Camouflage in World War II (1939-1945)

The main developments in regard to camouflage during what was surely the greatest conflagration man has ever known centred round disguise and decoy. The most common camouflage found in the field during the war  consisted of string nets threaded with scrim coloured to harmonize with the background.

These contrivances were duly flung over the appliance that needed to be hidden and could, if so desired, be studded with foliage or grass, or whatever was to hand. The nets were opaque when studied from a distance and did not cast “heavy shadows”, the troops being amazingly imaginative in their use.

Painting of vehicles in accordance with their environment was of paramount importance and it was found that on wintry fronts, white equipment manned by white-clad troops against a backdrop of snow proved to be practically invisible, as long as there was no sunshine to cast long black shadows.

Deceptive camouflage was used mainly as a defence mechanism against the ever-present threat of air-attack, and of course, Berlin, being the very epicentre of the Nazi empire,  was very heavily camouflaged to forestall attack. Entire roads were clad over with reams of green netting to give the appearance of green fields.

The Germans even contrived to camouflage the Liezensee Lake, creating a suburban landscape complete with lawns and roofs supported on piles.

Decoy towns were built, and at night false fires were lit on open spaces, the incandescent glow  an attempt to invite bombs.

London itself saw many ingenious examples of camouflage, newspaper kiosks, shops, sheds and garages often proving upon close inspection to be cleverly painted strongpoints.

Camouflage was, of course, transformed into almost an art-form on the field of combat itself, where sham-guns, tanks and vehicles meant for enemy observation had to appear camouflaged, but insufficiently so, in order to deliberately attract enemy attention and in so doing help to obviate the enemy attacking targets of true military worth.

Among the devices used by the Allies were so-called Tanks, Guns and Lorries that were actually made up of nothing more than inflatable balloon fabric, an example being a dummy Sherman tank that when deflated could easily be packed into a valise not much bigger than a cricket bag!

These pneumatic designs were extremely portable, could be blown up in approximately five-minutes and proved to be effective in their intended role of deception up to 120 yards (roughly a distance of 109 metres).