The photograph of a German soldier has been restored from a poor quality newspaper photograph using AI software. We might also mention that René Bache, author of the article, was a prolific news journalist and author during WWI. He was also the Great-Great-Great-Great Grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Despite his family distinction, his articles on camouflage should be read with caution, as they may not always be fully accurate.
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René Bache, POPULAR SCIENCE: Camouflage—The Art of Deceit in Warfare, in The Catholic Press (Hartford CT), November 19, 1917—
To deceive the eye of the enemy is no new thing in warfare, but in the present conflict it has become for the first time an important and even vital element of tactics. The new war word "camouflage" covers a wide range, from optical illusions to expedients for obtaining invisibility.
An example of the former is shown in the accompanying photograph, which represents a "fake" German forty-two-centimeter mortar in the Argonne forest. It is a hogshead mounted on a tip-cart; but an enemy aviator flying overhead would almost certainly mistake it for a big gun.
On the sea "camouflage" is of not less importance than on land. Some of the German U-boats disguise themselves as sailing vessels. As for ourselves, particularly with the object of defeating the Hun submarines, we are using all of our famous Yankee ingenuity in developing this new and curious art.
The Government is requiring all American merchantmen to carry apparatus with which to make a defensive smoke-screen, in case of submarine attack. To the imagination, such a screen figures itself as a cloud of dense black smoke. The fact is quite different. The so-called "smoke" is white.
It is the smoke of burning phosphorus, set afire on the vessel's deck in so-called "funnels"—contrivances of small size, but resembling in shape the ordinary, wide-mouthed ship's ventilator. Each funnel is provided with a draft opening, to make combustion rapid, and it gives out enormous volumes of what looks like white fog.
Were you ever in a thick fog at sea? If so, you will understand that, at a distance of only a few yards, it makes an object absolutely invisible. The white phosphorus fog, indeed, is much better for "camouflage" purposes than a screen of black smoke because in itself It has no visibility. It is simply obscuration.
This, however, is not the only method utilizable for the purpose. If preferred, the ship captain may take along with him a number of wooden boxes, each a foot high and two feet square, perforated with holes. These boxes contain a certain compound, a principal ingredient of which is common black gun powder.
Suppose an attack by a U-boat. Several of the boxes are at once thrown overboard. The seawater admitted through the holes, sets the stuff on fire (by chemical action), and dense clouds of a yellowish-gray smoke are thereby liberated, concealing the ship from the enemy's view while she steams away.
There can be no question of the fact that this smoke-screen defense is destined importantly to minimize the destruction of American cargo carriers from this time on. It is bound to prove immensely useful for the protection of our troop transports and supply ships.
But another requirement imposed by the Government is that our merchant ships shall be painted in such fashion as to render them invisible. This problem has already been solved in a really marvelous way by the adoption of certain methods based on familiarly known optical principles—one of several schemes being to paint the vessel with a series of longitudinal stripes of the various colors of the rainbow. The stripes are rather narrow and of wavy form. At a distance of a mile, a ship thus adorned literally fades out of sight.
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René Bache, POPULAR SCIENCE: Camouflage—The Art of Deceit in Warfare, in The Catholic Press (Hartford CT), November 19, 1917—
To deceive the eye of the enemy is no new thing in warfare, but in the present conflict it has become for the first time an important and even vital element of tactics. The new war word "camouflage" covers a wide range, from optical illusions to expedients for obtaining invisibility.
An example of the former is shown in the accompanying photograph, which represents a "fake" German forty-two-centimeter mortar in the Argonne forest. It is a hogshead mounted on a tip-cart; but an enemy aviator flying overhead would almost certainly mistake it for a big gun.
On the sea "camouflage" is of not less importance than on land. Some of the German U-boats disguise themselves as sailing vessels. As for ourselves, particularly with the object of defeating the Hun submarines, we are using all of our famous Yankee ingenuity in developing this new and curious art.
The Government is requiring all American merchantmen to carry apparatus with which to make a defensive smoke-screen, in case of submarine attack. To the imagination, such a screen figures itself as a cloud of dense black smoke. The fact is quite different. The so-called "smoke" is white.
It is the smoke of burning phosphorus, set afire on the vessel's deck in so-called "funnels"—contrivances of small size, but resembling in shape the ordinary, wide-mouthed ship's ventilator. Each funnel is provided with a draft opening, to make combustion rapid, and it gives out enormous volumes of what looks like white fog.
Were you ever in a thick fog at sea? If so, you will understand that, at a distance of only a few yards, it makes an object absolutely invisible. The white phosphorus fog, indeed, is much better for "camouflage" purposes than a screen of black smoke because in itself It has no visibility. It is simply obscuration.
This, however, is not the only method utilizable for the purpose. If preferred, the ship captain may take along with him a number of wooden boxes, each a foot high and two feet square, perforated with holes. These boxes contain a certain compound, a principal ingredient of which is common black gun powder.
Suppose an attack by a U-boat. Several of the boxes are at once thrown overboard. The seawater admitted through the holes, sets the stuff on fire (by chemical action), and dense clouds of a yellowish-gray smoke are thereby liberated, concealing the ship from the enemy's view while she steams away.
There can be no question of the fact that this smoke-screen defense is destined importantly to minimize the destruction of American cargo carriers from this time on. It is bound to prove immensely useful for the protection of our troop transports and supply ships.
But another requirement imposed by the Government is that our merchant ships shall be painted in such fashion as to render them invisible. This problem has already been solved in a really marvelous way by the adoption of certain methods based on familiarly known optical principles—one of several schemes being to paint the vessel with a series of longitudinal stripes of the various colors of the rainbow. The stripes are rather narrow and of wavy form. At a distance of a mile, a ship thus adorned literally fades out of sight.
•• Also of possible interest may be our earlier post about Joseph Allen Minturn.
