History Main / WinterWarfare

* Around half of the maps in ''VideoGame/RedOrchestra2HeroesOfStalingrad'' are set during the Russian winter, and often overlap with UrbanWarfare. Maps such as Rakowice, Bridges of Druzhina, Myshkova River, Fallen Fighters, Winterwald, and Tula Outskirts have German and Soviet forces dressed in winter uniforms trying to move through subzero conditions.
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'': Olaf is specialized in snow, as his units are not affected by it and receives additional power in ''Duel Strikes''. His power also causes heavy snow to fall, greatly reducing the enemy's movement while leaving his own unhindered. His Super CO Power also damages the enemy's units.
* The ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}} series'', in any given game, there is a lot of [[GameMod custom maps]] set in winter environments. And there is at least many [[GameMod mods]] that adds in winter camo.
* ''VideoGame/{{Squad}}'' has the map Nanisivik, set in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. You are not only fighting in the snow, but also in a frozen tundra. The map Belaya on the other hand is set in a wintery Eastern European island
* ''[[VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany Battlefield: Bad Company 2]]''
** The prologue mission is in a cold environment, possibly Siberia or Alaska.
** Later on, one chapter of the singleplayer campaign takes place in the Andes Mountains. One mission even involves Marlowe trying to find his squadmates after getting separated in a blizzard. Marlowe must keep himself warm by either seeking shelter in buildings or standing near fires caused by explosions. Staying too long out in the blizzard will eventually cause a game over.
* ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' is set in a new Ice Age, so a lot of maps will be set in snowy environments.

* ''VideoGame/LostPlanet'' takes place on a planet in the middle of an ice age, and so cold that your character will freeze to death if he stays outside too long without enough thermal energy.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault'' has the first part of the second level, which takes place all the way in Norway, and the fifth level, set in the Hurtgen Forest along the Siegfried Line. The ''Spearhead'' expansion, meanwhile, has the entire second level, set during the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne.

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2''. The mission "Cliffhanger" takes place on a Russian military base high in some snowy mountains. Soap and Roach have to do some ice climbing to reach the base, use the blizzard and low visibility to hide themselves from the guards, and escape on snowmobiles.
** Several multiplayer maps take place in Alaska and other cold places.

* ''VideoGame/Squad44'': "Chapter 4: Watch On The Rhine" introduces two winter maps into the game, Foy and Hagenau, set between December 1944 and January 1945. Both maps are covered in thick white snow, and have the US 101st Airborne Division fight the German Wehrmacht for control of several sectors, including bombed out towns and forward military bases.

* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes 2'' features the battles on the Eastern Front, and as expected, winter is a vital factor. If a squad is out in the open for two long, they will freeze to death, no matter if they're German or Russian.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles4'', the failure of [[OperationBlank Operation Northern Cross]] is largely attributed to the winter season starting two months earlier than expected, straining the Federation supply lines. The second half of the game begins Operation Cygnus, when the Federation deploys three [[CoolShip icebreaker battleships]] to sail the Crystal Sea and strike the Imperial capital of Schwarzgrad from the ocean. Every battle from then on takes place on snowy and icy battlefields.

* Mission 6 of ''Jungle Strike'', the second game of the ''VideoGame/StrikeSeries'', takes place on a snow fortress in an unnamed South American country. It's likely situated among high altitude mountains to account for the snowy weather.

* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', Russia is constantly tormented by General Winter (see RealLife, below.) This makes him miserable, but the guy is just so good at defeating invasions.

* ''VideoGame/PostScriptum'': "Chapter 4: Watch On The Rhine" introduces two winter maps into the game, Foy and Hagenau, set between December 1944 and January 1945. Both maps are covered in thick white snow, and have the US 101st Airborne Division fight the German Wehrmacht for control of several sectors, including bombed out towns and forward military bases.

* The English ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' legend mentions an even earlier use of this strategy. The battle on the ice of lake Vänern happened in winter between Swedish and Danish Vikings.
** Swedish and Geatish Vikings, actually. The battle was between king Adils of Götaland and king Onela of Svealand.
* ''[[Literature/{{Safehold}} Midst Toil and Tribulation]]'' opens with an ambush in the middle of a very cold winter in the aptly-named Glacierheart provence. It also includes a number of additional war scenes in the same winter.

* ''[[Literature/{{Valdemar}} The Oathbound]]'': Tarma and Kethry end up working for a mercenary outfit that gets embroiled in a winter siege due to [[PointyHairedBoss its incompetent leader]]. The effects are brutal, as the mercenaries have inadequate supplies and gear for it and are forced to huddle in tents that are wet and barely warmer than the freezing surroundings and many become sick. Tarma ends up quitting and riding back to the mercenaries' winter barracks where she finds that she inspired the rest of the outfit to mutiny and quit due to their contract having been negotiated in bad faith and their employer having failed to hold up their end of the deal (which their leader had kept from them).

* Tolstoy's novel ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' includes chapters relating the 1812 retreat from Moscow, largely through the eyes of Pierre Bezukhov, who is forced by the French to go with them.

* The Germans in World War II very much knew about the perils of the Russian winter. However, they put off issuing deep-subzero gear so their troops could keep fighting. When the snows fell in earnest by the time they were advancing on Moscow, most frontline German soldiers were dressed in a hodgepodge of clothes and shoes stolen from civilians and they had no deep-subzero equipment or POL (petrol, oil, lubricants) of any kind for their vehicles or equipment or weapons. The German government later called on citizens to donate winter clothing for the army as part of a face-saving move in which they lied about being blindsided by an unprecedentedly severe winter.

** Russia's poor performance is justified by the fact that the invading troops were Steppe forces who weren't as used to cold as their northern compatriots, nor the Finns. The decision to send Steppe forces was made because the Russian high command feared that regular Russians, who lived in similar climates, would sympathize with the Finns.

** The 1948 film ''Film/Battleground1949'', which also deals with the Battle of the Bulge, is a more realistic depiction featuring plenty of snow and then some.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has some good examples.

** ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''

Sister trope to UrbanWarfare. Compare WeatherOfWar, which is a more generalized version of this; HostileWeather, which is also a generalized version that covers non-military settings; and BattleInTheRain, where instead of a snowy winter you have a rainstorm. Contrast BattleAmongstTheFlames. AnAssKickingChristmas might overlap here if it revolves around Christmastime. Contrast with JungleWarfare, where it's the heat and the humidity (aside from [[HungryJungle the jungle itself]]) that can kill, as well DesertWarfare, where it's the [[ThirstyDesert heat and vastness of a desert]] that can kill. Closely related to SnowMeansDeath.

Sister trope to UrbanWarfare. Compare WeatherOfWar, which is a more generalized version of this; HostileWeather, which is also a generalized version that covers non-military settings; and BattleInTheRain, where instead of a snowy winter you have a rainstorm. Contrast BattleAmongstTheFlames. AnAssKickingChristmas might overlap here if it revolves around Christmastime. Contrast with JungleWarfare, where it's the heat and the humidity (aside from [[HungryJungle the jungle itself]]) that can kill, as well DesertWarfare, where it's the [[ThirstyDesert heat and vastness of a desert]] that can kill.

*** The Rebels have relocated their main headquarters to Hoth, an icy, snow-covered planet. When the Imperials come knocking, it brings us the Battle of Hoth, one of the most iconic battles in the series as the Rebel Snowspeeders face the overwhelming might of the All Terrain Armored Transports, the AT-ATs.

*** The Rebels have relocated their main headquarters to Hoth, an icy, snow-covered planet. When the Imperials come knocking, it brings us one of the most iconic battles in the series.

As a region, it has become synonymous with winter combat. The Russians themselves often say their greatest commander is "General Frost". Shoot, Russian winter combat (and by that measure the Russian Winter itself) probably deserves it's own separate trope.

Come wintertime, you better hope you're not in a place known for constant blizzards. Winter or arctic warfare is one of the most notorious kinds there is. Freezing temperatures, heavy snow, ice. This can play havoc with vehicles, which have to be kept running all the time or at least started up a lot. This, naturally burns fuel. Infantry have it the worst. They will need warm clothing, blankets, something to generate heat, extra food, and shelter. Lacking any of these can mean trouble.

During times like these you can expect to see specially trained soldiers starting to come out of the woodwork. Men and women who are hardened for the cold and can be relied on in these situations. They may often employ skis, or snowmobiles.

* The 1989 Finnish film ''The Winter War'' depicts in harsh detail the eponymous 1939-40 conflict between Finland and the USSR.

* In ''LightNovel/EightySixEightySix'', the campaign in Roa Gracia is hampered by snowy and icy conditions, which Spearhead has to get used to fighting in, especially during the siege of Revich Citadel Base. It comes as no surprise that Roa Gracia happens to be that [[FantasyCounterpartCulture world's version of Tsarist Russia.]]

* In ''TwilightBreakingDawn'' (book and second film) they fight in the snow on the baseball field just outside of Forks.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' occasionally has battles set in snowy environments, where the snow is a hindrance to cavalry and armored troops and snowstorms can obscure visibility. In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe the Elibe games]], the country of Ilia is a poverty-stricken arctic land whose one major export is Pegasus Knight mercenaries, and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' there is an entire campaign arc that takes place there.

[[folder:Russia]]

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': During the Apocalypse War, Mega-City One's {{Weather Control Machine}}s malfunctioned after suffering damage, creating snowy conditions in many parts of the city. The defending Judges made use of the sudden winter climate for hit-and-run tactics against the East Meg invasion forces.

** Russia's poor performance is justified by the fact that the invading troops were Steppe forces who weren't as used to cold as their northern compatriots, nor the Finns. [[WhatAnIdiot The decision to send Steppe forces was made because the Russian high command feared that regular Russians, who lived in similar climates, would sympathize with the Finns.]]

* ''Film/{{Stalingrad 1993}}'': The film covers the Battle of Stalingrad up to the surrender of the German garrison. By the time that winter arrives the Germans start to resort to cannibalism of Soviet [=POWs=], and the front lines eventually evaporate completely. [[spoiler:The last two characters end up freezing to death together.]]

** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hürtgen_Forest Battle of the Hürtgen forest]] lasted even longer for the US Army and saw significant numbers of men locked into a [=WWI=]-style battle of attrition that lasted between September 1944 and early January 1945: autumn rain and mud turned into winter snow and ice. Survivors remember the wet, cold and murderous misery.

* UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar had quite a number of winter battles, especially when the UN forces began invading North Korea proper and pushing all the way to the Chinese border. The most well-known would be [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210314191740/http://chosinreservoir.com/ the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir]] in Winter 1950, when a force of nearly 120,000 Chinese troops surrounded a joint American/British/South Korean force of roughly 30,000 at Chosin, including the U.S. Marine's 1st Marine Division, and led to a breakout operation to escape the encirclement and make for the Korean coast to evacuate by sea.