Military Camouflage: Khaki Mud, Cubist Camoufleurs and Dazzle Ships

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For most of history armies wanted to be seen. Julius Caesar painted his scout ships Venetian blue around 56 to 54 BC, but black powder smoke and short-range muskets made bright coats essential for telling friend from foe. Accurate rifles such as the Baker rifle changed that, and Rogers' Rangers and the 95th Rifles adopted greens and grays. In India in 1848 the British Corps of Guides dyed their white uniforms with mud, tea, and coffee, and khaki, Urdu for dust, became British service dress by the Boer Wars. France held on to blue coats and red trousers into 1914 until losses forced a switch to horizon blue. Aerial reconnaissance and long-range artillery then led France to create the first camouflage unit in 1915 under painter Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola, staffed with Cubists and other artists.

Norman Wilkinson's dazzle paint did not hide ships but confused U-boat range and heading calculations. In 1940 zoologist Hugh Cott explained countershading, and at El Alamein Operation Bertram used dummy armor and sun shields that disguised tanks as trucks. Canada's pixelated CADPAT followed in the late 1990s, along with radar-absorbing coatings, anechoic tiles, degaussing, and scent masking.

• London's 1919 Chelsea Arts Club Dazzle Ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed guests in battleship-style geometric patterns.
• French camoufleurs built fake steel observation trees covered in real bark and slipped them into position overnight.
• US frog skin uniforms were pulled from Europe in World War II because they resembled Waffen-SS patterns and caused friendly fire.
• Britain's Cold War Berlin pattern used squares of white, gray, and brown to match the city's concrete.
• After the Warsaw Pact dissolved, former Soviet-aligned states reshaped their camouflage to resemble NATO patterns as a political signal.