Fighting in the Desert?

I was wondering what would be required to fight in a desert. This desert changes from sand drifts that can go up to a six-foot-tall person's shoulders to sharp rocks. There isn't much water, plants, or animals. What sort of supplies would a 15,000-man army with 300 nurses and doctors go through in a week? What would the traveling be like? What sort of problems could they encounter? (There aren't animals big enough to break into the food easily--there are snakes and a few spiders but that's it.) They have to cross the desert within 20 days, and the desert is about the width as the length from the middle of Texas to the middle of Saskatchewan, Canada, if that makes sense. They have to walk all the way, and carry supplies themselves because there wasn't enough money to let them travel with animals. Thanks!

You cannot cross a desert that big on foot with that many people - simply transporting the required water would make it an impossible task.

They'd die without magicians to help them or animals such as horses or camels to carry stuff...

Let's see -- according to Google maps the distance from Dallas TX to Saskatoon is around 1600 miles. 20 days -- that would be 80 miles per day. I'd like to see them make more than 20 on a good day. Maybe. You want them to move four times faster than a human could walk, and still carry enough water to last them.

Have we entered the realm of ludicrous yet?

By my calculations, to make a march of this distance would take approximately five months.

In short:

You need your army to be undead, robotic, simulacra, or otherwise non-human.

Walking speed improbabilities aside, there is generally water in the desert. Unless we're talking complete scifi, little to nothing to do with the laws of physics/nature as we know it...

What sort of setting is this? Modern/historical? Real/fantasy? Are we talking the guys down the street or Israel special forces?

XD Ok. This won't work. Thanks!

It's fantasy in about the early 1900s ish. They're in the army and most of them have just gotten out of a very-basic-hurry-up-and-learn-already kind of training.

Thanks again! I'll think of something else. Haha.

It can't be smaller without messing up the geography, so...Yeah. Haha.

If there were active wells dug that could be reached every week, would that help a lot? (I can change the history, but not the geography. XD Sorry!)

Would camels take up extra water and supplies? Would the tankers have to use gas or oil or coal, which would add weight?

(Moses calling mana is cool, btw.)

Thanks!

Rivers can flow through deserts. Look at the Nile. The Snake. Lots of rivers flow through deserts on the way to the sea.

Perhaps they can march alongside a river, which would provide them with adequate water.

And, WritingGeek, you can change EVERYTHING. Really, you can. You're the author.

Ok. Thanks! I have a feeling I make these things too complicated. XD Thanks again!

If Bear Grylls has taught me anything, you can go a long way through a desert by drinking your own urine. Preferably distilled, but hey, if you've got a spare rattlesnake skin to use a canteen o' piss, that works, too.

Having oasises is the best bet, but even then, with 15,000 people, they won't be leaving any kind of an oasis behind them, which means this is a one-time trek. Travelling at night would reduce the water needs somewhat, but probably not enough to help. Even if there's plenty of barrel cactus, it's unlikely anyone but the upper-level officers would get enough.

Overall, I'd say the size of your force has a lot more to do with the improbability of making it than the severity of the desert. 15 people might be able to forage resources. 5 would be better, but 15,000 isn't very probable.

Unless they have a way of extracting the moisture from the bodies of fallen comerades a la "Dune".

I suppose you could keep your urine in a cup, then when you stop, dig a pit and make a solar still to collect the distilled urine in another cup and be very careful NOT TO MIX THE CUPS.