ahmmm! i've only seen the movie about him and never read any of his stuff. he is such a badass in that movie. i'll keep a lookout for it. i've just been researching the different names of winds and sandstorms ([/ripping off ondaatje), though now i'm not sure now if any of those are gonna make it into the fic. still:
During Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, the French soldiers had a hard time with khamsin: when the storm appeared "as a blood-stint in the distant sky", the natives went to take cover, while the French "did not react until it was too late, then choked and fainted in the blinding, suffocating walls of dust." During the North African Campaign of World War II, "allied and German troops were several times forced to halt in mid-battle because of the khamsin ... Grains of sand whirled by the wind blinded the soldiers and created electrical disturbances that rendered compasses useless."
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During Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, the French soldiers had a hard time with khamsin: when the storm appeared "as a blood-stint in the distant sky", the natives went to take cover, while the French "did not react until it was too late, then choked and fainted in the blinding, suffocating walls of dust." During the North African Campaign of World War II, "allied and German troops were several times forced to halt in mid-battle because of the khamsin ... Grains of sand whirled by the wind blinded the soldiers and created electrical disturbances that rendered compasses useless."