French Camouflage and Criminals

WWI French camoufleurs wearing hooded cagoule outfits

In an earlier post, we reproduced various images of French camoufleurs dressed in paint-streaked hooded outfits, the term for which was cagoule. These were adopted early in World War I by artists in the French infantry, to prevent themselves from being seen by aerial observers as they manned field artillery. Above is the cover of a French magazine (dated June 5, 1915) in which soldiers are wearing uniforms that look eerily like a mottled variation on the sinister ceremonial hoods of the American Ku Klux Klan. At the time, the French public was disturbed by this radical change of attire. This was described thirty years ago by art historian Elizabeth Louise Kahn in The Neglected Majority: "Les Camoufleurs," Art History, and World War I (University Press of America, 1984)—

Hidden beneath camouflaged cagoules…was a ghoulish image of the modern soldier, whose finely fitted and brilliant red and blue clothing was replaced by an amorphous costume of drab greens and browns that turned the individual into a frightening form.

Later on the same page, she mentions that one of the reasons for the initial disdain for camouflage was that "the very term camouflage held a devious and unseedy [sic] meaning for French readers of popular literature…" Prior to the founding of the first camouflage unit, it "was a word used to describe evil criminals who lurked about city streets and hid themselves from the police" (p. 148).

We were reminded of this when recently we ran across various images from French popular literature and film, before and during WWI, of a fictitious criminal named Fantomas. Created in 1911 by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, the character was central to more than forty crime novels. The popularity of the books was amplified by various adaptations for film, television and comic books.

French crime character Fantomas

I mention this because in some of the images (such as those posted here), this crime character has an uncanny resemblance to a WWI hooded camoufleur. If Fantomas was on the minds of the French public at the outset of the war, no wonder they viewed with suspicion the cagoules (the "hoodies") of the camoufleurs.

books & historic prints and photographs

Diary of British camouflage artist Solomon J. Solomon

Solomon tank camouflage scheme

There is an article from the Boston Sunday Post, dated December 24, 1922 (p. B3), titled WAR ‘CAMOUFLAGE ARTIST’ COMPLETES PORTRAIT OF BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY. It tells the story of the delayed completion of a painting of  the Coronation Luncheon at Guildhall, an event that had taken place in 1911. Its culmination was put off by World War I. The artist assigned to complete it was Solomon J. Solomon, who is described in the article as “the most famous portrait painter in Europe today.”

When the war began, Solomon assumed that it would not greatly interfere with his artistic career, but it “interrupted him absolutely” because the government soon discovered [by way of his own prompting] that he was the one man in England familiar with the art of camouflage.” He was sent to France, to learn about that country’s section de camouflage, which was under the command of Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola. For a time, Solomon was the head of British Army camouflage, during which he oversaw the construction of imitation dead tree observation posts, advocated the use of overhead garnished nets (the shadows of which broke up the shapes of things below), aka "umbrella camouflage," and proposed designs for tank camouflage.

Solomon was the author of one of the first books on wartime deception, titled Strategic Camouflage (London: John Murray, 1920). Earlier, he had also published The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing (London: Seeley, 1910).

Until recently, I had not realized that there is another book about him which contains extensive excerpts from his wartime diaries. That source is Olga Somech Phillips, Solomon J. Solomon: A Memoir of Peace and War (London: Herbert Joseph, 1933). Quoted below are a few passages (pertaining to camouflage mostly) from Solomon’s diary.

[p. 127] The French observation post trees were round; I made mine oval, so that that part of them facing the Germans should appear too small for a man to ascend; this was later adopted by the French.…

It was proposed in my report that I should need the assistance of three painters. I had made up my mind about these—two scene painters about whom I would consult Mr. Joseph Harker—and a theatrical property maker…

Harker had recommended to me Oliver Bernard—a small man, very deaf, who staged the operas at Covent Garden—a good organizer. He, on his return from New York, was on the Lusitania when she was torpedoed. He was rescued from the sea. He couldn’t swim a stroke and attributed his luck to a mascot he always wore, and which—in his opinion—would safeguard him throughout the war.

[p. 134] B—— spoke of his admiration for Giron[sic] de Scevola, the head of the French camouflage, who had, after much difficulty from the French Army people, to accept the idea of camouflage…

Scevola would only accept the rank of lieutenant, but stipulated that no one should be above him. He was—and is—a fashionable Parisian portrait painter, dressed very smartly, and invariably wore white kid gloves…

[p. 143] Who says the painter can’t organize? This seemed to be a military prejudice. When an artist is composing an imaginative picture his organizing faculties are at full stretch.

[p. 149] 11th March—…Major Alexander wanted some dummy heads—these dummies were made to attract fire, so that German snipers could be located—the line of fire would be indicated by putting a small stick through the back and front holes made by the sniper’s bullet.

Hitherto, adopting the French plan, we had mounted these heads on round sticks, and Major Alexander told me that often these would tend to turn in the hand, so that the exact direction was lost. In future I mounted the heads on square sticks fitted with a square sheath with cross feet; ths could be kept firmly in place. I had modeled several heads from our men who sat for them and I became quite a decent sculptor. The clay model was cast in plaster from which moulds were taken, and the pressing of successive sheets of paper saturated with flour paste into the moulds produced a sort of Guy Fawkes mask. We turned out quite large numbers of these papier mache “Tommies” which I colored from life.

…the Secretary of the French Camouflage Corps, asked me to model him, which I did, he wanted to send a paper mache reproduction of himself to his wife at Bordeaux. This added to our stock of types.

[p. 155] Wednesday, 22nd March—Giron[sic] de Scevola invited us all to dine with him at our little hotel at Wimereux, and an excellent meal it was for so small an inn. The Frenchmen sang and made witty speeches and kept it up till quite late. I was looking forward to returning the compliment when next de Scevola came our way, but that was not to be. We artists got on well with our French confreres.

an excellent account of the word origin of camouflage

Philip Hale, music critic

There were at least two prominent people named Philip Hale, who were contemporaries and both from New England.

Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931) was an American Impressionist artist, who was related to Nathan Hale and Harriet Beecher Stowe. His father was Edward Everett Hale. We mentioned him in our previous post, because one of his students was ship camoufleur Thomas Casilear Cole. Another was Henry Wadsworth Moore, also a ship camoufleur.

The second was a musician and prominent newspaper critic named Philip Hale (1854-1934). Beginning in 1903, he was affiliated with The Boston Herald, for which he wrote a column called As the World Wags. In one of his columns, which was published on January 24, 1918, he offered what is—undoubtedly—the most detailed and authoritative account of the origin of the French word camouflage, which had become widely adopted as an English term during World War I.

There is nothing else like it. Since it is long out of copyright and otherwise hard to locate, we are republishing the entire column, for the convenience of researchers, as follows—

A correspondent, whose letter was published last Monday, rejoices because "camouflage" has found its way into the English language. He prefers the word to "disguise."

"Camouflage," however, is loosely used, absurdly used by many, who are glad to Include in a sentence any word that seems to them new or "the thing,” although they are wholly ignorant of the true meaning.

In the definition of "camouflage" the standard French dictionaries are of little or no use. Littre gives "camouflet," the noun, meaning “a thick smoke that one blows maliciously into the nose of one with a lighted paper cone." To give a "camouflet" is to affront, mortify a person. "Camouflet" is also a mining term. This French word is an old one. It is defined in Cotgrave’s dictionary (1678) as "a snuft or cold pie, a smoakie paper held under the nose of a slug or sleeper." Now, a cold pie in old colloquial English meant an application of cold water to wake a sleeper. “To give cold pig" was another form, and it is still used. In dialect a "cold pie” is an accident to a train or carriage in a pit, a fall on the ice, a disappointment of any kind.

In more modern French-English dictionaries, a camouflet is a whift of smoke in the face; a stifler; an affront, rap over the knuckles, snub.

In Larousse, we find the noun”camouflement," slang for a disguise; the verb, "camoufler," slang, to disguise, or to paint oneself; and "camouflet," mortification. The word "camouflage" does not appear.

Let us look at the French slang dictionarles. Le Roux, edition of 1752: "Camouflet. A blow on the face." Scarron is quoted. Then: "It is also a trick played on a person asleep; here is the explanation. One takes a half sheet of paper, rolls it in the form of a cone, and lights one end, puts the lighted end in the mouth, and blows smoke through the other end into the nose of a sleeper. This makes him wake up at once. In this manner one breaks a person of the habit of sleeping at any moment. The word is also figuratively employed, and in this case means affront, mortification."

Delvau's "Dictionnaire de la Langue Verte," 1889. We find “Camouflement: disguise because the 'camoufle' of instruction and education deceives one.” "Camoufler, to instruct oneself, to serve oneself with the camoufle of intellectual and moral light." It should be remarked that in thieves' slang “camoufle” means candle. Delvau also gives “camouflerise," reflective verb, to disguise oneself. "Camouflage" is not given.

"Camouflement," disguise, is in Larchey's "Excentricites du Langage" (1865) and in Vidocqu's "Les Voleura" (1837).

Let Us look at more modern dictionaries. "Camouflage" is not in Marchand's "Modern Parisian Slang: Argot des Tranchees,” but "camouflet," a rebuke, is listed, also "se camoufler,” to make up one's face.

"Camouflage"' is not in Jean La Rue’s "Dictionnaire d'Argot."

We find "Camouflage" in Aristide Bruant's "L.'Argot au XXe Siecle," vol. I. Francals-Argot, as an equivalent of "Deguisement." The second volume, Argot-Francais, has not been published. Bruant is dead.

"Camouflage" with its present meaning was a French slang term in 1901 and probably for some years before.

We find "Camouflage" in the "Dictionnaire des Termes Militaires et de l'Argot Poilu," published in Paris (1916). “Camoufle. A lamp. Painting the face." "Camoufler. To make a ‘Camoufle,’ to paint." "Camouflage. The action of painting." “Camoufleur. An artist that transforms, by modifying the disposition, the general aspects, immovable things, cannon, anything exposed to the aim of the enemy.

Then there is the huge “Dictionnaire de la Langue Verte." by Hector France, a volume of nearly 600 pages, quarto, with three columns to the page. "Camouflage. The art of making up." There Is this quotation from Guy Tomel's “Le Bas du Pave Parisien": "The police show themselves very reserved on the subject of ‘camouflage,' because each one of them has his own methods which he does not wish to divulge; also because they make their transformations instinctively and would have all the trouble in the world to join theory with practice.” France also defines a "camoufle" (acute accent on the "e") as “a man wearing a false beard, or otherwise disguised." A "camoufleur" is a disguised policeman. "Camoufler la bibine" is to sell adulterated drinks.


It thus appears that the word “camouflage" did not come into the French language during the present war, and is not purely military slang. It is certainly as old as 1901; it was used in connection with policemen and with actors. Aristide Bruant defined it in 1901. Hector France began the publication of his dictionary, in bi-monthly parts, in 1898. "Camoufage" is on the 35th page.

In defining "se camoufler," the definition "se maquiller" is usually given. “Se maquiller" means to paint one's face, to put on rouge, to ruddle, to make up.

In his learned "Etudes de Philologie comparee sur l’Argot" (1856), Francisque-Michel, discussing the old word “camouflet,” says that as the smoke was usually blown into the face of sleeping lackeys, the word soon came to mean a flagrant affront, a great mortification. Pray, in what sense was the word used by the anonymous author of "L'Histoire de Camouflet, souverain potentat de l'empire d' Equivopolis” (1751)?

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

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the debate about who originated WWI camouflage

Above World War I photograph (c1914) of four members of the French camouflage squad described in the news article below. They are (l to r) Èugene Jean-Baptiste Corbin, Louis Guingot, Henri Royer, and (seated in front) Henri Ronsin. If this article is accurate, Corbin may have been the first of the French camoufleurs to experiment not only with field camouflage, but with naval camouflage as well. Confusingly, it is often said that the originator of French camouflage was Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola who apparently arrived at the same idea, independently of Corbin. Combining their findings, they became a single team, but it was Guirand de Scévola who managed the first camouflage workshop at Toule, and who persuaded the French command to establish a section de camouflage.

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HONOR INVENTOR OF CAMOUFLAGE: French Officials Recognize Genius of Eugene Corbin Who Aided World War in The Portsmouth Times (Portsmouth OH), October 6, 1935, p. 12—

Paris, Oct. 5—Eugene Corbin, inventor of the system of camouflage used in the World War, finally has received recognition from the French government for his work.

In August 1914, Corbin, now 65 years old and the weathy director of a big department store chain, was mobilized as a noncommissioned officer. Three days after he reached the front the idea of putting war materials in “disguise” came to him. It was later adopted by all the allied and enemy armies and became one of the most striking characteristics of the World War.

One day, as Corbin tells it, he learned that three of his friends were blown to pieces by an airplane bomb while manning a field gun. He remembered that years before he had experimented with many-colored costumes while hunting so as not to scare away animals. He thought the scheme might work to disguise field guns from enemy planes and his colonel gave him permission to experiment.

Corbin first rounded up a squad to help him. Louis Guingot, a prominent portrait painter, and Henri Ronsin, decorator of the Paris Opera were his first aids. Together they painted the first canvas to hide a field gun and its gunners from German planes. They were given an automobile and complete painting equipment plus the use of a vacant department store in Toul. Soon their staff grew and idle factories throughout France were opened to pratictioners in the new science of camouflage. The first design never varied throughout the war.

Corbin directed painting of the first warship and first transport, examples of camouflage which were to become familiar to American citizens throughout the war. His invention was applied to everything used in army and navy life, from guns, hangars, tanks to armored cars, trucks and railroad cars.

Corbin has been active throughout his life in the interests of what he calls “real art,” apart from the crude system of painting that he originated. For some years he has supported a colony of artists and sculptors in his native Lorraine and his private art collection numbers more than 10,000 objects which he has collected for 35 years.

Èugene Jean-Baptiste Corbin

camoufleur Bérard made Chantecler farm yard scene

costume from Chantecler

Back in 2014, we blogged about the French stage designer Louis Bérard, perhaps best known as "le decorateur de Chantecler," a wonderfully zany satirical play by Edmund Rostand, in which all the actors were dressed in animal costumes (as shown above). But he was also a camoufleur for the French during World War I. More recently, we've found a different news article on his life and work, reprinted below.

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SCENERY FOR WAR: M. [Louis] Bérard of "Chantecler" Fame a Camouflage Artist in The Spokesman-Review (Spokane WA) May 28, 1918—

Camouflage is an art which attracts the best artists who have been engaged for some time in painting scenery for war.

In Paris there are many studios, employing thousands of men and women. In Montmartre there is a studio where young American artists of the Latin Quarter are busy camouflaging for the American front. Not only guns, but motor trucks, buildings—whole villages even—have to be made to appear what they are not, which, indeed, is the essence of camouflage.

A French scene painter, M. [Louis] Bérard, was one of the inventors of war camouflage. For the last 35 years he has been the leading French scene painter, to whose genius was due the scenic triumphs of the Sardou and Rostand plays. It was he who created the marvelous farm yard scene in Chantecler, and it was the trees which he built for this play which gave him the idea for the observation posts which look like trees.

When war broke out M. Bérard had turned 60 years of age, but he at once offered his services to the French government, and asked to be allowed to go to the front to develop his ideas of camouflage.

With the assistance of his expert pupils he created "lakes" where there was no water, "forests" where no trees grow, and thousands of guns, huts and artillery emplacements changed their hue as the seasons advanced. When M. Bérard put the finishing touches to a particular important piece of work he would go up in an airplane to obtain the same view as that afforded to the Boche.

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Note In Cécile Coutin's Tromper l'ennemi (2012) Louis Bérard (1865-1920) is described as an accessoiriste de théatre (property man) who served in the Section de Camouflage (1914-15) as a camouflage instructor at the studio at Amiens. She includes a three-page section on "Louis Bérard and His Contribution to the Invention of Camouflage" (pp. 48-51). It will require translation, since the text is in French.

RELATED LINKS

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

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More Horse Carcasses & Phony Observation Trees

Steel-Lined Dead Tree Observation Post

Above During the trench warfare of World War I, both sides of the conflict "test drove" the idea of clandestinely replacing familiar large dead tree trunks with steel-lined replicas of the same trees. Equipped inside with a ladder and a telephone, these were used as observation posts. Given the skill and effort required to construct one of these, not to mention the challenge of putting it in place (at night, in total darkness), there can only have been a few of these.

As noted in an earlier post, British painter Solomon J. Solomon (initially in charge of the Camouflage Section of the Royal Engineers) is thought to have been responsible for erecting the first British observation tree in March 1916, a task that he later depicted in a well-known painting.

In this wartime photograph, we see a British soldier apparently inspecting a faux tree made by German camoufleurs. There are a few eyewitness accounts of how these were constructed, and at least one British observation tree has survived and is in the collection of the Imperial War Museum in London.

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E. Alexander Powell, Italy at War and the Allies in the West. [The War on All Fronts series. Vol IV] New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919.

At a certain very important point on the French front there long stood, in an exposed and commanding position, a large and solitary tree, or rather the trunk of a tree, for it had been shorn of its branches by shell fire. A landmark in that flat and devastated region, every detail of this gaunt sentinel had long since become familiar to the keen eyed observers in the German trenches, a few hundred yards away. Were a man to climb to its top—and live—he would be able to command a comprehensive view of the surrounding terrain. The German sharpshooters saw to it, however, that no one climbed it. But one day the resourceful French took the measurements of that tree and photographed it. These measurements and photographs were sent to Paris. A few weeks later there arrived at the French front by railway an imitation tree, made of steel, which was an exact duplicate in every respect, even to the splintered branches and the bark, of the original. Under cover of darkness the real tree was cut down and the fake tree erected in its place, so that, when daylight came, there was no change in the landscape to arouse the Germans' suspicions. The lone tree-trunk to which they had grown so accustomed still reared itself skyward. But the "tree" at which the Germans were now looking was of hollow steel, and concealed in its interior in a sort of conning tower, forty feet above the ground, a French observing officer, field glasses at his eyes and a telephone at his lips, was peering through a cleverly concealed peep-hole, spotting the bursts of the French shells and regulating the fire of the French batteries.

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Of course there were other kinds of battlefield observation posts as well, such as the supposed use of imitation horse carcasses as hiding places, as was featured earlier. My own suspicion is that few of these colorful camouflage ploys were actually used on the battlefield. But they proved immensely valuable as amusing illustrations for exaggerated news reports, which boosted recruiting and Liberty Loans. Below for example are photographs of the two sides of a roughed-out dead horse carcass trick, mocked-up in clay by camoufleurs at Camp Taylor KY (c1918).

Phony Horse Carcass Used as Observation Post

Camouflage Hoodies | Sinister French Artillery Robes

early WWI French camouflage (c1914)

In earlier blog entries (such as one on camouflaged robes, and a second on French camouflage and criminals), we've posted information about the hooded outfits that were devised by French artists who were serving in artillery teams at the beginning of World War I. As I've described elsewhere—

…what we call camouflage was first promoted by artists serving in the French Army in the early years of WWI. While there is some confusion about which individual initiated the ideas, the reasons are not in contention. Soldiers assigned to artillery teams were dismayed by the ease with which airborne enemy spotters could find and report the positions of their field artillery. In response, they initiated two countermeasures: the application of disruptive ("broken color") patterns on the surface of their cannons, and the donning by those in artillery teams of sinister-looking hooded robes, called cagoules (they closely resembled the outfit worn by a French crime novel character called Fantomas (c. 1911) or darkened paint-stained versions of Ku Klux Klan ceremonial robes).•

A surprising number of photographs of these hoodie-like camouflage outfits have survived, including a handful of full-color images in the collection of the Bibliothéque Nationale de France, and can be accessed online (posted here are restored, cropped and cleaned-up renditions of those). Other images of these outfits, whether black and white photographs and drawings, or painted illustrations by artists, were also commonly reproduced in contemporaneous magazines, such as on the cover of Scientific American (September 29, 1917). Even a few of the robes have survived.

• From Roy R. Behrens, "Khaki to khaki (dust to dust): the ubiquity of camouflage in human experience" in Ann Elias, Ross Harley and Nicholas Tsoutas, eds., Camouflage Cultures: Beyond the Art of Disappearance. Sydney AU: Sydney University Press, 2015, pp. 1-15.

 

Camouflage Artist | Jean-Louis Forain

Camouflage artist Jean-Louis Forain (left), c1914-15

Above At the beginning of World War I, Jean-Louis Forain was a well-known and immensely popular French artist, who in his youth had been close friends with Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Edgar Dégas, and Édouard Monet. Known chiefly as a caricaturist, he had been strongly influenced by Honoré Daumier.

When the war began, Forain was already in his sixties. Nevertheless, he volunteered for the French Army’s camouflage section. In the photograph shown here, he is on the left, applying disruptive camouflage shapes to a field cannon, c1914-15.

A comparable image is reproduced in Cécile Coutin, Tromper ‘ennemi (p. 27), where it is credited to the Musée de l’Armée, Paris. As a side dish, below is a passage we recently found in which a prominent British nurse recalls her wartime meeting with Forain.

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Kathleen Burke, The White Road to Verdun. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916—

We lunched with General [Philippe] Pétain and his État Major. A charming and most interesting addition to the party was M. [Jean-Louis] Forain, the famous French caricaturist, and now one of the Chief Instructors of the French Army in the art of camouflage—the art of making a thing look like anything in the world except what it is! He has established a series of schools all along the French Front, where the Poilus [French infantry] learn to bedeck their guns and thoroughly disguise them under delicate shades of green and yellow, with odd pink spots, in order to relieve the monotony. Certainly the appearance of the guns of the present time would rejoice the heart and soul of the "Futurists." It was most interesting to hear him describe the work in detail and the rapidity with which his pupils learned the new art. For one real battery there are probably three or four false ones, beautiful wooden guns, etc., etc., and he told us of the Poilus' new version of the song Rien n'est plus beau que notre Patrie ("Nothing is more beautiful than our country"). They now sing Rien n'est plus faux que notre batterie ("Nothing is more false than our battery").

Kathleen Burke

William Twigg Smith / New Zealand-born Camoufleur

In earlier blog posts we’ve talked about a New Zealand-born artist, named William Twigg-Smith (1882-1950) who was one of the first members of the American Camouflage Corps during World War I. Through online searches of vintage newspapers, it’s not difficult to find quite a few articles about him. Among the most thorough is a lengthy full page article by Mike Jay titled Twigg Smith Camoufleur: Camouflage Saved France from the Huns, which was published on page 1 of the Magazine Section of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (July 12, 1919). An image of the article (not readable obviously) is reproduced above, and the article’s full text is as follows—

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Art for art's sake and camouflage for land's sake!

Camouflage saved the land of France, held the ground time and time again in the big German advances. Without it the gun positions would have been more readily detected by the enemy and progress of the Huns would have been more rapid and swift and perhaps might have fully succeeded. By the time the United States entered the war, France and the French troops knew full well the great life and land value of camouflage.

But to the American officers making their first appearance on the firing line "over there"—well!

"Suffering cats and blue blazes! We're here to fight, not hide! Whadda we want with that old stuff?"

That's the way they talked at the beginning. Then came the first mild shower of shells from an unknown and unseen source miles away and brought them around in double quick time with a request for all that "old stuff" such as wire, nets, burlap, screens, twigs and other material that goes to make up camouflage.

Later on, when these selfsame officers had endured it hot and heavy, their tendency was to swing too far into the other direction and to burrow into the ground for concealment of their guns with the camouflage section of the Fortieth Engineers, AEF.

Though born In Nelson, New Zealand, Smith was to all intents and purposes an American long before he secured his naturalization papers while in France on service for Uncle Sam. He was a student at art schools in San Francisco, Chicago and New York and had visited Honolulu eight or nine times before his start for France in 1917.

He landed on French soil on January 7, 1918, and was sent almost directly to the front. He remained at the front until within three days of the signing of the armistice, when he was ordered to an officers' training camp.

"Talk about trouble, I guess we had ours, all right," he remarks on the subject of camouflage for the American guns In France.

"After experimenting for many weary months with color schemes, different systems of coverings, various styles of screens and other stuff, the American camoufleurs finally decided upon a plan that worked to perfection. Not only could the gun position be hidden from ground observers but so well was the plan worked out that it was absolutely impossible to detect such a position even by photographs from the air.

"The French system of camouflage was on the burrow style with a little opening forward for the gun. The top was screened and carried twigs and other material to give it the appearance of the ground.

"That was fine so long as there was no aerial observation. But a photograph taken from an airplane immediately detected the shadows cast by the hump of the mound and the first thing that happened was a shell In the vicinity from a Hun gun."

After trying some 40 different styles, the American camouflage section decided upon a wire screening with strips of burlap hanging down. There were large open places in the top of this netting which made some of the officers think that it was not effective. But it certainly was. These strips cast a series of mottled shadows that photographed exactly like ground would under a tree and gave it such a natural appearance that it was impossible of detection. That was camouflage carried to the highest degree.

"The color scheme entered into this as well. The French had worked that out nicely. We practically used their systems of mottled colors for varied conditions. But the system of shadow casting was entirely our own.

"There was considerable difference in the systems of keeping up the camouflage work also. The English maintained 'dumps' all along their sectors and issued a catalogue of the various kinds of camouflage in store. When request for a certain kind was made a pamphlet of printed directions was sent up with the material of any point on the front. It was then up to the gunners themselves to put the camouflage in place.

"The French also maintained 'dumps' and their camouflage section would give word-of-mouth advice together with a lot of artistic terms as to the manner of placing it. They were strong on watching the color schemes. The artillerymen had to put up their own camouflage, however.

"The Americans on the other hand aimed to have men aways on the front. These men would issue from the 'dumps' and wherever possible herd a gang of trained workers with each division to attend to supervision of concealing a battery. Inspections were made daily to see that discipline was carried out. The camouflage section always had the last word In the matter. If it was negative to movements on dangerous grounds its word was followed. It it was agreeable then the rest of the authorities could thresh it out.

"The older officers, especially those who had served with the British and French troops before coming into the United States army, recognized the worth of camouflage without question and strictIy enforced the orders of the deception division. Just to give an idea, here's a case in point.

"In a position near Bois Chanot, in the vicinity of Beaumont, there was a light fall of snow one morning. The camouflage section immediately requested no movements in order to keep from making tracks to battery position. Orders were issued by the commanding officer of the battery to shoot anyone attempting to get off the paths wired out by the camouflage section.

"General Summeral of the 1st Division was a great crank on camouflage. He learned by bitter experience. He thought it 'all bunk' at first, but later issued orders that no camouflage be attempted without advice and direction of the camouflage section.

"One of the favorite tricks at the front was to use a position a great deal for a few nights and then move out, at the same time keeping up appearances of activity. A fire at times to make a lot of smoke. This would draw the fire and detract the enemy attention from a new position a few hundred yards to the right or left of the old.

"On the other hand some of the artillery officers seemed to think that anything sent out by the camouflage section was endowed with magic powers of concealment. Without any reference as to its fitness in the natural scheme they would drape the material over the ammunition guns in such a manner that if anything it made the position more conspicuous. And they would be well satisfied with the job until a camouflage section man came along to rave and tear his hair and straighten the thing out.

"The camouflage section was composed of artists, sculptors, house painters, marble workers, tile layers, bricklayers, builders, carpenters and if I remember right we even had a former parson one section. They were all trained at the school conducted back of the lines before, they went to the front to work. Some of them proved grand little camoufleurs, too.
"One stunt that was started by our section and taken up with avidity was that of laying temporary camouflage for guns on the march when making a short halt. The first thing gunners were ordered to do at a halt was to cut branches and arrange them over the field pieces. This saved many a gun from a sad fate. The gunners could always find room beneath the canopy of branches in times of stress."

Twigg Smith brought back with him from France a big collection of photographs of camouflage work, some of which are published today for the first time. These are unique pictures in that they show actual work done by the camoufleurs to protect guns, screen roads and conceal movement of either guns or troops.

•••

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Herter's mural in Paris / American Camouflage Corps

Albert Herter mural at the Gare de Paris-Est

We’ve talked about the Herter family before. The family was descended from the well-known Herter Brothers (Gustave and Christian), who were leading designer-craftsmen in New York in the 19th century. The son of Christian Herter was Albert Herter (1871-1950), who was a prominent muralist. In turn, his sons were Everit Herter (1894-1918), a muralist who was among the first to join the American Camouflage Corps during World War I, and who died in action while serving in France. A second son was Christian Herter (1895-1966), who was a highly regarded US statesman and served as Secretary of State.

In an earlier post about the family, we only briefly focused on a huge mural (40 feet wide, 15 feet high) that Albert Herter painted after the war and gave to the French people. It was in part a tribute to the French soldiers (called poilus, French slang for soldiers) who had served in the war. Less obviously, it was as well a tribute to his son. Appropriately, the mural was initially hung in the departure hall of the historic Gare de Paris-Est in Paris, a major railway terminal, from which so many soldiers had departed for the battlefield.

Recently, I was pleased to find a lengthy paper about that famous mural. It was written by Mark Levitch, and is titled "En Souvenir: Albert Herter’s Le Depart des Poilus, Aout 1914 at Paris-Est." It was published in a volume of essays about WWI artworks, edited by Margaret Hutchison and Steven Trost, titled Portraits of Remembrance: Painting, Memory, and the First World War (University of Alabama Press, 2020).

Levitch’s paper is particularly informative because it is based on extensive research, far more complete and detailed than earlier accounts. For example, I had not known, or perhaps I had forgotten, that another American camoufleur, named John Dwight Bridge, had assisted Albert Herter in completing the mural. As we posted earlier, Bridge is himself of interest because both he and Everit Herter were associated with Barry Faulkner (a muralist and co-founder of the American Camouflage Corps), who was the cousin and student of Abbott H. Thayer, the so-called “father of camouflage.” In the years following the war, Bridge married the widow of Everit Herter, Caroline Keck Herter.

In the process of painting this huge railway terminal mural, Albert Herter chose to quietly include members of his own family in his depiction of various families bidding farewell to their soldier sons. To anyone who was unaware of Everit Herter’s wartime death, the mural might easily be interpeted as a generic portrayal (neither factual nor specific) of the sorrow of saying goodbye to one’s soldier son—whose departure may be final.

But things did not work out as smoothly as that. In the years after the war, there was some resentment among the French public about what they saw as the tendency of Americans to claim excessive credit for the war’s success. As a result, there were times when Herter’s mural was seen not primarily as an all-inclusive tribute to French infantry and others, but rather as a means by which the sacrifice of Everit Herter—and the Herter family’s efforts—could upstage the achievements of others.

This was especially reinforced by the mistaken but often repeated claim that an especially prominent soldier in the center of the painting represents Everit Herter. That figure can be clearly seen online, in a full view of the mural. He is elevated above the others, with arms outstretched, so it doesn’t take much to imagine him as an allusion to Christ on the cross. Hence, one can see how people might assume that this was a slightly veiled tribute to Everit Herter. In various essays over the years, other figures were also mistakingly said to be members of the Herter family.

There is no disagreement that Herter family members are included in the mural. But Levitch denies that the soldier with the outstretched arms is Everit Herter. Instead, the Herter family is quietly clustered on the right. In a detail of the mural (as shown below, along with a diagram of the same section), Albert Herter (the muralist and the father) is holding flowers and clutching his chest (1). His wife (2) stands behind him, and their martyred son, Everit Herter peers out quietly from inside the train (3). Their daughter-in-law (4), the widow of Everit Herter is facing Everit’s father, her hand to her face. And Everit’s fellow camouflage artist (who is soon to marry the widow), John Dwight Bridge (5), is bending down and comforting the sons of the father who had been killed in the war. I hope this is a reasonable explanation.

Levith’s essay is far more interesting, and more detailed, than the summary I have provided above. It makes for thoughtful reading.

Review of Coutin Camouflage Book

Pages from the WWI notebook of André Mare (1916)

LAST APRIL IN a blog post here, we shared our excitement about a new book by French historian Cécile Countin on WWI French camouflage, titled Tromper l'ennemi: L'invention du camouflage moderne en 1914-1918 (Paris: Éditions Pierre de Taillac, 2012). We couldn't review it, as much as we wanted to, because the text is entirely in French. Nonetheless, we have greatly benefited from it because it is a rich array of French camouflage artifacts from that era, with exquisite full-color images of posters, magazine illustrations, camoufleurs' sketchbook drawings—you name it—along with scores of black-and-white wartime photographs, many of which have presumably never been published before. Reproduced above, for example, is a page spread from the notebook of French army camoufleur André Mare, showing 1916 photographs of camouflage-painted cannons.

In recent days, a review of Coutin's book has been published online. It was written by American historian E. Malcolm Parkinson (associate professor emeritus of history at Worchester Polytechnic Institute), whose article on "The Artist at War: Painters, Muralists, Sculptors, Architects Worked to Provide Camouflage for Troops in World War I" we blogged about a year ago. Now, Parkinson's review of the Coutin book can be accessed on the web at Leonardo Reviews >>more

1918 bird's eye / no wonder cubist art started in France

aerial view of village in France (1918)

Above An aerial photograph from Collier's Weekly, June 22, 1918, p. 10, which included the following caption—

NO WONDER CUBISM STARTED IN FRANCE! No one need wonder any longer where the cubists got their inspiration. They must have gone up in an airplane and had a good look at France! This airplane view of an observation balloon floating over a French village is as good a bit of cubist art as anything that Marcel Duchamp ever turned out.

•••

Henry G. Wales, Correspondent of the International News Service with the AEF, HOW THE LINES LOOK FROM A FRENCH AIRPLANE: Trip Across No Man's Land Has Its Thrills Even at a Height of 6,500 Feet—American Batteries' Havoc in The Stars and Stripes (France), May 3, 1918, p. 7—

I have been two miles inside the German lines—at a height of 6,500 feet. I flew over the American lines on the Toul front, crossed No Man's Land, and penetrated as far as the enemy second line defense. I saw some of the destruction inflicted by bursts of gunfire from American batteries, and even while over the German positions I saw American shells drop there and silently explode, spouting a dusty upheaval of brown dirt mixed with smoke.

I made the flight, which is the first taken over the actual fighting lines by a civilian, war correspondent or otherwise, since the war began, in one of the British two-seater Sopwith observation biplanes used by American observers in regulating American artillery fire, and piloted by a French sub-lieutenant who usually takes up with him an American observer. The only difference was that the twin machine guns were not put in place for my trip, as they are when the combination observer-machine gunner goes up.

It was just after four o'clock sun-time and excellently clear for observation. A group of mechanicians strapped me to the bucket seat deep down in the fuselage, so that only my head showed and I looked squarely at the pilot's cranium, just showing in front of me.

Mile a Minute on the Ground
We raced down the field and picked up a mile a minute gait, then rose so softly that before I realized we were off the ground the hangars and buildings seemed to be dropping below. We circled over the field a while, banking steeply on the turns to make our height, as the fields are near the front, and an airplane must fly high to cross the lines, otherwise it is dangerous business.

Mounting to 6,000 feet, we started toward the front, traversing roads and villages I knew well from passing through them daily in an automobile. As we gained height, with our speed exceeding two miles a minute and the wind pressure becoming greater, it seemed though we were standing stock still.

As I gazed through the floor glass of the plane, objects below made it seem as if we were barely creeping along, just making headway against some raging gale, though in reality there was scarcely any breeze. But gradually we passed landmark after landmark that I knew, and I realized we were really moving fast.

Then, far to the right, I saw another French machine at about the same level, also apparently stationary, although in reality moving as fast as we were. We were so far above the earth's surface that one lost all sense of movement save that the air rushing past and filling the lungs with great gasps of oxygen.

War Zone Creeps In
Scrutinizing the landscape below I passed the rearmost American Army zone, out of danger except for long-range guns, then gradually the war zone crept in almost imperceptibly. I first noticed the telltale shadows invariably cast by the most skillful camouflage. Then I saw how mere manmade camouflage cannot mimic nature exactly, no matter how hard he is trying to copy the landscape.

Soon we saw the beginning of the communication trenches. Sinuous, winding, irregular, they toiled devious ways like moles' tunnels seen on a moist morning at home. Then, instead of villages, I could see merely clumps of ruined, shell-torn stone houses, and out from the clumps stretched the wonderful French highways—clear, clean-cut and ribbon-like under the eye, so that I could tell exactly where I was by their configuration from the pilot's map I carried.

It was the roads that told us first that we were approaching the actual fighting zone—that stretch close up to the front line trenches which ie dally and nightly ploughed up by shells. There the highways widened, lost perceptibly, and vanished like a ribbon fraying in tiny strands at the ends.

Where the Road Ends
The thoroughfares gradually lost themselves in the yellowish-brown strip marking No Man's Land. Through powerful binoculars I looked down upon the maze of American trenches, inter-winding, interlocking, seaming the earth to a considerable depth behind a tiny hairlike line trench marking the advanced fire trench. All this area was so shell-pitted that it resembled nothing so much as the footprints of thousands of dogs on the seaside sands, at some places blurred and blended into millions of tiny undulations where the rain had washed down the softened shell crater marks.

The lane of No Man's Land, as far as the eye could see, was a baren, empty sit torn up, yet still with certain marks left, such as a shell-battered stone farmhouse which the gunners of neither side had so far seen fit to raze, and an old cow stable whose walls were still standing at a feeble height. These places are favorite rendezvous for night patrols in attempting to gain pos- session of the machine guns of their opponents, who try to enter.

Then I passed the advanced German line. It looked exactly like the American line, with the same endless scroll of trenches burrowing wormily every which way and extending back to great depth.

We veered left and saw the spot where the American bombardment had prepared the way for the raid of the previous morning. The effects of the rain of shells were plainly visible, the new craters bowing up bolder and deeper than others which had been made a long time before.

Roads Begin Out of Nothing
Passing over the Germans' first network of trenches, I noticed the stream-like communicating positions leading back towards the second organized position. There, too I saw clumsily camouflaged gun pits, and glancing at the map found them accurately noted there for our gunners' information.

The villages behind the enemy's line were crumbling and shot torn exactly the same as those behind ours, and the roads began again from nothing, gradually assuming shape in the fine highways a little way further on.

No puffs of white smoke, indicating shrapnel, nor of black smoke, indicating high explosive, molested us. We continued onward, not straight ahead, but obliquely, so that we could veer off and double back if a hostile fighting plane appeared. We saw a couple of German two-seater observation machines regulating artillery fire at about our own level, but they minded their own business and we paid no attention to them.

Gazing earthward, I saw shells coughed up from the from the throats of American guns far behind plump into the enemy's positions and burst, throwing up cloudlets of black-brown dirty smoke.

Once, when we were farthest within the enemy's lines, I looked back toward the German front line and saw several flashes which I afterwards learned were trench mortars throwing flying pigs over toward the American lines.

Not a Human Being in Sight
In all that journey I had not seen a single moving human being, through my glasses, despite the fact that the subterranean positions beneath teemed with fighting men. In all the advanced positions on both sides I did not see a single moving vehicle, although far off to the rear of the German lines I could discern dust clouds rising from convoys on the move.

We turned slightly, tilting steeply on our wing, and soared homeward. The pilot signaled to me to look down, and, staring through the floor-glass, I saw another French machine much lower. Almost at the same instant a dull thud penetrated the terrific noise of the whirling motor. The pilot motioned again, and I saw a fluffy white cloudlet of anti-aircraft shrapnel—enemy gunners trying to lay the range on the comrade beneath us.

Then came a dozen more almost inaudible thuds, and I saw a string of these fluffy white cloudlets hanging in the air along the path which the French machine below had been taking. But he was far away—he wing slipped, turned, and escaped entirely. Although we were less than 10,000 feet up, enemy anti-aircrafters did not choose us for a target.

Passing again the American battery positions, I saw ominous flashes from the breeches, but heard no shot fired or shell whistling through the air. We passed over an American observation balloon and reached the field, alighting like thistledown at 80 miles an hour.

I looked at my watch. We had been gone 35 minutes, but it had seemed ages because of the persistent idea that we had been battling continually against a head-on gale.

"Did you see that Boche single-seater above us just before we turned back?" asked the sub-lieutenant pilot, hopping from his seat. "I think he spotted us without a machine gun and thought us easy prey, as he was on his way home, then turned and chased us a little way. Otherwise, I would have taken you over and shown you the German positions there, with big guns mounted, and their observation positions."

WWI aerial photography

RELATED LINKS 

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / 

FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage

CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research

on Art, Architecture and Camouflage

SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook

Maurice G. Debonnet on the use of paint in wartime

Maurice G. Debonnet, ship camouflage sketches (1918)

Maurice G. Debonnet, “Camouflage and the Art of Using Paint in Warfare” (with illustrations by the author) in the Painters Magazine and Paint and Wallpaper Dealer. April 1918, pp. 180-182.

Confusingly, we’ve also found a reference to what may be the same article (or is it a different, subsequent article?) but with the title “Marine Paint Camouflage,” which was apparently published in the June 1919 issue of the same magazine, which we haven’t yet found.

That other reference is in the June 1919 issue of Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter. It describes that second article as “the most instructive and iluminating article on this important branch of the service in the late war that ever has been written. In it the author reveals for the first time the methods used, the various types of camouflage, the reasons for their use, illustrating it with his own drawings and with photographs of many of the boats on which camouflage was used. It shows how the wild dreams of the cubists became realities working for the cause of democracy the world over.”

In the first article (April 1918), Debonnet’s drawings are reproduced (as shown above), but there are no photographs of camouflaged ships. To make things even more confusing, there is another notice in the August 11, 1919 issue of Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter (p. 51), which again makes note of Debonnet’s article, but in a much shortened form and without any references to photographs of camouflaged ships.

Maurice G[eorges] Debonnet was a French-born American painter, printmaker, and interior designer. He was born in Paris in 1871. He immigrated to the US at age 20, arriving in Boston in 1892, then soon after settled in New York. Over the years, it appears that he resided in Bayside, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. His wife was Marie (Hebding) Debonnet. He was associated with the Society of Independent Artists, the Salmagundi Club, the Brooklyn Society of Modern Artists, and other groups. He died in 1946.

•••

Camouflage a Child of Paris

…The confusing and baffling name, camouflage, that has been recently adopted in our language, is by no means a newly-coined word. Camouflage is a word derived from the French language, It has been said to be a child of Paris' underworld, and there may be some truth In that, as camoufe in slang means candle, while the old French word camoufet, also meaning candle, are the roots of the word camouflage.

Perhaps dark deeds were hidden by the smoke of the old-fashioned tallow candles. The word has been in use for a long time by French actors and means to make up. In the Belgian language Flemish) the word kafouma, meaning with smoke, has long been in use, but whatever may be its origin—camouflage—(was Eve the first one to practice it?) undoubtedly means to disguise, conceal, to bluff, to make something look like nothing. It means here specifically the art of fooling the enemy's eye. Camouflage (kam-oo-flah-zhe) is practiced by the camoufleur or brush fooler.

The American khaki, color of earth, dust and leaves, the German, field gray, the French, horizon blue, and previously the coloring of the body of the American Indian, and even the blueish gray peculiar to the atmospheric coloring of the South, was reproduced in the Confederate uniforms.

One of the first extensive modern applications of camouflage was made by General Smuts, in the Boer War, when all the paraphernalia was painted with colors that harmonized well with their surroundings. In Italy the mountain troops, fighting in the snow, paint themselves white in the daytime, black at night. and follow the seasons with daubs of yellow, blue, red and golden tints, as may be necessary to reproduce the color effects of nature acting as background.

Based on Animal Coloration

The use of paint in camouflage ta primarily based on the laws underlying the protective coloration of animals first mentioned by Poulton (1856) and the Thayers (1896-1902-1909) who said "that protective or disguised coloration falls into two main divisions—the one including concealing colors, mainly based on counter shading, the other including mimicry. The goal of the former principle is the rendering of animals invisible in their natural haunts. Mimicry aims at deceptive visibility.

The need of markings is a concomitant of the principle of "obliterative shading," as when an unmarked solid object has been reduced to a perfectly fat monochrome by counter shading— so that it lacks all attributes of solidity—it may be quite undistinguishable, provided that its background is of a similar monochromic flat tint.

In 'pattern perspective,' It will show that not an exact reproduction of the actual background, but a picture of that pattern as it looks when more or less altered and refined by distance, is essential to the concealing of an object, or, in other words, that the object's obliteratively shaded surface must bear a picture of such background as would be seen through it if it were transparent."

The subject of nautical camouflage is Interesting. In 1902 a patent was issued to two Americans, A.H. [Abbott Handerson] Thayer and Jerome [Gerome] Brush. The specifications mentions that the reason any object is easily seen, no matter what color it is painted, is because when near enough to be distingulshed its various surfaces reflect, respectively, different amounts of light: the upward surfaces being the lightest, the vertical surfaces less light, the surfaces facing downward less and the deep shadows still less. When far away, so that its various surfaces blend into one, a ship may be visible. owing to the contrast of the whole object with the surrounding sky and water. A white ship may be seen against so bright a sky as to look almost like a black one. Therefore it makes little difference what color a ship is painted, if it be painted only one color, as either the whole ship will silhouette against the sky beyond or its different parts will present a strong contrast of light and shade. In short the process means painting normally light surfaces dark, darkened surfaces light and coloring the shaded portions with paint that would neutralize and blur the definition of the ship.

Angles Are Effaced

One of the theories—perhaps the best one in the merging of the hull and upper work with the sea and sky is that the color scheme is so applied that with distance it resolves itself into gray and that with the aid of other splotches of paint all angles are effaced, and painting the different areas of the ship so that only one will show its true color at a distance.

For instance, a section near the stern may be painted with large irregular spots of dark green, purple and red, while on a section next to it is painted smaller spots and lighter tones of the same color. Still further forward another area is covered with still smaller spots, so that as each area comes to its proper distance from the eye, it will become gray and of low visibility, while the larger spots will be glaring.

Let us see how the general principles of paint camouflage were and are applied: At the battle of Somme a road was covered by the French camoufleur with three kilometers (9,840 feet) of canvas painted to imitate grass, rocks, etc., so as to allow the troops, guns, etc., to pass under, and for three days they were undetected by the enemy planes.

Forts in Deceptive Garments

Forts and their surroundings are so painted that they may look one day like a vast expanse of green grass and the next day be transformed to well laid tennis courts or summer cottages. A whole village street, with its old-fashioned houses and thatch roofs, were painted on canvas and with the help of netting dipped in paint, guns, batteries and moving troops were constantly surging to a given point. "Foiled again!" said the Hun.

The moving pictures of the British tanks in action, shown recently in this country, well exemplify the meaning of camouflage. The crawling land ships are covered with streaks and patches of varicolored paint, so arranged as to appear part of the ground if viewed at a distance.

Escort wagons, caissons, tractors, moving war supply trains, locomotives and depots, are so treated that almost under any atmospheric conditions and whether in woods or open country, the deceptive art is found to be useful to a great degree.

Guns of large and small caliber are disguised to break up their well known contours. Usually they are painted black on top and white underneath, so that they cease to look round, a few strokes of brown and green are thrown in for good measure and presto! The futurist composition, blends so well with the landscape that only occasional flashes of fire remain as tell tales.

Men on outpost duty, including wagon drivers, troops in march disguised with painted canvas or burlap; battery observation posts and observers are sometimes painted three times a day, and to see soldiers painting piles of steel helmets gray and khaki colors is no uncommon sight. Field observer's clothes are decorated with stripes of various shades of brown and green and patches of yellow, so that they become part of trees when up in them for observations.

Dobbin Also Camouflaged

In 1914 the Russian Cossacks painted their white and gray horses green to make them harmonize with the foliage, in order that their movements could not be seen by scouting airplanes.

The French, In 1915, rendered horses as nearly invisible as possible on the field of battle by staining them a khaki color and later a horizon blue. Can the reader imagine being awakened with a very dark taste in his mouth and seeing yellow, pink and green horses? Dummy horses and wounded soldiers used for concealing observers and the horse of Troy are known facts, but not amiss here perhaps is the story of the Anzacs serving In France in 1916 who found that near their sector at [censored], a white horse which seemed to set as a signal to the enemy. Where he was drawing a plow one day shells fell the next day. They went out at night and painted the horse brown.

Naturally signs and lettering of all kinds are necessary from the stenciling of numbers on shells to the marking of cannons, etc., with animals or other figures to replace the numerals formerly used. This bit of deceit keeps from the enemy any information regarding the number of the object or the number of the regiment to which it belongs.

Submarines come in also for their bit of decoration. In a well-remembered memoranda sent to the United States by Germany in February 1917, it was said that "regular American passenger boats might ply their trades, if such steamers where painted in a peculiar way." In 1907 the Hague Convention approved Article 5, which provides that hospital ships "shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a meter and a half in breadth" so that they will not be fired upon. This practice was abandoned on the ground that it was simply pointing out targets to the German gunners! 

Is a Necessary Precaution

Before 1898 our warships were painted white and war gray during the Spanish war. Previous to the German submarine atrocities our merchantmen took to camouflaging, which became obligatory with the Treasury Department's decree (1917) that "every ship leaving this port should be camoulaged or Insurance rates increased accordingly. The cost of camouflaging merchantmen is about $200. When the giant German submarine Deutschland sailed from Baltimore in 1916, she was painted so as to resemble the colors of the sea as nearly as possible: the upper portion of the vessel's sides which protruded from the water, when the ship travels on the surface, wore decorated to resemble sea waves. The bluish green color of the waves were capped with white to simulate foam.

The well-remembered sinking of the United States four-master Lyman M. Law by an Austrian submarine, near the coast of Sardinia (February 1917), recalls the fact that the submarine was painted ash color with black deck.

Periscopes have been painted with parallel stripes in various colors of the spectrum, so that when the colors are refracted they are converted into a white ray, making it very difficult for the enemy to see the periscope. In 1917 the German undersea craft coated some of their periscopes with aluminum so as to make them less visible.

Article by Debonnet (1918)

Melts Into the Horizon

In a series of experiments a ship was so successfully painted that at three miles it seemed to melt in the horizon. In the case of large steamships no accurate range could be made for shelling at three to five miles—the usual shelling distance while at eight miles the ship disappeared into nothing.

Of the many painting systems in use, a glance at the following will show the more promising: Brush—Black and wiite only.
Herzog—Curved color line.
Toch—Wavy lines with blurred edges.
Mackay—Three color combination.
Warner—Pale violet and green.

During the first two years of the war color was not thought to be necessary; black and white or two shades of gray were used, although the late T. T. Jane, the well known naval expert had the decks, etc., of a torpedo boat painted a mottled black, white and gray to imitate nature's camouflage of sea birds. with their markings of black, white and gray. It was a success as seen from shore, but when viewed in fall light against the sky, it became a dark spot.

But, no matter how painted to attain low visibility, be it so well done that to the laymen it looks like decorations from the Mogul Emperor's palace at Delhi, or bunches of green flowers with pink popcorn couchant, cubist's blue and green dreams or again futurist's fancies with purple bodies and black limbs—the color schemes used do not conceal the ships, but if the color areas are large and the contrasts strong in value, they make it harder accurately to point a gun, but nevertheless a vessel so treated, when standing with the sun behind, appears as a large mass of very dark color.

Painters Are "On the Job"

 In conclusion it may be said that if any one with knowledge of paint and its application is looking for special entertainment in the way of fooling the enemy, the Camouflage Corps will receive him with open arms.

The last word has not yet been told because every day paint will have something new to say, and from the reports of progress so far made, one may rest assured that the painters, having shown their patriotism in one way of another, are right on the job helping with all their might and skill to make "the world safe for democracy." 

RELATED LINKS

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus