CAMOUFLAGE; BEYOND THE FACEPAINT

CAMOUFLAGE FROM AERIAL OBSERVATION

There are extra precautions that must be taken against discovery by aircraft that may not occur to someone unused to worrying about aerial observation. This is something which one must always be conscious of at all times. If you are seen, as Murphy’s Laws of Combat say, “Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be short on ammo.”

While worth a chuckle, it is unfortunately also true. Afghanistan, Serbia, and Chechnya have shown that a major modern military powers have absolutely no problem "swatting flies with a sledgehammer".

SHADOWS

From the air or from the ground, staying in the shadows is always the way to go when you wish to go unseen. Casting your own shadow, however, night or day, can be a "dead" giveaway. Here’s what the WWII Russian Partisan’s manual advised.


As soon as you notice the approach of an enemy aircraft, quickly look around to see if there are any buildings or trees nearby creating a shadow. Now, try to hide in the shadow and you will become invisible to the enemy. In order to better conceal yourself, get right up against the tree or wall.

This is called shadow camouflage. It is used for camouflage from surface observation during the day, but also at night when the human shapes casts a shadow, thus increasing the danger of being noticed by an enemy.

If the airplane surprised you or there are no shadows anywhere, squat or lie prone. Remember this fundamental rule—never move when a plane is above you. A moving man against an immobile background is very noticeable from the air. If you can, pull something over you to break up the features of your outline from an aerial enemy.


A friend of mine in Finland had a grandfather who fought in the Winter War and the Continuation War against the Russians. His granddad often led ski patrols far behind Soviet lines, sometimes with a Lahti 20-mm anti-tank rifle, to attack Russian supply lines. In their pure white snow cammo, they were almost invisible.

Then, returning from one patrol and crossing a frozen lake, the Arctic sun, so low in the sky in winter, came out of the clouds briefly, making them cast long, long dark shadows across the ice. A sharp-eyed Soviet pilot spotted the shadows and strafed them, killing one man before they could gain the safety of the forest.

TRACKS

Tracks are particularly damning from the air. They should hug features such as existing roads or tracks, railroads, fences, tree lines, or other natural lines in the terrain. Tracks can additionally be brushed out or covered with natural materials. If tracks cannot be completely obliterated, they should not lead to your position. Extend them on past your location a considerable distance, not ending the trail in the middle of nowhere but at another logical position.


In the winter, tracks are especially dangerous, as in fresh snow even a single man on foot can leave sign easily detected from the air. German ski troops and mountain infantry had methods to negate this danger as well as possible.

The use of existing roads is even more important than in summer. To prevent detection of new trails, they must be made along natural terrain contours, gorges, knolls, ditches, and hedges, or through woods. They must always link with the existing road net and must never terminate at a camouflaged object. This applies especially to firing positions.

In order to confuse the enemy concerning our own strength, when established roads are not used, it may be necessary for foot troops, skiers, sleds, snowmobiles, and other vehicles to march on a single trail. Sharp turns by snowmobiles must be avoided because they produce easily recognizable snow banks.

The obliteration of tracks will frequently be necessary. This may be accomplished by lightly dragging branches, trees, or barbed-wire rolls across them. Inhabited urban localities conceal troops from aerial and ground observation. One method of hiding vehicles is to park them against farm buildings and walls and cover them with snow-covered canvas.

Billets and bivouac shelters, and supply caches outside inhabited localities must be established as far as possible in evergreen forests or in dense snow-covered deciduous woods. Trees may be chopped down only if timber is abundant. Clearings which may be visible from the air must be concealed from enemy observation by arching and tying branches together over the open spaces. Care must be taken that the branches are covered with snow. In open terrain, gravel pits, hollows, inclines, gorges, and ditches must be utilized as cover. Concealment of tents by digging them partly into the snow or ground may be necessary. This procedure also applies to vehicles.

There are many historical examples of armies not enjoying air superiority hiding from and fooling the enemy’s air observers by "improvising, adapting, overcoming". In the Second World War, avoiding detection by enemy aircraft became particularly important. Although all sides practiced such camouflage, the Russians proved particularly adept at it, especially in the early war years when the Luftwaffe still enjoyed complete air superiority.

A favorite Russian method they used through the end of the Cold War to deceive aerial reconnaissance was the underwater bridge.

Noteworthy, too, was their camouflage of river crossings by the construction of underwater bridges. For this purpose they used a submersible underwater bridging gear, which could be submerged or raised by flooding or pumping out the compartments. The deck of the bridge was usually about 1 foot below water level, and was thus shielded from aerial observation.

The Chinese Communist Forces infiltrated some 300,000 troops into North Korea undetected despite the United Nations’ complete and total air superiority. As noted by McMichael:

Moving almost exclusively at night and hiding during daylight, whole rifle platoons were packed sometimes into single Korean huts, where they remained until dark. If shelter was not available, the soldiers lay huddled and motionless in ditches, gullies, and draws, covering themselves with straw, mud, and other materials. Sometimes forced to move by day in later operations, the Chinese picketed the hills along the route with observers. If a UN aircraft was spotted, the observer fired a shot, signaling troops within hearing to take cover. At times, troops on the march during the day carried straw mats on their backs. When lying down on the ground in orderly rows, the troop formation gave the appearance of a recently cut field to air observers. Some troops dressed in white, like the Koreans, and moved openly on the roads. Others pretended to be ROK soldiers.


Vehicles were camouflaged by day or hidden in tunnels, under bridges, or in dugouts. The Chinese also parked operational vehicles among vehicles that had been destroyed or disabled in previous air strikes, or they left them in awkward positions in ditches to appear disabled. Such measures often fooled pilots during subsequent air strikes. In the same deceptive manner, the Chinese camouflaged destroyed vehicles to cause the UN air forces to waste their ordnance on what they thought were operational vehicles.

The Vietnamese were just as skillful at moving their troops and supplies unseen. The Marines observed this in Vietnam first-hand during a large-scale ambush.

The U.S. Marine Advisor was moving with the CP group when it came under fire. In the ensuing action he was able to observe enemy troops at close range. They were expertly camouflaged and all wore the standard fiber VC helmet covered with freshly gathered vegetation. All of the Viet Cong observed wore a cape type garment made of camouflage material. At the introduction of U.S. FAC aircraft, a platoon of Viet Cong were observed to “hit the deck” arrange the camouflage cape over their backs and remain motionless. Aircraft flew over them as low as 500 feet and never noticed their presence.

Not long after, the Vietnamese proved adept at moving large bodies of troops and supplies unseen, first against the French with the Red Highway and then against the Americans on the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. (Devil’s Guard)

Of such routes; “It had been cut through the jungle without allowing as much as ten yards to be exposed to the skies. At a few less densely wooded sections, hundreds of trees had been roped together and drawn closer to one another with the aid of pulley-like contraptions. They had been fastened in such a way that their crown intertwined over the road. In the open ravines, networks of strong wire had been stretched between the slopes to support creepers, which had soon blotted out the road beneath.

The jungle road included permanent bridges, twelve to fifteen feet wide, most of them constructed a few inches underwater to fool aerial observation.”

CAMOUFLAGE NETTING

The First World War made the idea of camouflage a necessity and, in some cases, an art. Camouflage comes from the French word for “to disguise”, and the French were the first to take the art seriously and professional. WWI was the first air war, and it did not take long for the combatants to figure out that formerly secure artillery batteries, supply trains, and even front-line positions were easily seen from above. Once seen, they attracted enemy artillery and bombs from the sky.

Camouflage netting became the accepted way of concealing military assets from the air. They became common issue rather than special works during the Second World War.

The Japanese were well-noted for their excellent camouflage techniques during the Second World War. American military intelligence bulletins, using captured manuals in part, made these notes on the Japanese use of camouflage netting and other devices used to conceal themselves, their equipment, and their positions.

In arranging nets, the Japanese try to make them conform to the contour of the land. "When hanging out nets," an enemy source states, "do not leave gaps where each net touches the edges. To avoid casting shadows under nets, set up canvases under them * * *.

Frames for nets should be as low as possible. Where nets touch the ground, they must be sloped gently."

Particularly in jungle areas, the Japanese have been using nets extensively, not only for personnel, but for weapons, installations, and horses and mules. These nets usually have been garnished with local vegetation so as to blend well with the surroundings.

The manual recommends the use of camouflage net frames over peepholes and loopholes when the latter are not being utilized. These holes also are sometimes covered with grass.
Periscopes and similar equipment are camouflaged to represent natural objects.
Before using wire for camouflage purposes, the Japanese recommend that it be smoked in a straw fire to remove its shine and make it more pliable.

Individual Japanese Camouflage Netting

It was not just jungle islands and/or China where the Japanese fought and used excellent camouflage. On foggy, snow-swept Attu and Kiska, the islands they captured in the Alaskan Aleutian Chain, their camouflage was just as good.
The individual camouflage nets were made of vari-colored netting. Wisps of similarly dyed raffia (strong fibrous strands from the leaf stalks of raffia palm trees) were tied into the string meshes of each section.

Individual nets frequently were laced together to cover conical tents. In many instances high revetments were built around the tents, and the camouflage nets fell at a gentle angle from the peak of the tent to the revetment wall. The practice of locating tents at the bottom of deep and almost inaccessible ravines provided an additional safeguard.

The white snow parkas were used for wearing above the snow line. Where possible, the enemy avoided travel across snow patches during the day unless clad in white clothing. When the enemy soldiers moved across the pale grass of the hillsides they often moved in a crouching position with strips of grass matting held in front of them.

Individual enemy riflemen and observers were supplied with hooded camouflage capes, which were made of light, rain-repellent tan paper. The capes were about 9 by 6 feet, and were tied with tie strings. Behind and under these capes, riflemen and observers could sit for a day at a time, dry and protected from wind and rain and indistinguishable from the tundra.

Originally, cammo nets were intended to simply fool the human eye in general, and enemy aerial observation in particular. Now, as electronic detection threats have increased, modern cammo nets have incorporated new features to fool radar and FLIR as well.

The new Ultra Light-weight Camouflage Net Ssystems (ULCANS) will hopefully lead to more surplus Light-weight Camouflage Screen System (LCCS) panels becoming available.

One of the spiffier things one can now get surplus are panels from the “old” LCSS, Lightweight Camouflage Screen System, what everyone else calls a cammo net. Designed for vehicles and other large pieces of military equipment, LCSS is useful for concealment in four different ways:

Casts patterned shadows that breakup the characteristic outlines of an object.

Absorbs and scatters radar returns (except when radar-transparent LCSS is used).

Dissipates infrared radiation.

Simulates color and shadow patterns that are commonly found in a particular region.

Designed, when panels are connected, to conceal things as big as M1 Abrams tanks, LCSS comes in a diamond and a hexagon shaped panel. These panels are connected to make a net as big as needed. The smallest panel, though, is 16x27 feet, which is rather large for most light infantry usage. A unit could go in on a group buy of the stuff and cut it up into the sizes needed for individuals.

With a layer or dome of this stuff over you, with a foot or more of air space between you and it, your signature to high-tech sensors is reduced a tremendous amount. Add natural foliage in the net and natural tree cover overhead and it will do wonders. Swedish Diab-Barracuda netting also has special thermal dissipating and radar scattering qualities. I believe it was the first system that did. You can often find it available for sale as surplus if you look hard enough while LCSS is out there but can still be hard to come by.

When erecting the LCSS, keep the net structure as small as possible. Maintain the netting at a minimum of two feet from the camouflaged object’s surface and avoid eye-catching steeples and shadows. Lines between support poles should be gently sloped so that the net blends into its background. The net should extend completely to the ground to prevent creating unnatural shadows that are easily detected. Doing this will ensure the LCSS effectively disrupts the object’s shape and actually absorbs and scatters radar energy. The net should extend all the way around the object to ensure complete protection from enemy sensors.

The old Coast Artillery Journal offered these do and don’t tips for camouflage, from the air and from the ground. They are still as appropriate today as they ever were:

CAMOUFLAGE HINTS

DO’s

1. DO choose your position carefully. A proper estimate of the situation will make your work easier and avoid impossible camouflage problems.

2. DO use common sense to outwit the enemy. Common sense is uncommon.

3. DO avoid the skyline when concealing against terrestrial observation.

4. Do make full use of natural cover. The cover of a spreading tree is worth truckloads of artificial material.

5. DO utilize ditches, hedges, edges of woods, folds in the ground, etc. These “accidents” of the ground will prevent accidents to you.

6. DO avoid conspicuous landmarks. You don’t want to be at a focal point of enemy attention.

7. DO keep in the shadows. The enemy can’t see of take pictures of something in the shade.

8. DO remember that shadows move. Although shadows as a rule fall toward the North of an object, the length and direction of such shadows change throughout the day.

9. DO avoid all regularities of line or spacing. Nature has no straight lines and the enemy if looking for unnatural signs.

10. DO remember that anything unusual catches the eye of the enemy observer. Try to blend into the background; you want to be inconspicuous.

11. DO garnish carefully. Natural garnishing must look natural so use material similar to that in the vicinity and support is as it would grow.

12. DO thin out garnishing at the edges. A regularly garnished net casts a regular shadow which is obviously out of place in the surroundings. It will look like a stamp and we don’t want to pay postage on our own death bombs.

13. DO change dead vegetation. Forget it and something (or somebody) else will be dead.

14. DO keep your topsoil when digging in. It can be used to cover your spoil on the parapet.

15. DO make bold patterns, in garnishing or painting. You can’t see a two-foot break in the outline from a distance of a mile or two.

16. DO look before you leap. Plan and lay out your position in detail before moving in and trampling down promiscuously. Signs of activity lead to enemy activity which reduces the possibility of further activity.

17. DO observe camouflage discipline in making a reconnaissance. Signs of activity before occupation are just as disastrous as signs afterward.

18. DO restrict movement when the enemy is observing. A motionless object may escape detection: a moving one will attract attention.

19. DO take extra care when tired. Fatigue leads to carelessness.

20. DO work in the shade or at night. The enemy is looking for you at all times but his eyes are not as good as a cat’s. He can’t hit what he can’t see.

21. DO keep your tops “Flat’. Sagging nets are worse than baggy knees.

22. DO use existing roads and paths. Traffic here will not leave noticeable signs.

23. DO conceal the entire layout. If one tent or truck is seen it makes no difference that the rest of the installation is perfectly covered.

DON’Ts

1. DON'T be careless and give away your buddies. They're depending on you just as you are depending on them.

2. DON'T look up at airplanes. The enemy is looking for you too and you're easier to hit than he is.

3. DON'T move unless you have to; then think first how you can move to cover most unobtrusively.

4. DON'T use artificial materials unless the natural cover is insufficient. Natural cover blends best with nature.

5. DON'T be regular in your layout. Regularity is a military attribute and the enemy recognizes it as such.

6. DON'T take shortcuts over the open or step outside cover. Every time you put your foot down you attract forty-eight square inches of enemy attention.

7. DON'T walk around the outside of a net to fix the camouflage. Where you walk will be light in a photograph; the camouflage will be dark. Do you think the enemy will miss such a bullseye?

8. DON'T hide your installation and bury your spoil and belongings in the open. Remember the Ostrich.

9. DON'T let your net tops sag. They will photograph like a wet blanket laid out on bushes and they are not a bit safer.

10. DON'T lower the sides of your camouflage. Your Commanding Officer cannot see what you are doing, but when the enemy, sees the shadow thrown by these sides he will be even more severe.

11. DON'T hide under matted camouflage. It is as conspicuous as a bad haircut.

12. DON'T end a road at an installation or make a lot of trails to a position. Did you ever lose your way to a Canteen?

13. DON'T leave things near the edge of your camouflage. The edge of your camouflage isn't--and shouldn't be--opaque.

14. DON'T crowd around an installation. Dispersion reduces the likelihood of conspicuous trampling.

15. DON'T clean up an old position; it won't look natural to the enemy. If you're moving out, it will remain as a dummy: if you're moving in you don't want to change the appearance.