 |
| Captured Turkish sniper |
Visiting the
Western Front in July of 1917, the British monarch King George V toured a
camouflage unit in Belgium. A special
correspondent for the Times described
the workshop as “a magician’s palace in a Belgium farm, where nothing is as it
seems…. where bushes are men and things dissolve when you look at them and the
earth collapses… It is the grown-up home of make-believe.”*
 |
| Howitzer 1917 under netting, James Hurley Australian War Memorial EO1891 |
Armies had
previously used tactics to hide themselves from the enemy, but the conditions
of the First World War made concealment more necessary than ever. Enemy trenches were often only yards apart, while planes, balloons, and dirigibles flew overhead to photograph
positions and gather intelligence.
In 1915, the
French were the first to establish a military camouflage unit; their section’s badge
featured a silver chameleon.** Other armies
quickly followed suit. The military use
of the word camouflage entered
English during the Great War, its origins in the French word camoufler (to make up for the stage).***
Theatrical set designers, sculptors,
painters, and other artists served in these units. Their job was not only
to conceal, but to deceive.
Paper mâché
dummy heads were used to draw fire and expose the position of enemy snipers; fake
trees fashioned from bullet-proof steel and encased in hammered iron plates served
as observation posts in No Man’s Land (the simulated bodies of dead horses and
human corpses served the same function), while tanks and ships were painted in
bold, abstract designs based upon the principles of Cubist art, breaking up
silhouettes and confusing observers’ sense of perspective.
 |
| USS Leviathan escorted by USS Allen by Burnell Poole 1918 |
One merchant ship captain who objected to the “vivid
painting of his vessel” received the following response from a camouflage
officer:
Dear
Sir,-- The object of camouflage is not, as you suggest, to turn your ship into
an imitation of a West African parrot, a rainbow in a naval pantomime, or a gay
woman. The object of camouflage is
rather to give the impression that your head is where your stern is.†
Camouflage
officers were not the only soldiers who sought to give false impressions, nor
were enemy soldiers the only ones deceived. An
unsigned poem titled simply “Camouflage” appeared in the June 28, 1918 edition
of the American military newspaper, The
Stars and Stripes.
Camouflage
They tell us
tales of camouflage,
The art of
hiding things;
Of painted forts
and bowered guns
Invisible to
wings.
Well, it’s
nothing new to us.
To us, the rank
and file;
We understand
this camouflage
—We left home
with a smile.
 |
| Erecting the First Camouflage Tree, Solomon J Solomon © IWM ART 6476 (1) |
We saw the
painted battleships
And
earthen-colored trains,
And planes the
hue of leaden skies,
And
canvas-hidden lanes.
Well, we used
the magic art
That day of
anxious fears;
We understand
this camouflage
—We laughed away
your tears.
They say that
scientific men
And artists of
renown
Debated long on
camouflage
Before they got
it down.
Well, it came
right off to us,
We didn’t have
to learn;
We understand
this camouflage,
—We said we’d
soon return.
We understand
this camouflage,
The art of
hiding things;
It’s what’s
behind a soldier’s jokes
And all the
songs he sings.
Yes, it’s
nothing new to us,
To us, the rank
and file;
We understand
this camouflage,
—We left home
with a smile.
Soldiers
frequently disguised the ugly realities of war when communicating with loved
ones they had left behind. Men omitted
details, obscured the dangers of battle, and camouflaged the truth when writing
home to friends and family.
From his
position in front line trenches training with the British in 1918, Private
Ollie Hankins wrote home to his father in Richmond, Virginia:
Hello
Pop! Guess you thought it was about time I was writing. I am feeling exubrious
at present and hope this will find you all well. This is the 4th of July and we
have just finished a lovely dinner. We had real dishes to eat out of & sat
at a table in real chairs. Just think of
it! I haven’t heard a word from you all yet, but you need not feel bad about
that as there is a reason for my mail being delayed at present, and I expect to
get it very soon. We have holiday today and are endeavoring to make the most of
it.
Six months later
just after the Armistice, Ollie Hankins sent another letter home that revealed
what had actually happened that Independence Day:
Dear
Papa, I know that my being over here has caused you a lot of worry, but I hope
that from now on you will not worry any more about me…. My letter to you all dated
July 4th was written just a few yards behind the front line trench
and large shells were bursting close by while we ate that 4th of
July dinner that I told you about. While on this front I got caught in a
barrage, which is not the pleasantest thing in the world to get caught in. Also had some real use for my gas mask on
this front and went to sleep in the blooming thing on several occasions….††
When the
unsigned poem was reprinted in the 1920 Yearbook
of Newspaper Poetry, it was retitled to reflect a truth countless soldiers in the rank and
file had learned: “We Understand Camouflage.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Special
correspondent to the Times, quoted in
Nicholas Rankin’s A Genius for Deception,
Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 141.
**Rankin, A Genius for Deception, p. 25. The French society portrait painter Lucien-Victor
de Scévola is often credited with devising the first modern camouflage; in
September of 1914, he used painted canvas to disguise the position of a French
artillery battery (Rankin, p. 24).
***Spencer C.
Tucker, editor, The European Powers in
the First World War: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 1996, p 160.
†Rankin, A Genius for Deception, p. 131.
††Private C.O.
Hankins, “War Letters, Diaries, and Incidents.” Library of Virginia Archives.
