Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Jan. 15, 1937, edition 1 / Page 5
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CAMOUFLAGES^^ &• PSm, Rla T>r,htx iTw”! 9 m m Tops at the wing* and fuselage of • M # m a plane* are spotted so that, from abovs, ML m A Fish act is ased for camouflage they resemble the ground patterns. MU # m JA m ing gun positions. Into the net amm 1.1 - -w—- jimm* a# A E\ E branches, leaves and other ma- EMM /I# C MW W lilf are woven so that from . % V * ®li LWr I # W MMEM above there seem* to bo no ma- . * f^sHMl V " W W W W ■ m terial chang. on the ground. I ’ Uncle Sam's Service Planes Now •JP , Present a Weird Appearance of |k Paint on “Birds of War,” and Fighting Men Study the Effects -&j||j^n|P|jd39HHH^R||p||PsfiS^||^Bß|^Rf| By John L. Coontz 1 ' A GREAT pile of earth is suddenly heaved into the air. Dust clouds drift downwind. Two aviators make off furiously into the west. Two hours later a rebel battery opens against the loyalist Spanish forces 1000 yards from the gaping geyser hole. Modern warfare today depends on camouflage for it protection. That bat tery had been, a few hours before, lo cated on the spot where the air bombs fell. But yesterday a plane had flown over the area and the battery comman der had though it prudent to remove his guns during the night. He surmised aerial photographs being taken of his location. DOWN through the centuries, trora the earliest times to the present, this art of camouflage for men going into battle is traceable. In the beginning it was crude. Paint daubed on the face hair shaven from the head; wild anima heads resting on human shoulders; bough* of the forest moving along th< road; streaked bodies and snake-lib movements. Today camouflage for warfare is not crude. It is on# of war’s most finely developed arts. That camouflaged Spanish battery was not a hurried thing. It did not represent a crude outlay of branches and color. On the contrary, it was a studied affair. For there was much more to contend with than the passing eye along the road or scout ing parties to located its position. There was the eye of the eagle floating in the sky; the photographic art of the laboratory to detect its placement. The airplane has changed the meth ods of warfare. Looking down from the great heights, it permits the human eye to determine whether a contour seen yesterday is still seen today, or more im portant, whether a contour that is there today was there yesterday. In addition to this penetrating visi bility there is the camera to help solve th© intricate problem of location. The modern war aerial camera is the most revealing thing in the world. It puts on paper whole section of a country side. It brings out roads, bridges, paths, houses, unusual bits of earth piled up, bushes, wisp* of smoke. TO ESCAPE the all-seeing eye of the camera from the air it is necessary for camouflage to be so expert as to obliterate all signs of an army, its equipment, of life. It is not so hard to hide one gun, but when it becomes ne cessary to hide a regiment or a battery of artillery a problem presents itself. Human occupancy of a spot soon re veals itself in all those signs incident to human activity. Men must eat. To eat they must have food. Food must be eooked. A wisp of curling smoke on a barren spot is evidence of human PIC life somewhere on that terrain. Bomb it and you will unquestionably destroy t battery placement. This evidence of human occupancy is the hardest of all things to obliterate. Clothing, light communication lines— telegraph wires, telephone wires, horses, motorcycles motor cars all must be # covered so as not to be seen by enemy airmen flying over or be revealed on the photographic plate. Comparable to it only is the segment of the army on the move. It is impossible to camou flage moving caravans of motor lor ries. The character of the terrain is changing constantly. First there is a stretch of woods, then a barren spot, then clumps of bushes, then a plaij l . then a river with bridges to cross. To meet all these changing conditions of the earth’s surface is impossible. Camouflage a* it is practiced in war fare today represents a few set prin ciples. The first rule is to break up thei outline —avoid tlhe characteristic. A battery emplacement has a certain normal appearance when not camou flaged. The idea then is to break this up to make it appear not normal. In this way the battery is hidden from detection by the enemy. An ammuni tion dump has certain characteristic outlines. Break it up. The second rule is to break up the shadow of the outline. A man walking in the sun casts a shadow. A building or gun emplacement casts a well known shadow. This mast be broken up. Stress is laid on this by camouflage ex perts. For one of the greatest give away signs is the shadow. Shadow is evidence of substance and substance is what the enemy bomber is looking for. The third general rule in camouflage is to simulate color or, to express it more accurately, to simulate the light reflecting value of surrounding terrain. When the sun shines on various objects it gives off reflection* peculiar to the , This model sir plant it uie d at the army camou flage school for drm nstration purposes. color of that object. When there 1* sand a certain reflection will result: when there is a green field another re flection will be observed; when there is water still a different reflection will # be shown. These reflestion must be simulated for the object placed in their respective environments. FOR camouflaging the top of a plane the most suitable color combination has been found to consist of blue, green mauve and purple. These four colors blend with the colors of the earth, the tans running in with the plowed fields, roads and newly cultivated ground The blue and green tie in with the foliag. of the fests, the growing crop* of the fields and the hedges along roadsides Purple, which has a very low visibility rating, blends in with the shadows of evening and the aspect of the earth as ter rain. The wing surface of the plane ts or vided into three irregular sections and these sections are painted the colors which are to mislead the eye of the enemy gunner. Blending a plane into the sky is an other problem. Flying against the con tour of this blue bowl a plhne is per fectly silhouetted. This silhouette must be completely blotted out. The color combination used is that of burnished aluminum, light blue, light purple and white. The aluminum reflects light and brightens the under-surfac# of the ~A PI {><•< ini-nl - > ‘ 5 ' with various col or* and patterns plane. The white helps here, while the light blue and light purple carry out the sky deception. IN GROUND camouflage many mater ials are used All manner and type* of underbrush are made to cover guna, wagons and ammunition dumps. The reason of the year has much to do with the types of material to be used > he contrast must always be natural. Snow is not a good camouflage. U "»* the mhaopy faculty of revealing all man ner of activity, both of man and beast. Gun blasts, which destroy the grass un lerneath the muzzles are eauly’ cernible in snow They show up as dack streaks. Weeds and grass are also used extern ovely for camouflage purposes. I"*** are woven into fish nets spread over the guns or other objects to be camou flaged. Burlap is also woven ,nto f, *£ nets in strips. This type of camouflage i, used largely where guns are on the move. • f . A new element that is entering into camouflage now and offer, ng lem as yet unsolved, w the g , ng camera. This camera cuts out the different kinds of light at will and make, the outline of the camouflaged object stand out in nakedness. This is a development since the World War a may make of camouflage a still more scientific art than it is at present.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 15, 1937, edition 1
5
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