a frieze of tiny men in uniform take pot shots at doves

Donald Friend. Anne Gray, Ed. The Diaries of Donald Friend. Vol 1. National Library of Australia (Canberra), 2001—

One day the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald came to Peter Bellew with a tin helmet: the editor was an Air Raid Warden, and he wanted his helmet “camouflaged.” Could Bellew get one of his artist friends to do the job? Peter gave it to me to do. Of course the camouflage idea for a warden was sheer frivolity. I suppose the editor thought it would look prettier that way—or fashionable, or useful or something. I was delighted to do the job. I took it home and painted on it numbers of fat, white, vapid peace doves, flying around with olive branches in their beaks, and on the lower part of it, a frieze of little men in uniform take pot shots at the birds with cannon and rifles.

French Infantry helmet broken up by painted lines

POILUS CAMOUFLAGE EVEN HELMETS NOW in Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport CT), September 13, 1918—

The French poilus [slang term for WWI French soldiers] have startled the Hun [German forces] repeatedly with their cunning in fighting materials. The latest bit of strategy pulled by the French fighters is the camouflage helmet. The poilu found that the ordinary steel helmet was visible for some distance against the mottled background of brush and barbed wire. So the army artists were called upon to help. Now the helmets are marked with a series of white lines which makes them blend with the background and helps make the wearer part of the landscape.

Veil on Helmet intended to Deflect Flying Fragments

Above WWI infantry helmet (1918) with a suspended veil of chain, which was supposed to lessen the damage caused by flying schrapnel fragments. Public domain NARA photograph 533656.

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CAMOUFLAGED NOISE LATEST FROM FRONT: Burlap Coverings Prevent Tin Derbies from Playing Tunes on Wire, in Stars and Stripes (France), April 5, 1918—

The camouflaged tin hat is the latest in spring styles in the Army. It appeared first among a number of men a few weeks ago, and is now becoming a real sensation.

The camouflage hat is a homemade affair, in so far as the camouflage goes. You take a piece of burlap, fit it neatly to the helmet, and then bind it in place on the inside rim with threaded cord. The main idea of the camouflage is to keep your hat from being noisy in the trenches. Wire and strips of camouflage are stretched across the trenches at intervals, and you have to duck under them. If you raise up too soon and your helmet scratches against the wire, it fairly rings. Hence the burlap-noise-camouflage idea.

Every day that goes by brings more affection for the tin hat from the American fighting man. There are few who have been in the trenches, or about artillery emplacements who have not had shell pieces pounced off their helmets. Without the tin hat these shell pieces would have meant death or at least a serious wound.…