Military camouflage refers to any method used to render military forces less detectable to enemy forces .[1] In practice, it is the application of colour and materials to battledress and military equipment to conceal them from visual observation. The French slang word camouflage came into common English usage during World War I when the concept of visual deception developed into an essential part of modern military tactics.[1] In that war, long-range artillery and observation by air combined to expand the field of fire, and camouflage was widely used to decrease the danger of being targeted.
Previously known as concealing coloration or deceptive concealment,[1][2] military camouflage was first practised in the early 1800s by some military units in self-defence against the increased accuracy and rate of fire of guns. Before that, armies tended to wear bright colours and bold, impressive designs to daunt the enemy, foster unit cohesion, allow easier identification of units in the fog of war, attract recruits, and reduce desertion.
The intent of camouflage is to disrupt an outline by merging it with its surroundings, making a target harder to identify, or to confuse an observer as to its nature. Some modern camouflage, e.g. CADPAT, addresses visibility in the near infrared as well as visible light, for concealment from night vision devices. Different countries have taken different paths towards the development of military camouflage.
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The first regular units to adopt camouflage colours were the 95th Rifle Regiment and the 60th Rifle Regiment, created during the Napoleonic Wars to strengthen the British skirmish line. As they carried more accurate Baker Rifles and engaged at a longer range, they were dressed in a rifle green jacket, in contrast to the Line regiments' scarlet tunics.[3]
British forces during the mutiny of 1857 in India dyed their white drill uniforms to inconspicuous tones (following the practice started by the Corps of Guides in 1846), called khaki (from the Hindi-Urdu word for "dusty"[4]), by immersion in mud, tea, coffee or coloured inks. The resulting hue varied from dark or slate grey through light brown to off-white, or sometimes even lavender. This improvised measure gradually became widespread among the troops stationed in India and North-West Frontier, and sometimes among the troops campaigning on the African continent.[5] Khaki-coloured uniform became standard service dress for both British and British Indian Army troops stationed in British India in 1885, and in 1896 khaki drill uniform was adopted by British Army for the service outside of Europe in general,[6] but not until the Second Boer War, in 1902, did the entire British Army standardise on khaki (officially known as "drab") for Service Dress.[7]
The Lovat Scouts were formed from Scottish gamekeepers for service in the Boer war. They introduced the Ghillie suit for concealment for sniping in World War I.[8]
Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty in WWI, Prime Minister in WWII) considered deception in war to be an indispensable "element of léger de main, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten."[9]
The United States, who had green-jacketed rifle units in the Civil War, were quick to follow the British, going khaki in the same year. Russia followed, partially, in 1908. The Italian Army used grigio-verde ("grey-green") in the Alps from 1906 and across the army from 1909. The Germans adopted feldgrau ("field grey") in 1910. Portugal, during the Peninsular War, fielded light infantry known as Cacadores who wore brown-jackets which helped conceal them.
In Germany the traditional Prussian blue uniforms were replaced with Feldgrau ("fieldgrey") in 1910.[11] French uniforms in the early stage of the First World War consisted of bright red (garance) trousers and blue Greatcoats as part of the standard uniform.[12] An attempt to introduce a camouflage uniform in France in 1911 faced strong opposition as the red trousers were seen as a symbol of the French military doctrine. A former Minister of War Eugène Étienne voiced typical opposition to camouflage: "Abolish red trousers? Never. France is red trousers."[13] The red French kepi hats were however soon covered with cloths[12][14] and the experiences of the modern warfare soon led to the introduction of a new uniform.[13]
An American artist and zoologist, Abbott Thayer published a book Concealing colouration in the Animal Kingdom, which was widely read by military leaders, though his advocacy of countershading (to hide shadows) was less successful.[15]
Gestalt Psychology influenced the development of camouflage as it dealt with questions such as "How is it that we see anything?". Contemporary artistic movements such as cubism, vorticism and impressionism also influenced the development of camouflage as they dealt with disrupting outlines, abstraction and colour theory.[16][17]
The French established a Section de Camouflage (Camouflage Department) at Amiens in 1915, notably headed by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola.[18] The experts, called camoufleurs, were mostly painters, sculptors and theatre-set artists. De Scévola began by building an observation tree, made of steel with bark camouflage, in May 1915; such trees became popular with the British and French armies in 1916. Painted canvas netting was introduced in 1917, and 7 million square yards were used by the end of the war. [19]
Other countries soon saw the advantage of camouflage, and established their own units of artists, designers and architects:
Specialist troops, notably snipers, were supplied with hand-made camouflage, including patterned veils for the head and gun, hand-painted overalls and scrim-covered netting or sacking—an adaptation of the rag camouflage used in Scotland by anti-poaching wardens, gillies, the first ghillie suits, [21] but non-specialist uniforms remained unpatterned throughout WWI. While camouflage has been used by hunters since prehistoric times, and ghillie suits are still worn by Scottish gamekeepers today, camouflage in a military context was considered effeminate and greeted with scorn until the late 19th century.[22]
An Italian mass-produced military camouflage was the telo mimetico ("mimetic cloth") pattern of 1929, used to cover a shelter-half (telo tenda).
In 1931, the telo mimetico was copied and adopted by the German Army, which had begun using camouflaged cloth in 1918 with the indigenous Buntfarbenanstrich.
The Red Army issued "amoeba" disruptive-pattern suits to snipers from 1937, and all-white ZMK top-garments in 1938.
With mass-production of patterned fabrics, camouflage uniforms became more common on individual soldiers in World War II. Initially, patterning was uncommon and used only in elite units: for example, the 'Airborne Smock Denison Camouflage' of 1942 was issued to British paratroops.[23]
Finland has used snowsuits as winter camouflage for soldiers since its independence. At first, snow-camouflage suits were simple white overalls and they were easy and cheap to produce. When the Winter War began, Finnish forces were already issued with snow camouflage, whereas this was not immediately made available to Soviet forces.
The Germans experimented before the war and some army units used "Splittermuster" ('Splinter pattern') camouflage. Waffen-SS combat units experimented from 1935. The initial Waffen-SS camouflage, like many others, was designed by Prof. Johann Georg Otto Schick.
Sumpfmuster ('swamp pattern') was a Wehrmacht camouflage first introduced in 1943, with a variation in 1944.
Apart from "Leibermuster", the official names of the wartime German camouflage patterns are not known: the names above are those used by military historians and collectors.
Developed in the 1930s, khaki Battle Dress was issued widely from 1939. With the return of war, camouflage sections were revived. The British set up the Camouflage Development and Training Centre in 1940 at Farnham Castle, Surrey. Early staff included artists from the Industrial Camouflage Research Unit such as Roland Penrose and Frederick Gore, and the stage magician Jasper Maskelyne (later known for camouflage work in the North African campaign). The British did not use disruptive-pattern uniforms until 1942, with the hand-painted Denison smock for paratroopers, followed in 1943 with a similar style M42 garment.[25]
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began experiments in 1940. These led to the reversible "frog-skin/leopard spot" design, first as a reversible beach/jungle coverall in 1942, but soon changed to a two-part jacket and pants. It was first issued to the U.S. Marines fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.[26] In 1944, units of the 2nd Armored Division in Normandy were issued with the "frog skin/leopard spot" camouflage, but similarity to the battledress worn by German Fallschirmjäger parachute troops led to friendly fire, and it was withdrawn. Full "leopard spot" uniforms continued to be worn by the USMC Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion (whose role was reprised by the USMC Force Recon units from 1954) and by Combat Swimmer Reconnaissance Units (later to evolve into the Navy's SEALs).
The Red Army adopted brownish khaki-coloured uniforms for most troops. Snow-camouflage coveralls were widely issued in the winter. Specialized units often wore one or two-piece hooded camouflage suits, such as long-range scouts, snipers and assault engineers. Initially, one-piece 'amoeba' pattern coveralls were worn over the standard khaki shirt and pants. The most common colour schemes were a light ochre with dark brown blotches, and a light green with dark green blotches. Later, two-piece versions appeared in a variety of colours and patterns, some quite intricate. The sniper suits sometimes had ghillie-type attachments.
Lizard pattern ( Leopard pattern for the French or TAP47) is a military camouflage used by the French Army on uniforms beginning in the 1950s up to the late 1980s. A Lizard pattern has two overlapping prints, generally green and brown, printed with gaps so that a third dyed colour, such as a lighter green or khaki, makes up a large part of the pattern. In this, it is printed like earlier British patterns used on that country's paratroops' Denison smocks, and descends from those patterns. Lizard patterns have narrower printed areas than the British patterns, and strong horizontal orientation, cutting across the vertical form of a body. Other patterns descend in turn from Lizard patterns, either by imitation such as Cuba's Lizard pattern, or innovation, such as the tigerstripe patterns produced during the Vietnam War.
The first uniforms of the Bundeswehr in 1955 showed a camouflage similar to the pre-war Splittermuster.[27] These were replaced by a plain dark green in the early 1960s, which was in turn replaced by the modern Flecktarn in 1990. It is the basis for Bundeswehr Wüstentarn, a desert camouflage.
East Germany's forces (Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) and the Ministerium des Inneren (MdI)) used Flächentarnmuster from 1958 until it was replaced 1965 by the Strichtarnmuster camouflage.
Battledress continued until the late 1950s. In the Korean War (1950–53), troops found the combat uniform inadequate: too hot in summer, and not warm enough in winter. Soldiers were at first issued Jungle Green (JG) uniforms for hot weather, and battledress in winter, but this had to be augmented with warm clothing, as well as caps with ear flaps and fur linings. A solution was pursued, and towards the end of the war a windproof and water-repellent gabardine combat uniform was issued. The trousers followed the battledress design, while the bush jacket had pockets inside and out, closing with zips and buttons, a hip-length skirt with draw-strings to keep out the wind, and a similar arrangement at the waist. The uniform was produced in greyish green (OG), similar to the U.S. Army Olive Drab (OD).
With the end of National Service in 1961, the Army looked for a new uniform: smarter than battledress, but also more comfortable, while still having a military air. Using Korean War clothing as a basis, new items were developed for the 1960-pattern Combat Dress, including the so-called Canadian pattern combat jacket, which was made with a lining above the waist and reinforced elbows. The 1960s was a transition for the Army, reflected in changes in uniform.
The new, smaller, all-volunteer Army could now afford to equip every soldier with his own camouflaged uniform, and a pattern, based on the brushstroke of the Denison Smock, was designed in 1960, called Disruptive Pattern (DP). The camouflage is more commonly known by the name given to the cloth printed with the pattern: Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM). By the late sixties it was issued in limited quantities on 1960-pattern jackets and trousers, making Britain the first country to issue regular troops with a standard camouflaged combat uniform. Known as ‘66-Pattern, it was superseded by the ’68-Pattern, which had a slightly revised design on a new uniform, featuring minor changes over the preceding 1960/66-Pattern kit, most notably: a full lining for jacket and trousers. DPM became official army-wide issue only in 1972.
Various redesigns since 1984 changed the size of the pattern and the tone of the colours, but DPM is easily recognisable and remains effective. Many countries use it or a variation.[16]
Many war surplus "leopard spot" uniforms were sold to allied nations reforming their armed forces. Worn by French parachutists in the First Indochina War, the "leopard spot" was marketed to civilian hunters under the name "duck hunter".
The CIA supplied "leopard spot" or “duck hunter” camouflage for Brigade 2506 Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and South Vietnamese and Montagnard Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) counter-guerrillas until the pattern was replaced by the tigerstripe pattern in the mid-1960s. [28].
During the Vietnam War, U.S. troops were issued a "boonie suit" in a single dull green for blending into the jungle. From the late 1950s the US Marine Corps had been issued with a variation on their World War II reversible helmet cover and shelter half. This had a tan and brown “brown clouds” side (printed with large identification numbers) and a green jungle side with a jagged “wine leaf” (a.k.a. “Mitchell”) pattern. Rangers and Special Forces units (aka Green Berets) adopted the Vietnamese "Tigerstripe" pattern with its distinctive horizontal slashes of black, green, and tan. Although this style became popular among the troops, it was not an official government issue uniform. It was procured by private purchase from civilian tailors. This is also called the "John Wayne pattern" as the design was featured in Wayne's 1968 film The Green Berets. Also in 1968, the brightly coloured division shoulder patches worn since World War II were gradually replaced with a "subdued" green and black version. Name tags and other insignia patches soon followed.
Another, four colour U.S. pattern, designed in 1948 by the Engineer Research & Development Laboratory (ERDL) based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was later revisited for use in the Vietnam War. Named ERDL Leaf pattern, it was first issued to elite reconnaissance and special operations units in early 1967.[16] It was initially produced in a lime dominant colourway, consisting of large organic shapes in mid green and brown, black ‘branches’, and light green ‘leaf highlights’. Shortly thereafter a brown dominant scheme (with the light green replaced by light tan) was manufactured. The two patterns are also known as ‘Lowland’ and ‘Highland’ ERDL respectively. The brown ‘Highland’ version was adopted as standard issue by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) from 1968, and later introduced on a wide scale in Southeast Asia by the U.S. Army, so that by the end of the Vietnam War American troops wearing camouflage combat dress had become the norm.[29] Following the withdrawal of the U.S. Army from the Southeast Asian Theatre in 1973, camouflage clothing was no longer routinely issued in that arm though the 1st Battalion 13th Infantry Regiment in Baumholder, Germany wore the Lowland ERDL in the early 1970s as an experiment. The USMC continued wearing a transitional ‘Delta’ ERDL pattern that was issued in the mid-1970s. It was not until 1981 that the U.S. Quartermaster Dept. approved another camouflaged uniform with the fielding, from September (not officially introduced until 1 October, however), of the battle dress uniform (BDU) in M81 Woodland pattern.[30] Although based on the Vietnam era brown dominant ERDL Leaf camouflage, but enlarged (by 60%),[31] and with the thicker black ‘shadows’ of the ‘Delta’ variant, the pattern was designed primarily for use in Europe. For the next two decades, this was the standard issue BDU for all arms of the U.S. military. Solid olive drab uniforms were rapidly phased out, such that by the time of Operation Urgent Fury in 1983, all participating units were clothed in M81 BDUs. The only exception was the Army Ranger Battalions who wore the olive drab uniforms until 1986.
The formation of the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) in 1979, with its remit to operate in the Middle East, and protect U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf region, saw the issue of the first U.S. desert camouflage clothing, a six colour Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBDU), originally designed in 1962. With a base pattern of light tan overlaid with broad swathes of pale olive green and wide two-tone bands of brown, the clusters of white-on-black spots scattered over it earned it the nickname "chocolate chip" pattern. It was worn by U.S. troops taking part in the biennial Bright Star exercises in Egypt during the 1980s, and by FORSCOM peacekeepers in the Egyptian Sinai, but the design contrasted too much with the terrain, and the six-colour pattern was expensive to manufacture, so the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center researched a substitute. Samples of sand and earth from the Middle East were measured for optical and infrared reflectance, and seven trial patterns were evaluated. The resulting "Desert Camouflage Pattern: Combat" was standardized in 1990, but was not used in the Gulf War of 1990-1991.[16] Nicknamed the “Coffee Stain” pattern and officially issued with the new Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) in 1993, it consisted of a subtle blend of large pastel green and light tan shapes, with sparsely placed, narrow, reddish brown patches.
Digital camouflage (or "digicam") uses small 'micropatterns', as opposed to traditional larger 'macropatterns' for effective disruption. The theory is that large blotches of colour with sharp outlines are easier to see, while "blurring" the edges of the coloured patches makes the outlines, and thus the objects, harder to discern. The name refers to the coordinates of the pattern, which are digitally defined, as well as the set of colours used.
From 1978 to the early 1980s, the American 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment stationed in Europe used a digital camouflage pattern, dual-tex, on its vehicles. During 1979 and 1980, the Australian Army experimented with dual-tex on its helicopters.[32]
Battledress in digital camouflage patterns was first designed by the Canadian Forces. The pattern bears similarities to the Bundeswehr's (Flecktarn).
Digital camouflage patterns have been adopted by:
The South Korean Army around August 2006 adopted a digital camouflage pattern similar to the USMC's MARPAT for its Special Warfare Command units. The German, Danish, and Japanese military use camouflage that involves dots (flecktarn) instead of pixelated patterns. Digital camouflage for personal clothing is being actively evaluated by e.g. Austria, Poland, and Spain.
Digital camouflage in desert colours is used by Kuwaiti army forces, replacing older patterns in 2007. Jordan adopted a similar design in 2008.
The purpose of vehicle and equipment camouflage differs from personal camouflage in that the primary threat is aerial reconnaissance. The goal is to disrupt the characteristic shape of the vehicle, to reduce shine, and to make the vehicle difficult to identify even if it is spotted.
Paint is the least effective measure, but forms a basis for other techniques. Military vehicles often become so dirty that pattern-painted camouflage is not visible, and although matt colours are used to reduce shine, a wet vehicle can still be very shiny, especially when viewed from above. Patterns are designed to make it more difficult to interpret shadows and shapes. The British Army adopted a disruptive scheme for their vehicles operating in the stony desert of the North African Campaign and also Greece, retrospectively known as the "Caunter scheme". This used up to six colours applied with straight lines.[33]
The British Army's Special Air Service used pink as the primary colour on its desert-camouflaged Land Rover Series IIA patrol vehicles, nicknamed Pink Panthers;[34] the distinctly non-macho colour had been observed to be indistinguishable from sand, at a distance.
Nets can be effective at defeating visual observation. Traditional camouflage nets use a textile ‘garnish’ to generate an apparent texture with a depth of shadow created beneath it. Modern nets tend to be made of a continuous woven material, which is easier to deploy over a vehicle and doesn’t have “windows” between the patches of garnish of traditional nets. Nets are occasionally fixed in place around gun tubes or turrets, and if adequately attached can remain in place while the tank is moving. Nets are less effective in defeating radar and thermal sensors. Heavier, more durable mobile camouflage systems have been developed to bridge the technology gap between paint and nets. Essentially they are conformal duvets which can include materials with thermal and radar properties.
Until the 20th century, naval weapons had a very short range, so camouflage was unimportant for ships, and for the men on board them. Paint schemes were selected on the basis of ease of maintenance or aesthetics, typically buff upperworks (with polished brass fittings) and white or black hulls. At the turn of the century the increasing range of naval engagements, as demonstrated by the Battle of Tsushima, prompted the introduction of the first camouflage, in the form of some solid shade of gray overall, in the hope that ships would fade into the mist.
First and Second World War Dazzle camouflage was used not to make ships disappear, but to make them seem smaller and/or faster, to encourage misidentification by an enemy and to make the ships harder to hit.[35]
After the Second World War, the universal adoption of radar made camouflage generally less effective. However, camouflage may have helped to protect United States warships from Vietnamese shore batteries using optical rangefinders.[36]
The design of camouflage for aircraft is complicated by the fact that the appearance of the aircraft's background varies widely depending on the location of the observer (above or below) and the nature of the background. Many aircraft camouflage schemes of the past used countershading, where a light colour was used underneath and darker colours above.
Other camouflage schemes acknowledge that the aircraft will be twisting and turning while in combat, and the camouflage pattern is applied to the entire aircraft.
The higher speeds of modern aircraft, and the reliance on radar and missiles in air combat have reduced the value of visual camouflage, while increasing the value of electronic "stealth" measures. Modern paint is designed to absorb electromagnetic radiation used by radar, reducing the signature of the aircraft, and to limit the emission of infrared light used by heat seeking missiles to detect their target. Further advances in aircraft camouflage are being investigated in the field of active camouflage.
The transfer of camouflage patterns from battle to exclusively civilian uses is not recent. The first military camouflage was used by the French on their military vehicles, and within three weeks of the German invasion of France in 1914, the couturiers of Paris, having observed them, had turned those abstract patterns into women's clothing. It symbolized modernity to them, the first industrial war. Ironically, this meant that camouflage patterns were used for civilian clothing long before it was used for uniforms.
Dazzle camouflage also inspired a trend of dazzlesque patterns used on clothing in England. In 1919, Chelsea Arts Club held a "Dazzle Ball", those attending wore dazzle-patterned black and white clothing, influencing twentieth-century fashion and art via postcards (see illustration) and magazine articles.[37] The Illustrated London News announced
The earliest camouflage artists were members of the Post- Impressionist and Fauve schools of France. The camouflage experts were, for the most part, painters like Forain, Camoin, Villon and Marcoussis, sculptors like Boucher and Despiau, and theatre set artists [39].
Camouflage schemes of the First World War and Interwar periods that employed disruptive patterns were often described as "cubist" by commentators, and Picasso claimed with typical hyperbole Yes, it is we who made it, that is cubism.[40]
But most of the artists employed as camoufleurs were traditional representative painters, not cubists. De Scévola himself, however, did claim
While many artists helped to develop camouflage during and since World War I, the disparate sympathies of the two cultures restrained the use of "militaristic" forms other than in the work of war artists. Since the 1960s, however, several notable artists have exploited the symbolism of camouflage, including:
In the United States in the 1960s, military clothing became increasingly common (mostly olive drab rather than patterned camouflage); interestingly, it was often found worn by anti-war protestors, initially within groups such as Vietnam Veterans Against the War but then increasingly widely as a symbol of political protest.[47]
Fashion often uses camouflage as inspiration - attracted by the striking designs, the "patterned disorder" of camouflage, its symbolism (to be celebrated or subverted [vide its use by Hello Kitty]), and its versatility. Early designers include Marimekko (1960s), Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (1975-), Roland Chakal (1970), Stephen Sprouse (using Warhol prints, 1987–1988), and Franco Moschino (1986), but it was not until the 1990s that camouflage became a significant and widespread facet of dress from streetwear to high-fashion labels - especially the use of "faux-camouflage". Producers using camouflage in the 1990s and beyond include: John Galliano for Christian Dior[48], Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Comme des Garçons, Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Issey Miyake, Armani, Yves Saint-Laurent.[47]
Companies closely associated with camouflage patterns include Maharishi, mhi, Zoo York, Addict, 6876, A Bathing Ape, Stone Island, and Girbaud), using and overprinting genuine military surplus fabric; others use camouflage patterns in bright colours such as pink or purple. Some, such as Emma Lundgren, have created their own designs or integrated camouflage patterns with other symbols.[49]
Some countries such as Barbados, Aruba, and other Caribbean nations have strict laws that prohibit camouflage clothing from being worn by non-military personnel, including tourists and children.[16]