Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Camouflaged War Relic Train in Burlington, Iowa

Above Lloyd Harrison. WWI-era poster, c1917. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.

•••

BIG GUN HAD SOME KICK. War Relic Train With Whippet and Camouflage Disguise in Burlington. The Burlington Gazette (Burlington IA), April 22, 1919, p. 6—

…A war relic train consisting of three flat cars and a baggage car disguised in blue, white and yellow camouflage arrived in Burlington yesterdayat 5 o'clock. The train also carried two coaches for the soldiers who guarded the trophies.

The flat cars were loaded with war relics of all kinds and descriptions. A partially destroyed French fighting plane, minus the wings, an unexploded areo bomb, a twelve-inch cannon and several smaller fire arms were on one car. The other two flat cars were loaded with two camouflaged German Whiz-bang cannons which were captured by the Yankees before the close of the war, machine guns and other fighting periphernalia, used by the Huns.

A small but effective Whippet tank very artistically disguised in blue and yellow paint was also an attraction to the crowd of about fifty people who gathered at the Union station to see the relics….


Above World War I camouflaged French tank. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Hypothetical color scheme added.