From soldiers and guns to tanks and ships at sea, let's take a closer look at how this art of concealment has been applied during wartime. Have you encountered any camouflage tactics so brilliant they almost fooled history itself?
We took classes on camouflage during basic training (Canada Air Force) and I got to test it out once. While I was waiting to get posted after my trade training I got the chance to play enemy force for a leadership course. This was in Ontario in winter. Even though I was wearing a dark civilian coat in winter ( we were playing as guerrillas) I made the best of it with a few bushes, a white table cloth and a hole in a snowbank. I wiped out half an approaching squad before they even knew I was there. It was such fun.
Urban camouflage where vehicles and positions are camouflaged as rubble or trash piles, mostly so it's harder for drones to spot. Illusion completely breaks when the vehicle moves though.
The one thing that shocked me when it actually worked and worked great, is Pink in the desert at sunrise and sunset. The SAS calls their SUVs "Pinky's" because the ones they used on raids in the Desert during WWII were painted pink. I have seen it (or actually I didn't see it) with my own eyes at 200-300m with the sun in the back it makes a big ass suv basically invisible 😮. So if your girlfriend makes you get a pink car you can say it's painted in desert camouflage and being technically honest! 😂 But it still blows my mind. Also how did they found out about this, I mean it doesn't seem logical and if I didn't know, I would find it hilarious if someone had said hey let's paint our car for the raid tomorrow pink. My response would be "lmao, good one! okay now boys let's get serious!
In September of 1942 the US Navy, on the observations of US aircrews, changed camouflage Measure -11 (using Sea Blue) and replacing it with the darker Navy Blue. The scheme was designated Measure-21. All vertical portions of the ship was painted Navy Blue (5-N) and decks or horizontal portions in dark Deck Blue (20-B). Measure-21 was used extensively by the US Navy in the western and southern Pacific until the end of the war. This was designed to minimize detection and identification from the air. Some reports indicated that the ship could almost disappear in the back-round of the ocean.
As someone who, back when you could tell original from repro, collected a lot of this WWII stuff, i found it interesting that a guy with whom I worked in the late 70's, Lou, explained how, in the Bocage country, during the Normandy Campaign, his colorblindness allowed him to save his platoon on numerous occasions, because the camouflage German uniforms and positions didn't have the optical effect on him.
In 1918 my, then 3 year old, grandmother had a chicken named camouflage. This was during the first world war and amongst the American populous, camouflage was a buzz-word like 'stealth' in the 1980's and 90's. Her toddler ears picked this up and her pet chicken was thus named Camouflage. RIP grandma Mary-Jane, you are loved and missed.
Great story! I'm reminded of my own grandmother telling me stories about her brothers heading off to WW1 and how they bragged that it would be just like one big camping trip. She was one of the finest women I've ever known
I’m German American and proud to be. Germany had the best artillery in WW1. Highest Kill to Death ratio. Many British troops were left disfigured, thankfully by the German weapons
I haven't met a Sgt who would fall for that baloney. Sgts usually see through everything that a soldier might try on.😅 Mark from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
Would it be possible to have an episode based around logistics? We've heard a lot about the Allies struggles in France but I'm curious how the Soviets resupply and maintain their forces especially considering their advances over huge distances. Also the logistics situation in the Pacific would be interesting to hear about as well with the famous example of American ice-cream boats.
Soviet logistics: Trains where possible and LOTS and LOTS of trucks, mostly American (and if they were Russian, Allies supplied pretty much all the rubber for tires and such). One of the reasons why Bagration was such a big success were logistics capabilities provided by the Allies (mostly US) through Lend Lease.
@@Spectification You got it slightly wrong there. The most common truck was the Soviet GAZ 1.5 ton truck, with around 150k of those present in the Red Army by the start of the war, and more than 100k produced over its course. American Studebaker was the second most common with over 100k delivered via Land Lease.
Definitely an interesting piece of camouflage history, they even tested them on planes in the first world war. Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching!
@@WorldWarTwo - USN even tested some schemes on airplanes just before WWII designed by McClelland Barclay. Check out "Barclay Camouflage" in your favorite search engine.
This past Halloween I dressed up in A ghillie suit to hand out candy for the kids. One kid takes the candy, promptly looks up at me, and says "Thanks, plant!" I'd call that successful camouflage 😂
One thing that's very important to know about how British naval camouflage worked is how German rangefinders worked. Using a German designed rangefinder, you would look at a ship through a scope, and see the top half of the image in 1 level of zoom and the bottom half at a different level of zoom (or something that produces a similar effect). When you adjusted it such that the images lined up, you had it at the correct range, and could read off the range. But with the dazzle camouflage, it was very difficult to get that right - any given line on the ship you were using to try to see if things line up properly could be broken up at any arbitrary point along it by the camo, so to find the range you had to figure out which breaks were from the camo and which were from the optics. Net result: rangefinder use was much slower to find a number, much less likely to be exactly correct, and much greater eye strain on the operator (thus impairing performance long term over the course of a chase or pitched long-term battle. Yes, you'd have some amount of relief crew to compensate for that, but there's only so many people on a ship who are going to have the relevant training, and the rangefinder person is going to have to learn that person's job too, and...it muddles things up. The idea isn't to say "There isn't a ship here." The idea is to say "There is a ship somewhere here but you don't know exactly where....but we know exactly where you are!" And because British rangefinders used a different method (the details of which I forget), they were all but immune to any German attempts to just copy the dazzle patterns. (As I recall, the British rangefinders had other disadvantages, but those were ones that were less easily magnified through camo paint.
Yes! I was looking for this comment. You can't really hide a ship. Capital ships are the size of skyscrapers, and at sea there isn't much of a background to blend with. The goal of naval camouflage was to make it difficult for the enemy to find a good firing solution, maybe waste the first few salvos (while you are already firing accurately). Interfering with various optical rangefinding devices was the main way to achieve that. The explanation of how "zoom rangefinding" worked was great. I was not familiar with this one. A different rangefinding method is coincidence rangefinding. There were two scopes positioned at a distance from each other, kind of like extremely wide binoculars. The eyepiece displayed the image from one scope on the top half, and from the other scope on the bottom half. The operator had to adjust the angle between the scopes until the top and bottom image coincided to form a "whole" image. Then the range was obtained by a trigonometric computation. I think this is what the British used (quoting from memory again). I would imagine that a dazzle-like disruptive pattern would work against coincidence rangefinding just as well as "zoom rangefinding". Also, I read something about navies painting a fake bow wave on the stern of their ships, to get the enemy to misjudge the ship's heading. No need for all that complicated optics and trigonometry stuff amirite?
@@modernxenophon1582 Ohh! that might be how it was done! the only thing I remembered about how the system worked for sure was that you were matching a top image to a bottom image. The zoom idea was based entirely on my trying to reckon how you would wind up with 2 pictures to try to line up from a single scope. (Answer: it's not a single scope, it's 2 scopes elsewhere on the ship and some optics to bring them to one viewfinder. Or figure out if my out-of-the-hat zoom idea actually works.)
During the invasion of the Dutch East Indies a Dutch minelayer managed to escape Japanese aircraft by only moving at night and during the day laying next to island covered in leaves and painted on rocks, just make sure they looked like part of the island.
One of the more technical camouflage techniques I read about was the scheme of putting a string of lights along the leading edge of an airplane wing. This made it much harder to see the aircraft during a relatively clear day as it tended to blend into the overall brightness of the sky.
I believe they experimented with that on maratime patrol aircraft patrolling the North Atlantic. The camouflages goal was to prevent German submarines diving before aircraft could complete its attack (bombing) run on said submarine.
"There is an old poem I know, which freely translated from the Irish says, 'I realized fear one morning, when the blare of the fox-hunters sound. When they are all chasing after the poor bloody fox, it's safer to be dressed like a hound.'"
I worked for a while in Rolls-Royce Main Works, Derby. The building was called the Chapel, and I always assumed it was a repurposed chapel. Years later, I read about the wartime camouflage of the entire factory - a residential area had been painted over the buildings, and lo, that particular location was painted as a... chapel. The factory was never effectively bombed, but that was as much the fault of the Luftwaffe as it was the camouflage. Lots of factories in the town still bore their wartime camouflage, even in the 70s.
The WWII shadow factory built at Castle Bromwich, which would be used to build Spitfires and several other aircraft, was said to have been given a paint job to make it look like a golf course from the air. When the RAF flew over to check its effectiveness their only issue was they could see a railway line running along a fairway. So after that the plant lost its railhead and supplies were then brought in using carts and lorries.
As someone who's been studying the war both professionally and recreationally for the entirety of his life, it's seldom I get smacked with new information at this point, but the idea that the basic premise for 'digital' camouflage was conceived as far back as 1944 is wild to me.
Even just 25 years before, the French were still using bright blue/red uniforms and Germans still had the super shiny spiked helmet so camo for infantry in particular wasn't even a priority so oddly enough camo development really is a relatively new thing in terms of warfare. Even today camo schemes get changed back and forth rapidly as a middle ground between effectiveness/cost/style needs to be found.
The Germans may have started the war with shiny pickelhaubes but it wasn't that long before they started putting fabric covers over their pickelhaube to help camouflage them.
@@Riceball01 They had grey, on occasion khaki covers over them from the start of WW1. One change made was that regimental numbers in red, carried on the front of the cover, were changed to green and then omitted entirely.
Yeah, by the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict Ukraine had standard USA-like light khaki pixel camo, Russia had dark green pixel camo. Now both sides are introducing an almost identical multicam pattern.
@@TheFatMob So field signs have to be used to tell superficially similar uniforms apart. Romanians in WW2 often wore yellow armbands - from a distance their round helmets and khaki uniforms could be confused with the Red Army's so the field sign was needed.
Key point here is probably the very limited, "specialized unit" availability of these WWII camo designs. Aside from white winter gear and khaki desert schemes, it was basically Feldgrau for the Wehrmacht and pea soup for the Allies.
Funny thing about the Allies, especially US units, that pea soup worked amazingly well as cammo largely due to our logistic production superiority, in that so many different factories were producing various uniform pieces, webbing, spats, and packs, etc. that on the whole, dye lots of olive drab were so vastly different that a fully equipped soldier had about 12 different shades varying between dark greens to tans to olives to khakis to butternut to dark brown. It had the unintentional effect of breaking up an outline in most foilage.
Even special camo for special units continues even today. CANSOFCOM uses a more universal camo instead of CADPAT the rest of the Canadian military uses.
Another important aspect of camouflage was the straight line. The human eye picks out straight lines quite easily especially from a fast moving aircraft. We would cover things with the camouflage nets and stick poles up in them and attach cut branches to them to eliminate any straight lines. Additionally, the cut branches with leaves had to be changed frequently because as the leaves dried out, they would change color and would stand out against live leaves around them.
My Uncle Barney was in a short Argosy Magazine article, I think in 1941. He was in the standard uniform and fellows to his left and right were in various cammo outfits. He still had his WWI type helmet on, at the typical jaunty angle. He was an Army Engineer.
It's pretty hard to hide a tank, no matter what camouflage pattern you use, so tank camouflage was primarily intended to break up the outline because tank (and anti-tank ?) gun sights worked by aligning two images of the target, which is very hard to do if you can't resolve its shape. Adding branches and suchlike would help to achieve this, of course.
I remember seeing a video in which large vehicle was basically hidden from airborne observer by simply being in shadow of building. No special camouflage was even necessary. Also seen camouflage effectiveness demonstrations in which very ineffective-looking patterns (olive drab and Feldgrau) were still practically invisible as person was in shadow. Hiding shape, shadow and shine are very as much as I know, basic principles of camouflage.
@@vksasdgaming9472 As Indie mentioned, camouflage is as much about fooling the brain as the eye. You can be looking right at something but if you don't recognise its shape it might as well be invisible. I can see why a vehicle in the shadow of a building would work - the shadow stops shine, and the vehicle would then be a bunch of lines and regular shapes next to something else made of lines and regular shapes, so your eye might pass right over it. Shadow also reduces contrast, so a cammo pattern uniform in shade works better than in bright light. Even better if the shade is dappled, such as in woodland or scrub. Notice too that many combat uniforms are somewhat baggy and shapeless, which helps hide the easily recognised outline of the body.
I remember reading that vehicle camouflage is either to disguise it from aerial recon or to disguise their numbers, direction, and speed at distances, or even what type of vehicle
@@SonicsniperV7 I believe the best way to hide vehicles from aerial recon was/is the use of camouflage netting, which not only disguises the shape but also the vehicle's shadow which could also give away which type it was. Yes, the film used in recon cameras was of such a high resolution that you could clearly make out something like that. In fact, they could even tell where the enemy positions had barbed wire defences - the grass under a barbed wire fence doesn't get grazed or cut so it's longer and throws a shadow.
This was an interesting episode to watch, given how developments on camouflage during the war evolved into the present day camouflage of modern day armies, such as the Flecktarn and various digital camouflage patterns, as well as the Multicam pattern. I was often impressed by how well Japanese snipers concealed and blended themselves well into the jungle, giving their opponents a lot of difficulty in spotting and engaging them. Thank you for this episode as always, Indy & team.
They were good and clever disguise was ruined by not leaving your position after taking those first shots. Lots of Japanese snipers fell to spray and pray-tactic used in response as jungle made firing ranges short.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Japanese snipers or sharpshooters who climbed into trees may or may not have used foliage for camouflage but they tended to assume they would die there. A British officer in the Border Regiment later wrote of fighting them in Burma. Fire was coming from one or more trees perhaps two or three hundred yards away and one man near him was killed by a bullet that pierced his helmet. But the officer saw a muzzle flash and he aimed a Bren gun at it, emptying an entire magazine. His sergeant, peering through field glasses, congratulated the officer for getting him - the Japanese was swinging at the end of a rope he had tied around his waist.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Incident of Japanese sharpshooter being killed by liberal use of spray-and-pray does not tell much about their attitude towards chance of dying. I do admit climbing into tree to snipe is very risky despite having benefits as well. Getting down is difficult.
wonder how many soldiers walked up to the enemy without even knowing they were even there and the enemy simply says give up and the other soldiers just sighs and drops their weapon , ie getting lost in the winter and trying to find a slick trench , great video
I'd say not every often unless they were fully camouflaged like a sniper wearing a ghillie suit. A standard camouflage does not and is not intended to make the wearer invisible. The idea is to break up the wearer's outline so at a distance and/or at a glance you don't recognize the shape of the wearer as a person. But once you get close enough, well before you'd step on them, you'd see them at least well enough to tell that there's something fishy about that lump out in front of you.
When the US Marines invaded Tarawa, they were issued camo fatigues that didn't breathe. My old boss was there. He told me 40 years ago that the fatigues were so hot that by 1000 hrs he and all of the other live Marines, on Betio, had to strip down to their skivvies. Good Luck, Rick
And in front of Indy the tons of camouflaged scripts, that did not make the cut 😅 Again a very interesting special - that's what I love about this series, that you cover so many unassuming aspects of the war.
The 'amoeba' referance at 7:47 reminded me of how I had once wondered if the Germans operation 'Bararrosa' would had mimicked one, and planed for a 2 year protracted war. A 'Sickle Cut' to first take out Stalingrad, the next year Moscow and then Lenningrad. Cheers, well done.
A major problem the Allies faced in the Pacific was the material for the uniforms. Light cotton rotted quickly in the wet conditions, and wool was too hot and a favorite dinner for bugs. Trying to supply tens of thousands of replacement camouflage uniforms to troops became a serious problem. Olive drab was often worn in general to save the camo.
Even in northwest European summers, wool was sometimes too hot. It was definitely too hot in the tropics. The Germans developed a synthetic wool called "Zellwolle" - it was certainly used in civilian clothes and may have been used in military uniforms as well. It was generally considered serviceable although not so good at keeping out the cold. Later war German uniforms, especially greatcoats, showed a decline in manufacturing quality. The Allies claimed the Germans awarded more medals, typically worn on German uniforms, to cover up the decline in uniform quality, but this seems to have been a myth. Red Army uniforms were wool in their winter issue and cotton in their summer one. Both were khaki though the wool version tended to be a darker shade than the summer one, which tended to be more sand-coloured although depending on the factory and what dyes were available, the khaki could actually be brownish, greenish, grey or even almost black. Quilted winter uniforms were usually khaki although NKVD troops wore a blue version, notably in Stalingrad, which was almost the opposite of camouflage.
1:18 - 1:41 are those soldier part of SS Nordland or SS Wiking finnish volunteers? Note that two of them have Suomi M31 smg, drum and coffin magazine variations. If it's so that's a very rare film footage discovery.
Indy, Great video! Please remember, the Japanese Infantry were issued Helmet & Body Nets for sticking foliage into, used as camouflage. Keep up the good work.
Recently learned and want to share here: dazzle painting serves as an anti-rangefinding method. Optical rangefinders use one of several methods of making two identical images overlap or two halves forming one correct total, giving you the range on a dial to set your torpedoes or gun sights. Hard to do with an unfamiliar tangle of lines and shapes.
Camouflage uniforms were issued to some US Army units in Normandy, summer 1944, and then quickly withdrawn because other US troops were mistaking them for Germans. The idea that camouflage uniform meant German troops, especially Waffen-SS, seems to have been deeply ingrained. Other US units do not appear to have been warned about the experiment with camouflage.
The friendly fire incidents because of the camo pattern appears to be largely a myth. Another channel, I forget which, did a video on it and the combat records do not support this friendly fire story. I forget the actual reason for discontinuing the issue of these camouflage uniforms, but it wasn't because the wearers were being mistaken for members of the Waffen SS.
@@Riceball01 Everything I have read on this suggests friendly fire incidents were happening and they withdrew the camouflage issue as a result. American troops shooting other Americans might be a source of embarrassment and perhaps there was some desire to cover it up. It might bear further investigation.
@@Riceball01I second this. I feel as though friendly fire happened no matter the uniform. From a distance, an American can look like a German, and vise-versa.
@@eddie810 Perceived resemblance can make a difference, though, added to distance. At the end of Waterloo, for example, arriving Prussians mistook Nassau troops for French and they traded fire, with casualties on both sides. The general appearance of Nassau uniforms looked like those of the French, and it was getting dark. Nassau grenadiers had fur hats that made them look somewhat like Napoleon's Old Guard from a distance.
I would also add that they were rather swift to withdraw the camouflage, as opposed to simply not extending the experiment. This suggests to me that there were genuine problems with it.
the us pattern, both "green" and "brown" were universally known as "frogskin" camo. many items of gear were made in this pattern but few saw much field use. the army also had a helmet cover modelled in cut after the german 3 panel design. it never got past the limited field testing stage and was soon dropped. some 1 piece frogskin coveralls were issuued for the d-day lands but were soon dropped as it led to some friendly fire incidents due to its slight similarity to ss camo. theres a famous pic of one of these coveralls being worn by a german sniper surrendering to british troops.
They were 2 piece uniforms HBT not coveralls and they did not led to friendly fire incidents. There is no period unit report or even veterans of these units mentioning this. Postwar myth. The camouflage was slightly different pattern as used by the marines.These uniforms were actually delivered to Europe by accident, destined for the Pacific. The fabric was poor quality and when worn out could not be replaced with similar uniform. Thus they became less seen. Although there is photographic evidence that some men managed to wear the jacketl to the end of the war. Loads of these uniforms were found (and or donated to?) after the war by the Dutch army in supply dumps left by the Americans in asia. The Dutch at first were quite happy with these free camouflage uniforms. Until after time the men started to have complaints, ventilation/quality issues.
@@jimomaha7809 the famous pic IS of a 1 piece coverall and theyre known to exist. and yes, it led to friendly fire incidents which is why it was unpopular in europe. yes, the army had its own pattern, but it was very similar to usmc. the fabric was the same hbt used in other uniforms, but the dyes used are harsh on the fabric. who wouldnt be happy with a bunch of free uniforms?
(Also, trivia for whoever mentioned the Redcoats eventually stopping with the red, ....actually the ostensible reason for the red was that they found it made formations of troops hardest to *count.* (Whereas trying to hide where you *are* just didn't matter in those musket battle lines.) )
In the age of black powder, artillery and musketry fire tended to wreath the battlefield in smoke. There was some advantage in colourful uniforms as it made it easier for commanders to locate their own troops - and the enemy's. Though sometimes both sides wore the same colour. French infantry at Waterloo generally wore dark blue, but so did the majority of Dutch-Belgian foot soldiers on the other side. Despite the red-coated British infantry, Wellington's army may have had slightly more soldiers in dark blue as besides Dutch-Belgian infantry, much of the British cavalry and all the artillery wore dark blue. Though they were probably in third place in his army, a substantial number of troops wore green. British and Hanoverian riflemen, Dutch-Belgian light infantry and the Nassau contingent were clad in green. The Prussian were in many cases in dark blue although their somewhat motley and hastily put together army had many reservists and grey was a widespread colour. One contingent from I think Westphalia or Berg were told to wear grey overcoats even in summer as their normal uniforms looked rather French and there might be confusion.
Somewhere I have gotten yhe idea that the last few ft of the longer barrel of the British firefly tank was painted a lighter color to make it appear to be a normal tank
Fun fact: the German word for camouflage "Tarnung" was revived during the first world war because the word "verstecken" has some cowardly connotations attached.
You mentioned that at a late stage in the war German tanks were mainly lost to air power showing a typhoon launching rockets. I've read contradictory articles about this claim. Some arguing as you do that Typhoons were very successful and others that this is yet another example of pilots overclaiming. I'd be interested in your thoughts about this.
Not as spectacular as some of the camouflage patterns but my grandfather was a painter during World War 2 and he painted the air base in Dover Delaware Olive drab in 1942.
My time of service wore woodland camo, it was okay too much black The German ambush camo really did it's job. Not until Germany invaded Russia did Germany use camouflage 9n tanks. From dark grey to hide in the tree lines, the vast open terrain of Russian the German high command started to issue dark yellow with green and red brown colors, some areas omitted the green other areas the brown from stripes to spots or other to help diquise the equipment. Nice video sir
And to add to the complexity, it still needs to be a uniform, allowing you to recognise your friends. Which is contradictory with the very purpose of camouflage.
Interesting as ever.I think the US Army issued some of those "Jungle suits" to some units in Normandy,but they were too similar to Waffen-SS in appearance and were withdrawn very soon after.
The American "Jungle" pattern was issued to a small number of troops in the ETO for and after D-Day. The uniforms were rapidly recalled when those units took friendly fire after being mistaken for Waffen SS who were abundantly equipped with Camo uniforms of various types.
My "favorite" attempt of camouflages was the Japanese Navy painted battleship cannons on the decks of one of the air craft carriers during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Didn't work- we blew it out of the water anyway!
At the end when Indie said " for now", does that mean we should look forward to a further re- visit of this camouflage endeavor? I certainly hope so....
Your examples may be the earliest forms of OFFICIAL and modern-day usage of camo, but obviously, it's been being informally used since humans themselves existed.
The Royal Navy may have developed color systems for camouflage but they lacked the same commitment the US Navy had. There's been a lot of good research into both Navies over the last 10-15 years.
Sound was part of the equation. American soldiers, and likely others, would glue their dog tags together so the noise wouldn't get them killed. Cheers!
The British Army introduced khaki uniforms in the early 1900s. During the Indian Mutiny in 1857, many British regiments took to staining their white tropical uniforms with tea or similar dyes in order to camouflage them. We could even go back to the 'drab' uniform worn in 1848 by the Corps of Guides! As fun as this channel can be, they do tend to make a lot of silly mistakes.
That Camouflage patterns used by the Waffen SS were Gorgeous. PS: and dont forget abaut the Camouflage of Ships, Airplanes and other Equipment. Like the One used by some Japonese "Zero" fighters in 1942 in the Solomon Islands.Awesome.
To think camouflage is so normal right now, flecktarn, multicam, tiger stripe in some places. To think I use to keep pieces of cloth and clips to attach them to my vest, chest, pants and helmet to adapt it on the fly according to different terrains.
Since almost everything was black and white during World War Two, I would’ve figured that the armies would have chosen grays and blacks for the camouflage.
Its interesting how many things the Italians Pioneered in the interwar period that failed miserably...and yet somehow managed to inspire actual effectivd equivalent
I’ve wondered about this topic a lot lately. My question, though, is how and why would some soldiers in a unit have a camouflage uniform while others wouldn’t. For instance, you commonly see German troops in a mixture of white, winter smocks and typical gray dress. In the pacific, some marines wear the jungle camo while others don’t.
Insufficient stocks probably explained it. A photo I saw in a book of Red Army soldiers attacking in winter showed some in snow camouflage and others in ordinary greatcoats. The caption in the book claimed the ones without camouflage were in a "shtrafbat" or punishment battalion, but it is more likely there were just not enough snow smocks to go around and some were issued one and others not.
Edwards Air Force Base 2014. A crew of Set Dressers and myself were out in the high desert set dressing for an NBC/Universal show titled State of Affairs. Upon returning to Los Angeles proper we witnessed several stealth bombers flying low and fast. Their camouflage was so superior that all 6 of us (5 Set Dressers and a Teamster) audibly gasped, oohed & ahed watching those aircraft appear, “disappear” and reappear. When it comes to visual trickery Set Dressers are tough customers. Especially the veterans in the 5 Ton on that particular afternoon. It was utterly magnificent. Stealth bombers are big. Like Darth Vader helmets ripping through the sky. Then? Poof! Gone. A shriek of jet afterburners BAM they’re back; a few hundred feet off the deck. I almost crapped myself and we knew there was no ordinance coming down. It gave me a new respect for diplomacy.
I am reminded of Mr Stan Ridgway`s track " Camouflage " although today his band Wall of Voodoo`s track " Mexican Radio " seems more appropriate for the environment.
The goal was to hide grease and dirt to reduce the need of sailors to change after performing some dirty task. The thought was reducing uniform changes and laundry would improve quality of life. The biggest problem was the uniform’s tendency to burn
Ghillie suits are even older and despite being very effective they have serious drawback of making wearer practically immobile. Not to mention their weight and issues with heat.
@@theother1281 Everything always has their drawbacks. Ghillie suits are very efficient in their niche. Most military uniforms are not meant for such use.
Bravo but hate the recent USN blueish camo, a pattern too far! PS - Favorite camouflage was the netting design to make Lockheed aircraft plant in Burbank, CA appear as an LA suburb!
From soldiers and guns to tanks and ships at sea, let's take a closer look at how this art of concealment has been applied during wartime. Have you encountered any camouflage tactics so brilliant they almost fooled history itself?
We took classes on camouflage during basic training (Canada Air Force) and I got to test it out once. While I was waiting to get posted after my trade training I got the chance to play enemy force for a leadership course. This was in Ontario in winter. Even though I was wearing a dark civilian coat in winter ( we were playing as guerrillas) I made the best of it with a few bushes, a white table cloth and a hole in a snowbank. I wiped out half an approaching squad before they even knew I was there. It was such fun.
check out Finnish coastal defence ship Väinämöinen
Urban camouflage where vehicles and positions are camouflaged as rubble or trash piles, mostly so it's harder for drones to spot. Illusion completely breaks when the vehicle moves though.
The one thing that shocked me when it actually worked and worked great, is Pink in the desert at sunrise and sunset. The SAS calls their SUVs "Pinky's" because the ones they used on raids in the Desert during WWII were painted pink. I have seen it (or actually I didn't see it) with my own eyes at 200-300m with the sun in the back it makes a big ass suv basically invisible 😮. So if your girlfriend makes you get a pink car you can say it's painted in desert camouflage and being technically honest! 😂 But it still blows my mind. Also how did they found out about this, I mean it doesn't seem logical and if I didn't know, I would find it hilarious if someone had said hey let's paint our car for the raid tomorrow pink. My response would be "lmao, good one! okay now boys let's get serious!
In September of 1942 the US Navy, on the observations of US aircrews, changed camouflage Measure -11 (using Sea Blue) and replacing it with the darker Navy Blue. The scheme was designated Measure-21. All vertical portions of the ship was painted Navy Blue (5-N) and decks or horizontal portions in dark Deck Blue (20-B). Measure-21 was used extensively by the US Navy in the western and southern Pacific until the end of the war. This was designed to minimize detection and identification from the air. Some reports indicated that the ship could almost disappear in the back-round of the ocean.
As someone who, back when you could tell original from repro, collected a lot of this WWII stuff, i found it interesting that a guy with whom I worked in the late 70's, Lou, explained how, in the Bocage country, during the Normandy Campaign, his colorblindness allowed him to save his platoon on numerous occasions, because the camouflage German uniforms and positions didn't have the optical effect on him.
color blindness? more like camo detection mutant super soldier
Kinda makes you wonder if men bring colorblind more often is an adaptation?
That is possible.
@@brianbelgard5988 Makes sense. Spotting animals in pre-historic times.
A friend of mine was in the Korean War. He claimed the same thing.
In 1918 my, then 3 year old, grandmother had a chicken named camouflage. This was during the first world war and amongst the American populous, camouflage was a buzz-word like 'stealth' in the 1980's and 90's. Her toddler ears picked this up and her pet chicken was thus named Camouflage. RIP grandma Mary-Jane, you are loved and missed.
Like Ramona in the Beverly Cleary books who had dolls named Bendix and Chevrolet!
Great story! I'm reminded of my own grandmother telling me stories about her brothers heading off to WW1 and how they bragged that it would be just like one big camping trip. She was one of the finest women I've ever known
Thank you for sharing this story with us, may she rest in peace -TimeGhost Ambassador
I’m German American and proud to be. Germany had the best artillery in WW1. Highest Kill to Death ratio. Many British troops were left disfigured, thankfully by the German weapons
I love reading little tidbits like this!
Sergeant: Soldier, I didn't see you at the camouflage training! Soldier:Sir, thank you very much, sir, very appreciated!
I didn’t see that one coming.
I haven't met a Sgt who would fall for that baloney. Sgts usually see through everything that a soldier might try on.😅
Mark from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
He's not a sir
best joke I have ever heard lol
Would it be possible to have an episode based around logistics? We've heard a lot about the Allies struggles in France but I'm curious how the Soviets resupply and maintain their forces especially considering their advances over huge distances. Also the logistics situation in the Pacific would be interesting to hear about as well with the famous example of American ice-cream boats.
There was one, about two or three years ago, mainly looking at the German build-up for Barbarossa.
Soviet logistics: Trains where possible and LOTS and LOTS of trucks, mostly American (and if they were Russian, Allies supplied pretty much all the rubber for tires and such).
One of the reasons why Bagration was such a big success were logistics capabilities provided by the Allies (mostly US) through Lend Lease.
TIK History has done a good few videos on logistics for the Germans, Allies and USSR. Would recommend giving him a look-in.
Check the series done by real engineering in the D-Day logistics. You can find it on nebula in it's entirety
@@Spectification You got it slightly wrong there. The most common truck was the Soviet GAZ 1.5 ton truck, with around 150k of those present in the Red Army by the start of the war, and more than 100k produced over its course. American Studebaker was the second most common with over 100k delivered via Land Lease.
I love the Navy dazzle schemes. Designed to trick spotters into misjudging the distance and/or speed of the vessel, not so much its presence.
Definitely an interesting piece of camouflage history, they even tested them on planes in the first world war. Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching!
@@WorldWarTwo - USN even tested some schemes on airplanes just before WWII designed by McClelland Barclay. Check out "Barclay Camouflage" in your favorite search engine.
This past Halloween I dressed up in A ghillie suit to hand out candy for the kids.
One kid takes the candy, promptly looks up at me, and says "Thanks, plant!"
I'd call that successful camouflage 😂
The kid was clearly not taught to refuse candy from strange plants.
One thing that's very important to know about how British naval camouflage worked is how German rangefinders worked. Using a German designed rangefinder, you would look at a ship through a scope, and see the top half of the image in 1 level of zoom and the bottom half at a different level of zoom (or something that produces a similar effect). When you adjusted it such that the images lined up, you had it at the correct range, and could read off the range. But with the dazzle camouflage, it was very difficult to get that right - any given line on the ship you were using to try to see if things line up properly could be broken up at any arbitrary point along it by the camo, so to find the range you had to figure out which breaks were from the camo and which were from the optics. Net result: rangefinder use was much slower to find a number, much less likely to be exactly correct, and much greater eye strain on the operator (thus impairing performance long term over the course of a chase or pitched long-term battle. Yes, you'd have some amount of relief crew to compensate for that, but there's only so many people on a ship who are going to have the relevant training, and the rangefinder person is going to have to learn that person's job too, and...it muddles things up.
The idea isn't to say "There isn't a ship here." The idea is to say "There is a ship somewhere here but you don't know exactly where....but we know exactly where you are!" And because British rangefinders used a different method (the details of which I forget), they were all but immune to any German attempts to just copy the dazzle patterns. (As I recall, the British rangefinders had other disadvantages, but those were ones that were less easily magnified through camo paint.
Yes! I was looking for this comment.
You can't really hide a ship. Capital ships are the size of skyscrapers, and at sea there isn't much of a background to blend with.
The goal of naval camouflage was to make it difficult for the enemy to find a good firing solution, maybe waste the first few salvos (while you are already firing accurately).
Interfering with various optical rangefinding devices was the main way to achieve that. The explanation of how "zoom rangefinding" worked was great. I was not familiar with this one.
A different rangefinding method is coincidence rangefinding. There were two scopes positioned at a distance from each other, kind of like extremely wide binoculars. The eyepiece displayed the image from one scope on the top half, and from the other scope on the bottom half. The operator had to adjust the angle between the scopes until the top and bottom image coincided to form a "whole" image. Then the range was obtained by a trigonometric computation. I think this is what the British used (quoting from memory again).
I would imagine that a dazzle-like disruptive pattern would work against coincidence rangefinding just as well as "zoom rangefinding".
Also, I read something about navies painting a fake bow wave on the stern of their ships, to get the enemy to misjudge the ship's heading. No need for all that complicated optics and trigonometry stuff amirite?
@@modernxenophon1582 Ohh! that might be how it was done! the only thing I remembered about how the system worked for sure was that you were matching a top image to a bottom image. The zoom idea was based entirely on my trying to reckon how you would wind up with 2 pictures to try to line up from a single scope. (Answer: it's not a single scope, it's 2 scopes elsewhere on the ship and some optics to bring them to one viewfinder. Or figure out if my out-of-the-hat zoom idea actually works.)
You may have nice camouflage patterns. But the absolute best one is the Finnish Winter war camo made from white bed sheets!
During the invasion of the Dutch East Indies a Dutch minelayer managed to escape Japanese aircraft by only moving at night and during the day laying next to island covered in leaves and painted on rocks, just make sure they looked like part of the island.
Yes, it's a very famous story about how they used camouflage and concealment tactics to essentially island hop their way towards Darwin.
One of the more technical camouflage techniques I read about was the scheme of putting a string of lights along the leading edge of an airplane wing. This made it much harder to see the aircraft during a relatively clear day as it tended to blend into the overall brightness of the sky.
I believe they experimented with that on maratime patrol aircraft patrolling the North Atlantic.
The camouflages goal was to prevent German submarines diving before aircraft could complete its attack (bombing) run on said submarine.
Think you may be talking about Yehudi lights, an interesting approach to aircraft camouflage from 1943! Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching.
"There is an old poem I know, which freely translated from the Irish says, 'I realized fear one morning, when the blare of the fox-hunters sound. When they are all chasing after the poor bloody fox, it's safer to be dressed like a hound.'"
Oh oh oh oh camouflage, things are never quite the way they seem
Oh oh oh oh camouflage, I was awfully glad to see this big Marine
I worked for a while in Rolls-Royce Main Works, Derby. The building was called the Chapel, and I always assumed it was a repurposed chapel. Years later, I read about the wartime camouflage of the entire factory - a residential area had been painted over the buildings, and lo, that particular location was painted as a... chapel. The factory was never effectively bombed, but that was as much the fault of the Luftwaffe as it was the camouflage. Lots of factories in the town still bore their wartime camouflage, even in the 70s.
The WWII shadow factory built at Castle Bromwich, which would be used to build Spitfires and several other aircraft, was said to have been given a paint job to make it look like a golf course from the air. When the RAF flew over to check its effectiveness their only issue was they could see a railway line running along a fairway. So after that the plant lost its railhead and supplies were then brought in using carts and lorries.
As someone who's been studying the war both professionally and recreationally for the entirety of his life, it's seldom I get smacked with new information at this point, but the idea that the basic premise for 'digital' camouflage was conceived as far back as 1944 is wild to me.
Even just 25 years before, the French were still using bright blue/red uniforms and Germans still had the super shiny spiked helmet so camo for infantry in particular wasn't even a priority so oddly enough camo development really is a relatively new thing in terms of warfare. Even today camo schemes get changed back and forth rapidly as a middle ground between effectiveness/cost/style needs to be found.
The Germans may have started the war with shiny pickelhaubes but it wasn't that long before they started putting fabric covers over their pickelhaube to help camouflage them.
The fabric was introduced in 1892
@@Riceball01 They had grey, on occasion khaki covers over them from the start of WW1. One change made was that regimental numbers in red, carried on the front of the cover, were changed to green and then omitted entirely.
Yeah, by the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict Ukraine had standard USA-like light khaki pixel camo, Russia had dark green pixel camo. Now both sides are introducing an almost identical multicam pattern.
@@TheFatMob So field signs have to be used to tell superficially similar uniforms apart. Romanians in WW2 often wore yellow armbands - from a distance their round helmets and khaki uniforms could be confused with the Red Army's so the field sign was needed.
Key point here is probably the very limited, "specialized unit" availability of these WWII camo designs. Aside from white winter gear and khaki desert schemes, it was basically Feldgrau for the Wehrmacht and pea soup for the Allies.
Funny thing about the Allies, especially US units, that pea soup worked amazingly well as cammo largely due to our logistic production superiority, in that so many different factories were producing various uniform pieces, webbing, spats, and packs, etc. that on the whole, dye lots of olive drab were so vastly different that a fully equipped soldier had about 12 different shades varying between dark greens to tans to olives to khakis to butternut to dark brown. It had the unintentional effect of breaking up an outline in most foilage.
Even special camo for special units continues even today. CANSOFCOM uses a more universal camo instead of CADPAT the rest of the Canadian military uses.
Another important aspect of camouflage was the straight line. The human eye picks out straight lines quite easily especially from a fast moving aircraft. We would cover things with the camouflage nets and stick poles up in them and attach cut branches to them to eliminate any straight lines. Additionally, the cut branches with leaves had to be changed frequently because as the leaves dried out, they would change color and would stand out against live leaves around them.
finally an episode about the great Camouflage of WWII, I was always a fan of the Jungle frog skin camo
My Uncle Barney was in a short Argosy Magazine article, I think in 1941. He was in the standard uniform and fellows to his left and right were in various cammo outfits. He still had his WWI type helmet on, at the typical jaunty angle. He was an Army Engineer.
It's pretty hard to hide a tank, no matter what camouflage pattern you use, so tank camouflage was primarily intended to break up the outline because tank (and anti-tank ?) gun sights worked by aligning two images of the target, which is very hard to do if you can't resolve its shape. Adding branches and suchlike would help to achieve this, of course.
I remember seeing a video in which large vehicle was basically hidden from airborne observer by simply being in shadow of building. No special camouflage was even necessary. Also seen camouflage effectiveness demonstrations in which very ineffective-looking patterns (olive drab and Feldgrau) were still practically invisible as person was in shadow. Hiding shape, shadow and shine are very as much as I know, basic principles of camouflage.
@@vksasdgaming9472 As Indie mentioned, camouflage is as much about fooling the brain as the eye. You can be looking right at something but if you don't recognise its shape it might as well be invisible.
I can see why a vehicle in the shadow of a building would work - the shadow stops shine, and the vehicle would then be a bunch of lines and regular shapes next to something else made of lines and regular shapes, so your eye might pass right over it.
Shadow also reduces contrast, so a cammo pattern uniform in shade works better than in bright light. Even better if the shade is dappled, such as in woodland or scrub. Notice too that many combat uniforms are somewhat baggy and shapeless, which helps hide the easily recognised outline of the body.
I remember reading that vehicle camouflage is either to disguise it from aerial recon or to disguise their numbers, direction, and speed at distances, or even what type of vehicle
@@SonicsniperV7 I believe the best way to hide vehicles from aerial recon was/is the use of camouflage netting, which not only disguises the shape but also the vehicle's shadow which could also give away which type it was. Yes, the film used in recon cameras was of such a high resolution that you could clearly make out something like that.
In fact, they could even tell where the enemy positions had barbed wire defences - the grass under a barbed wire fence doesn't get grazed or cut so it's longer and throws a shadow.
This was an interesting episode to watch, given how developments on camouflage during the war evolved into the present day camouflage of modern day armies, such as the Flecktarn and various digital camouflage patterns, as well as the Multicam pattern. I was often impressed by how well Japanese snipers concealed and blended themselves well into the jungle, giving their opponents a lot of difficulty in spotting and engaging them. Thank you for this episode as always, Indy & team.
They were good and clever disguise was ruined by not leaving your position after taking those first shots. Lots of Japanese snipers fell to spray and pray-tactic used in response as jungle made firing ranges short.
Happy to hear you enjoyed this episode, appreciate the comment!
@@vksasdgaming9472 Japanese snipers or sharpshooters who climbed into trees may or may not have used foliage for camouflage but they tended to assume they would die there.
A British officer in the Border Regiment later wrote of fighting them in Burma. Fire was coming from one or more trees perhaps two or three hundred yards away and one man near him was killed by a bullet that pierced his helmet. But the officer saw a muzzle flash and he aimed a Bren gun at it, emptying an entire magazine. His sergeant, peering through field glasses, congratulated the officer for getting him - the Japanese was swinging at the end of a rope he had tied around his waist.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Incident of Japanese sharpshooter being killed by liberal use of spray-and-pray does not tell much about their attitude towards chance of dying. I do admit climbing into tree to snipe is very risky despite having benefits as well. Getting down is difficult.
wonder how many soldiers walked up to the enemy without even knowing they were even there and the enemy simply says give up and the other soldiers just sighs and drops their weapon , ie getting lost in the winter and trying to find a slick trench , great video
I'd say not every often unless they were fully camouflaged like a sniper wearing a ghillie suit. A standard camouflage does not and is not intended to make the wearer invisible. The idea is to break up the wearer's outline so at a distance and/or at a glance you don't recognize the shape of the wearer as a person. But once you get close enough, well before you'd step on them, you'd see them at least well enough to tell that there's something fishy about that lump out in front of you.
ya fair enough but if your not really looking then ya... but ya that makes sense lol @@Riceball01
When the US Marines invaded Tarawa, they were issued camo fatigues that didn't breathe. My old boss was there. He told me 40 years ago that the fatigues were so hot that by 1000 hrs he and all of the other live Marines, on Betio, had to strip down to their skivvies. Good Luck, Rick
An insightful documentary on camouflage - didn't see that one coming.
Good one, thanks for watching!
And in front of Indy the tons of camouflaged scripts, that did not make the cut 😅
Again a very interesting special - that's what I love about this series, that you cover so many unassuming aspects of the war.
Thank you for the lovely comment and thanks for watching!
The 'amoeba' referance at 7:47 reminded me of how I had once wondered if the Germans operation 'Bararrosa' would had mimicked one, and planed for a 2 year protracted war. A 'Sickle Cut' to first take out Stalingrad, the next year Moscow and then Lenningrad. Cheers, well done.
Oh dang, now I'm going to have that old Stan Ridgway ditty in my head the rest of the day.
Excellent work Indy & team.
Thanks for watching!
I’m glad you explained some of the equipment and clothing camouflage patterns and why and how they were used.
A major problem the Allies faced in the Pacific was the material for the uniforms. Light cotton rotted quickly in the wet conditions, and wool was too hot and a favorite dinner for bugs. Trying to supply tens of thousands of replacement camouflage uniforms to troops became a serious problem. Olive drab was often worn in general to save the camo.
Even in northwest European summers, wool was sometimes too hot. It was definitely too hot in the tropics.
The Germans developed a synthetic wool called "Zellwolle" - it was certainly used in civilian clothes and may have been used in military uniforms as well. It was generally considered serviceable although not so good at keeping out the cold. Later war German uniforms, especially greatcoats, showed a decline in manufacturing quality. The Allies claimed the Germans awarded more medals, typically worn on German uniforms, to cover up the decline in uniform quality, but this seems to have been a myth.
Red Army uniforms were wool in their winter issue and cotton in their summer one. Both were khaki though the wool version tended to be a darker shade than the summer one, which tended to be more sand-coloured although depending on the factory and what dyes were available, the khaki could actually be brownish, greenish, grey or even almost black. Quilted winter uniforms were usually khaki although NKVD troops wore a blue version, notably in Stalingrad, which was almost the opposite of camouflage.
1:18 - 1:41 are those soldier part of SS Nordland or SS Wiking finnish volunteers? Note that two of them have Suomi M31 smg, drum and coffin magazine variations.
If it's so that's a very rare film footage discovery.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Are we voting on favorite camouflage patterns? My top picks are USMC Frogskin and Splittermuster.
I love summer version of dot44
Mine would be Splitter or (in newer times) Flecktarn or Woodland
@@m.s.3823 for some reason if we talk about newer time i like russian vsr93 and love flecktarn as you too
@m.s.3823 : Tri-color desert for the modern Era.
@@Lonovavir chocolate chip
Brilliant as always. On my German armour models I used the most outlandish colour schemes. Happy days😀😀😀
Pro tip: camouflage should be applied to the outside of buildings, not the inside! Imcreases the effectiveness 😂
Indy, Great video! Please remember, the Japanese Infantry were issued Helmet & Body Nets for sticking foliage into, used as camouflage. Keep up the good work.
Recently learned and want to share here: dazzle painting serves as an anti-rangefinding method. Optical rangefinders use one of several methods of making two identical images overlap or two halves forming one correct total, giving you the range on a dial to set your torpedoes or gun sights. Hard to do with an unfamiliar tangle of lines and shapes.
It's a miracle I found this video!
What a great special
Thanks for watching!
Hi Indy
Interesting topic
And your studio setting and background is great to watch.
Thanks for another great special.
Whoo-oo-oo-oh! Camouflage! Things are never quite the way they seem!~
Commander: Private! Where were you at camouflage class?!
Soldier: *Giggles*
I’ve always been a fan of the Italian Telo Mimteco camouflage pattern
Wonderful video. Always loved the science of camouflage.
Great video! Camo works I speak from experience :)
Camouflage uniforms were issued to some US Army units in Normandy, summer 1944, and then quickly withdrawn because other US troops were mistaking them for Germans. The idea that camouflage uniform meant German troops, especially Waffen-SS, seems to have been deeply ingrained. Other US units do not appear to have been warned about the experiment with camouflage.
The friendly fire incidents because of the camo pattern appears to be largely a myth. Another channel, I forget which, did a video on it and the combat records do not support this friendly fire story. I forget the actual reason for discontinuing the issue of these camouflage uniforms, but it wasn't because the wearers were being mistaken for members of the Waffen SS.
@@Riceball01 Everything I have read on this suggests friendly fire incidents were happening and they withdrew the camouflage issue as a result. American troops shooting other Americans might be a source of embarrassment and perhaps there was some desire to cover it up. It might bear further investigation.
@@Riceball01I second this. I feel as though friendly fire happened no matter the uniform. From a distance, an American can look like a German, and vise-versa.
@@eddie810 Perceived resemblance can make a difference, though, added to distance. At the end of Waterloo, for example, arriving Prussians mistook Nassau troops for French and they traded fire, with casualties on both sides. The general appearance of Nassau uniforms looked like those of the French, and it was getting dark. Nassau grenadiers had fur hats that made them look somewhat like Napoleon's Old Guard from a distance.
I would also add that they were rather swift to withdraw the camouflage, as opposed to simply not extending the experiment. This suggests to me that there were genuine problems with it.
Homie completely skipped the Anzac’s use of homemade camo in the jungles of new guinea, Bougainville, and the Philippines
And the Australians also applied camouflage paint schemes to small arms, such as Owen guns, for the soldiers fighting in the jungle
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about camouflage utilities by both allies and Axis in battlefields
Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
the us pattern, both "green" and "brown" were universally known as "frogskin" camo. many items of gear were made in this pattern but few saw much field use. the army also had a helmet cover modelled in cut after the german 3 panel design. it never got past the limited field testing stage and was soon dropped. some 1 piece frogskin coveralls were issuued for the d-day lands but were soon dropped as it led to some friendly fire incidents due to its slight similarity to ss camo. theres a famous pic of one of these coveralls being worn by a german sniper surrendering to british troops.
They were 2 piece uniforms HBT not coveralls and they did not led to friendly fire incidents. There is no period unit report or even veterans of these units mentioning this. Postwar myth. The camouflage was slightly different pattern as used by the marines.These uniforms were actually delivered to Europe by accident, destined for the Pacific. The fabric was poor quality and when worn out could not be replaced with similar uniform. Thus they became less seen. Although there is photographic evidence that some men managed to wear the jacketl to the end of the war. Loads of these uniforms were found (and or donated to?) after the war by the Dutch army in supply dumps left by the Americans in asia. The Dutch at first were quite happy with these free camouflage uniforms. Until after time the men started to have complaints, ventilation/quality issues.
@@jimomaha7809 the famous pic IS of a 1 piece coverall and theyre known to exist. and yes, it led to friendly fire incidents which is why it was unpopular in europe.
yes, the army had its own pattern, but it was very similar to usmc.
the fabric was the same hbt used in other uniforms, but the dyes used are harsh on the fabric.
who wouldnt be happy with a bunch of free uniforms?
(Also, trivia for whoever mentioned the Redcoats eventually stopping with the red, ....actually the ostensible reason for the red was that they found it made formations of troops hardest to *count.* (Whereas trying to hide where you *are* just didn't matter in those musket battle lines.) )
In the age of black powder, artillery and musketry fire tended to wreath the battlefield in smoke. There was some advantage in colourful uniforms as it made it easier for commanders to locate their own troops - and the enemy's. Though sometimes both sides wore the same colour. French infantry at Waterloo generally wore dark blue, but so did the majority of Dutch-Belgian foot soldiers on the other side. Despite the red-coated British infantry, Wellington's army may have had slightly more soldiers in dark blue as besides Dutch-Belgian infantry, much of the British cavalry and all the artillery wore dark blue. Though they were probably in third place in his army, a substantial number of troops wore green. British and Hanoverian riflemen, Dutch-Belgian light infantry and the Nassau contingent were clad in green. The Prussian were in many cases in dark blue although their somewhat motley and hastily put together army had many reservists and grey was a widespread colour. One contingent from I think Westphalia or Berg were told to wear grey overcoats even in summer as their normal uniforms looked rather French and there might be confusion.
This was fascinating! Keep up the great work!
Appreciate the comment, thanks for watching!
Somewhere I have gotten yhe idea that the last few ft of the longer barrel of the British firefly tank was painted a lighter color to make it appear to be a normal tank
You are correct.
The Pea Dot German camouflage is still one of my favorites. British Denison camouflage has grown on me though.
Disappointed! I expected Spartacus or Astrid to appear from the foliage in the background at the end...
Great video as always.
oh my god, I was literally expecting something like that too, lol.
@@JohnnyTiscalihopefully they were there all along and kept hidden to the end!
I have always thought the pink desert land rovers the Brit special forces used were very clever.
I don’t care if Caunter Camouflage is not as good as it looks ......it just looks cool.
Great stuff!
Fun fact: the German word for camouflage "Tarnung" was revived during the first world war because the word "verstecken" has some cowardly connotations attached.
You mentioned that at a late stage in the war German tanks were mainly lost to air power showing a typhoon launching rockets.
I've read contradictory articles about this claim. Some arguing as you do that Typhoons were very successful and others that this is yet another example of pilots overclaiming. I'd be interested in your thoughts about this.
Happy holidays everyone
Happy holidays!
Great episode!
Not as spectacular as some of the camouflage patterns but my grandfather was a painter during World War 2 and he painted the air base in Dover Delaware Olive drab in 1942.
Nice mention of Dot 44 and other camo schemes
He did indeed mention 44 dot, or Pea Pattern as it is also known and a photo of it was shown.
5:00
My time of service wore woodland camo, it was okay too much black
The German ambush camo really did it's job.
Not until Germany invaded Russia did Germany use camouflage 9n tanks. From dark grey to hide in the tree lines, the vast open terrain of Russian the German high command started to issue dark yellow with green and red brown colors, some areas omitted the green other areas the brown from stripes to spots or other to help diquise the equipment.
Nice video sir
And to add to the complexity, it still needs to be a uniform, allowing you to recognise your friends. Which is contradictory with the very purpose of camouflage.
Interesting as ever.I think the US Army issued some of those "Jungle suits" to some units in Normandy,but they were too similar to Waffen-SS in appearance and were withdrawn very soon after.
I think we need another video on this :)
The American "Jungle" pattern was issued to a small number of troops in the ETO for and after D-Day. The uniforms were rapidly recalled when those units took friendly fire after being mistaken for Waffen SS who were abundantly equipped with Camo uniforms of various types.
My "favorite" attempt of camouflages was the Japanese Navy painted battleship cannons on the decks of one of the air craft carriers during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Didn't work- we blew it out of the water anyway!
You mean that disguising yourself as target doesn't have desired effect?
At the end when Indie said " for now", does that mean we should look forward to a further re- visit of this camouflage endeavor?
I certainly hope so....
Interesting, but I thought a camouflaged Spartacus was going to jump out of that box of paper cranes in front of you. 😄
How not to be seen. Mr. E. A Bradshaw cannot be seen. Mr. Bradshaw, can you stand up, please?
...and then a big explosion.
I love my Monty Python! 😊
MY grandfather served in a specialist camouflage unit
When he went off to war in 1940 ...,.. his family never saw him again
The most unusual form of camouflage was probably project Yahudi, which used bright lights to hide the silhouettes of airplanes.
Nicely informative video. Glad to know about all of this.
Thank you for your comment, glad you liked the video.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo---Your welcome
Your examples may be the earliest forms of OFFICIAL and modern-day usage of camo, but obviously, it's been being informally used since humans themselves existed.
The Royal Navy may have developed color systems for camouflage but they lacked the same commitment the US Navy had. There's been a lot of good research into both Navies over the last 10-15 years.
Thanks TG
Thanks for watching!
Sound was part of the equation. American soldiers, and likely others, would glue their dog tags together so the noise wouldn't get them killed. Cheers!
I love camo and wore it in the Army. My jump smock and CADPAT
The British Army introduced khaki uniforms in the early 1900s. During the Indian Mutiny in 1857, many British regiments took to staining their white tropical uniforms with tea or similar dyes in order to camouflage them. We could even go back to the 'drab' uniform worn in 1848 by the Corps of Guides!
As fun as this channel can be, they do tend to make a lot of silly mistakes.
7:58 The Soviet TTsMKK pattern looks similar to what's being used today.
That Camouflage patterns used by the Waffen SS were Gorgeous.
PS: and dont forget abaut the Camouflage of Ships, Airplanes and other Equipment.
Like the One used by some Japonese "Zero" fighters in 1942 in the Solomon Islands.Awesome.
I hope we will get to see and learn about our camouflage hero of North Africa, Jasper Maskelyne, in a future special.
Already happened 😉 The Magician Who Fooled the Nazis (and all of us) - WW2 Documentary Special
ua-cam.com/video/V7boXVuzFnQ/v-deo.html
To think camouflage is so normal right now, flecktarn, multicam, tiger stripe in some places. To think I use to keep pieces of cloth and clips to attach them to my vest, chest, pants and helmet to adapt it on the fly according to different terrains.
Coloring history... I luv it!
Even that flimsy desk is forgiven this time😉
Since almost everything was black and white during World War Two, I would’ve figured that the armies would have chosen grays and blacks for the camouflage.
LOL yes the facetious nature in which you posted this!
~chefs' kiss
They did. There is plenty of photographic evidence for it
Its interesting how many things the Italians Pioneered in the interwar period that failed miserably...and yet somehow managed to inspire actual effectivd equivalent
I’ve wondered about this topic a lot lately. My question, though, is how and why would some soldiers in a unit have a camouflage uniform while others wouldn’t. For instance, you commonly see German troops in a mixture of white, winter smocks and typical gray dress. In the pacific, some marines wear the jungle camo while others don’t.
Insufficient stocks probably explained it. A photo I saw in a book of Red Army soldiers attacking in winter showed some in snow camouflage and others in ordinary greatcoats. The caption in the book claimed the ones without camouflage were in a "shtrafbat" or punishment battalion, but it is more likely there were just not enough snow smocks to go around and some were issued one and others not.
Edwards Air Force Base 2014. A crew of Set Dressers and myself were out in the high desert set dressing for an NBC/Universal show titled State of Affairs. Upon returning to Los Angeles proper we witnessed several stealth bombers flying low and fast. Their camouflage was so superior that all 6 of us (5 Set Dressers and a Teamster) audibly gasped, oohed & ahed watching those aircraft appear, “disappear” and reappear. When it comes to visual trickery Set Dressers are tough customers. Especially the veterans in the 5 Ton on that particular afternoon. It was utterly magnificent. Stealth bombers are big. Like Darth Vader helmets ripping through the sky. Then? Poof! Gone. A shriek of jet afterburners BAM they’re back; a few hundred feet off the deck. I almost crapped myself and we knew there was no ordinance coming down. It gave me a new respect for diplomacy.
Put up camo netting. Then get told to move so tear it down again.
I am reminded of Mr Stan Ridgway`s track " Camouflage " although today his band Wall of Voodoo`s track " Mexican Radio " seems more appropriate for the environment.
I was expecting Sparty to appear from the camouflage background 🤣
He's there alright, just keep looking!
The US Navy, in its infinite wisdom, has introduced "aquaflage". Because a man-overboard should have the ability to allude his rescuers, I guess
The goal was to hide grease and dirt to reduce the need of sailors to change after performing some dirty task. The thought was reducing uniform changes and laundry would improve quality of life. The biggest problem was the uniform’s tendency to burn
While the Italians produced the first printed camouflage pattern cloth, the Gillie suits of the Scots Lovat Scouts predate this by a few decades.
Ghillie suits are even older and despite being very effective they have serious drawback of making wearer practically immobile. Not to mention their weight and issues with heat.
@@vksasdgaming9472
Older in non military use. They may have their drawbacks, but they work well.
@@theother1281 Everything always has their drawbacks. Ghillie suits are very efficient in their niche. Most military uniforms are not meant for such use.
Only a dramatic demonstration of camouflage pattern's effectiveness could have made this short summary better.
mesmerizing topic!
Bravo but hate the recent USN blueish camo, a pattern too far!
PS - Favorite camouflage was the netting design to make Lockheed aircraft plant in Burbank, CA appear as an LA suburb!
Yeah, Lockheed's plant at Burbank is a great one. Complete with fake country side houses and all.
Yeah, Lockheed's plant at Burbank is a great one. Complete with fake country side houses and all.
I kept waiting for someone to jump out from behind Indy 😀