power. Here, we must scrabble for desert power."''

* ''ComicBook/NickFuryPeacemaker'': Fury is captured by Germans in the African theater and released, getting rescued by British fighters with a guerilla approach to warfare. This influences Fury's later approach to special-ops warfare, though by the end of ''ComicBook/FuryMyWarGoneBy'' he realizes ElitesAreMoreGlamorous was a very bad mindset that ignored the crucial necessity of having foot soldiers do most of the work.

** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' has this overlapped with UrbanWarfare in the US Marine campaign of the first game. The second game, meanwhile has two levels set in Afghanistan.

* Pretty much every war between Middle Eastern states qualifies, with notable examples being the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and the current Syrian Civil War and the Saudi intervention in Yemen.
* UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, particularly if set in the deserts of Iraq, Afghanistan or in some other place in the Middle East.

** ''Literature/SmallGods'' has Vorbis (the unofficial leader of Omnia) plan his retaliatory counterattack against Ephebia before the actual attack (an Omnian speaker getting booed off stage, later retold as his getting murdered by the Ephebians) by having the army cross part of the desert and leave supply caches that the next group can use to cross the desert, taking the Ephebians by surprise.

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* [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica North Africa became the central focus of British involvement]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII -- for three years. Initially thought of as a quiet colonial backwater where major war was least likely to break out, British forces in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean were pared back to the minimum and it was lowest priority on the supply chain for just about everything. Thus, Mussolini's declaration of war on Britain meant approximately forty thousand British personnel were now threatened by one hundred and fifty thousand Italians. The series of battles that ensued -- a Curb Stomp Battle against the Italians -- saw British troops facing a largely beaten Italian army but unable to get much further largely because of the fearsome logistics of sustaining an army, with all it needed, in a desert. Even something as basic as water was fiercely rationed: at the height of the fighting, a British soldier in the desert was issued no more than three pints of water per day for all needs. Later on, when Rommel took over leadership on the Italian/German side, the Axis armies were similarly plagued with supply difficulties. The North African War was as much one of logistics as of combat and was only really resolved when Lend-Lease provided sufficient equipment for the British to gain overwhelming superiority, including in supply and replenishment systems, allowing the breakout from El Alamein and the landing of new British and American armies in Tunisia to overwhelm a struggling, under-resourced, Axis army, that by now was being cut off from its sources of supply in Italy.

* ''ComicBook/SensationComicsFeaturingWonderWoman'': "Rescue Angel" takes place during TheWarOnTerror and is mostly set in the desert. The small town being visited is dry and hot with sparse vegetation.

* TheWarOnTerror, particularly if set in the deserts of Iraq, Afghanistan or in some other place in the Middle East.

Compare and contrast with the aforementioned UrbanWarfare, JungleWarfare, and WinterWarfare, where fighting takes place in cities, lush tropical rainforests and jungles, and in the snow, respectively. Interestingly, a lot of recent examples of Desert Warfare also overlap with the first one, especially if the work is set during TheWarOnTerror.

** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'': When the kingdom of Djelibeybi (AncientEgypt) is removed from time, the warring states of Tsort and Ephebia (equivalents to Troy and UsefulNotes/AncientGreece) resume their war, which involves building giant wooden horses and waiting for the other side to drag them into their own city.
** ''Discworld/SmallGods'' has Vorbis (the unofficial leader of Omnia) plan his retaliatory counterattack against Ephebia before the actual attack (an Omnian speaker getting booed off stage, later retold as his getting murdered by the Ephebians) by having the army cross part of the desert and leave supply caches that the next group can use to cross the desert, taking the Ephebians by surprise.
** ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' has Ankh-Morpork at war with Klatch (the Middle-Eastern cultures counterpart). Being led by Ankh-Morpork's finest military minds, the army of course left without adequate supplies, water or siege equipment and is attacking the single strongest fortified point in Klatch. Only Carrot, Vimes and Vetinari's presence prevents a total slaughter by getting the D'regs to ''not'' attack everyone, arresting both armies and [[spoiler:agreeing to surrender rights to an island that sinks a few days later]] respectively.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CallOfDuty2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shhr_ldwl_mn_lmdn_lrby_fy_lb_lfydyw_zfz3.jpg]] ]]

->"On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power. Here, we must scrabble for desert power."
-->--'''Duke Leto Atreides''', ''{{Literature/Dune}}''

* [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica North Africa became the central focus of British involvement]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII -- for three years. Initially thought of as a quiet colonial backwater where major war was least likely to break out, British forces in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean were pared back to the minimum and it was lowest priority on the supply chain for just about everything. Thus, Mussolini's declaration of war on Britain meant approximately forty thousand British personnel were now threatened by up to four hundred thousand Italians. The series of battles that ensued -- a Curb Stomp Battle against the Italians -- saw British troops facing a largely beaten Italian army but unable to get much further largely because of the fearsome logistics of sustaining an army, with all it needed, in a desert. Even something as basic as water was fiercely rationed: at the height of the fighting, a British soldier in the desert was issued no more than three pints of water per day for all needs. Later on, when Rommel took over leadership on the Italian/German side, the Axis armies were similarly plagued with supply difficulties. The North African War was as much one of logistics as of combat and was only really resolved when Lend-Lease provided sufficient equipment for the British to gain overwhelming superiority, including in supply and replenishment systems, allowing the breakout from El Alamein and the landing of new British and American armies in Tunisia to overwhelm a struggling, under-resourced, Axis army, that by now was being cut off from its sources of supply in Italy.

** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'': When the kingdom of Djelibeybi (AncientEgypt) is removed from time, the warring states of Tsort and Ephebia (equivalents to Troy and AncientGreece) resume their war, which involves building giant wooden horses and waiting for the other side to drag them into their own city.

* The 2018 Chinese war movie ''Operation Red Sea'' takes place in [[{{Qurac}} Yewaire]], an obvious {{Expy}} of the Yemen civilian evacuation that occurred in March 2015. A major action setpiece involves a tank battle in the desert as an enormous sandstorm descends upon the region.