Friday, September 29, 2023

The Wide, Wide World of Camouflage

 Camouflage (often misspelled as camoflauge).
..... the word comes from the French saying : "To blow smoke in the face of another". I think the frogs used it like our American saying..."blow smoke up someone's ass" or to confuse, lie or deceive, but that is just my guess.....



It came to mean: hide, blend in or disappear. I am sure most people know that camouflage should do two things, 1. break up the lines of the object to obscure its shape (making it harder to identify) and 2. help the item blend in with the surrounding environment. This means that the color, shading, shapes and lines are all important.
Here are some good examples.




Even ships used camo, this is called "Dazzle Camo", it breaks up the lines so you can't tell what you are looking at nor how large the object is


The new modern patterns hide the hunter so he looks like he is part of the tree



Before you go thinking that this idea came from the military.....nope nature taught us everything we know....





Different types of Camouflage

old school US Military Camo


Sometime in the last 25 years or so they switched to Digital Camo



U.S. Desert Camo


And the digital version


The latest US Army Camo design




The U.S. used this Tiger Stripe camo in Vietnam


 old school urban camo,characterized by the use of whites and grays



One of the many varieties of snow camo


Rhodesian Camo


German camo, called "Flecktarn"
During the Cold War East Germany used this pattern called "Rain Camo"


Kryptek Camo 



Original Mossy Oak


Original Real Tree
 

We could go on for days with all the different styles of camo, let's see some more examples of it in use







































Some interesting articles on Camo

The Economist

Wikipedia