Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
A while back, I discovered that the U.S. Marine Corps history of The Campaign on New Britain was online in PDF format. The volume has an appendix covering the vegetation of New Britain, written by a Captain who after the war became a Forestry Technician with the state of California. The vegetation of New Britain can be loosely called a jungle. The file was too large to post, however, the volume has now been put online in html format, which makes it much smaller, and possible to post. I would view this information as a considerable aid to anyone wanting to have a more unusual climate for an adventure. As it is an official U.S. government publication, it is in the public domain. The beginning is as follows.
It makes for an interesting read. For those interested in finding out more about the campaign, it can be found on Hyperwar at the following location. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-NBrit/index.htmlWhile the designation "rain forest" applied to the vegetation of New Britain is correct in a broad, general sense, this term conveys no idea of the variations in this rain forest which occur in response to such local influences as soil, drainage, and differences in elevation.
Vegetation may affect military operations by limiting or preventing movement; by limiting or preventing observation; and by providing cover and concealment from both ground and air. Further, vegetation serves as an excellent index to the character of the terrain, since there are definite, consistent relationships between plants and the habitats in which they grow. In the Southwest and Western Pacific the relatively uniform natural conditions, which have been little disturbed by man, are reflected by a small number of broad, uniform vegetation types. In that part of New Britain where the 1st Marine Division operated, and with which this discussion deals specifically, the vegetation may be classified in only six types--in contrast to more than twenty types in current use in the western United States. These are recognized and described as follows: mangrove swamp, swamp forest, tropical rain forest, secondary growth, grassland, and plantations.