Chapter XVII: The Art of Camouflage

The word camouflage has come into common use both here and abroad and I think it might be interesting to devote a little time to a brief discussion of the different uses of camouflage, or low-vision painting, and to tell you how extensively it is used and where it is most effective.

At the front there are many roads that pass over hills to the rear of the lines, over which supplies have to pass on their way forward,—roads that are within sight of the enemy observation posts, and would prove easy targets for their guns should they be left clearly exposed to view. Many people believe that just because a road is camouflaged the enemy does not know the road exists.

This notion is erroneous in most cases, for they do know that the road is there behind the camouflage, but the object is to obscure from their view whatever is passing a given point. Otherwise it would be easy for the watchful enemy, with glasses, to see whether men were moving forward, or whether shells were being transported for the artillery. With the use of camouflage they are deprived of this data and the knowledge of just when or where on a road to put a shell so as to have it reap a plentiful harvest. Do not misunderstand me when I say that just because a convoy is passing along a camouflaged road that they are safe. Traffic moves along this avenue of supply with some degree of safety.

In some places the road will have camouflage on just one side. In other places it is necessary, in order to provide the proper protection, to put it up on both sides, and in other instances lines of brush are strung on wires every fifty feet or so to break the continuous stretch of road as it appears to an aviator from above.

The method that is employed is that of placing upright, twelve to fourteen feet high along the sides of a road, something not unlike a regular fence around a farm. Along these are strung wires, on which brush and weeds are hung and fastened at top and bottom so that the wind will not blow them down or to one side.

Under ordinary conditions at the front, this form of camouflage affords effective protection, for without it the enemy could shoot at convoys, etc., with some positive knowledge of just what was passing along the roads. One sees the camouflage roads of both sides on a front, knowing full well that men and supplies move along them, but just where they are at the time a shot is to be fired is problematical, and, with this uncertainty before them, only in time of undue activities on the part of either side is any attention paid to them, and then waste or no waste they are raked from one end to the other with shell fire.

Back of the lines at various distances are the batteries, and it is not always possible to locate them where they can enjoy the shelter or obscurity of clumps of woods, so often they have to be located in fields or in other open places. However, a battery is always located so that when firing the flash is obscured to the enemy, preferably behind some little hillock or rise in the ground, so there is never much chance to locate a battery by other means than observation balloons or aeroplanes.

Camouflage is employed here also and covers are so constructed that they hide entirely the location of the battery, leaving no opportunity for the gun to be seen. If a photograph is taken by an enemy aviator, when developed the battery takes on the appearance of an ordinary clump of brush in the picture, and surrounding it are so many just such clumps of brush that there is nothing showing at any particular place to give any information as to just which is a battery.

If a battery is being searched out and great uncertainty exists here, the enemy do take chances in shooting at the different clumps in the hope of getting a hit on a battery. This is where the anti-aircraft guns play an important part in keeping the observation plane up at altitudes where photographs do not give enough detail to reveal too much information, for, should they be permitted to get down close enough, they might be able to distinguish too readily the camouflage from the real.

Low-vision painting is another form used extensively. It is unusual to see a camion (auto truck) or any form of vehicle on the road that is not painted up so that, at a distance, it blends into its surroundings. Whereas, if it were not painted up, it would stand out clearly and the contrast to surrounding conditions would make it a target for the enemy guns.

The same condition exists on water as well as on land. Hence we see so many boats painted up for low vision. This does not mean that they are always obscure to the submarine, but with the mass broken and with the absence of defined contrast with the sky and water, they do not afford such a target to the enemy observing through a periscope.

In the rear of the lines at the front are little huts, in which are stored cartridges and shells. They are built very small so as not to be conspicuous. In all instances the additional precaution is taken by painting these huts so that it is practically impossible for enemy aviators to distinguish them at ordinary heights. One sees back of the lines in many places, in some instances fifteen or twenty of these huts one after the other like a little row of workmen’s dwellings, and one might be struck at first with the thought that they could be seen, but the low-vision painting obviates all of this and they are quite safe.

An interesting experience took place at the front recently when two French artists conceived the idea of having some sport with Fritz. Some old canvas, such as had been used to cover wagons, was located and cut up in strips and joined so that they could be rolled up on a pole. Then, with a bucket of paint and several brushes, they set to work painting a railroad track with the ties, rails, etc., as it would look from above. It was painted with the purpose of attracting attention.

After working for some time, they completed quite a stretch of “railroad.” When enough was finished they carried their railroad out on a pole and unrolled it, always running it from one small clump of woods to another, so that it would have the appearance of a battery location. It would be left here long enough to attract the attention of some Boche aviator and when he started back in his machine to report the existence of a railroad at this particular location the Frenchmen would roll up their “railroad” and put it away.

In a little while the shells would start coming in right where the “railroad” was. After a short time, or when they imagined the destruction complete, they would stop, then the Frenchmen would quickly unroll the “railroad” again and soon the Boche aviator would be seen flying over the lines to observe the destruction, but it must have been much to his surprise to see it there in the same place untouched. He would then fly back again and as soon as he turned his tail homeward in would come the “railroad”—shortly more shells. This unusual railroad could be shifted from one location to the other at will, and, whenever the Boche were in the air, it always came in for its share of attention, but, unlike most railroads at the front, this one was never hit.