The Book of Camouflage: The Art of Disappearing
By Tim Newark
4/5
()
About this ebook
Its conception, its uses and the colours are looked at, as well as the key patterns such as the German uniforms of World War II, the ever-recognisable American type worn during Vietnam and the British DPM forming a sort of recognition guide to the various patterns in use in the armies of history and present day.
Illustrated throughout with the patterns themselves and images of camouflage in use, Tim Newark presents a quick and detailed look at the most prolific camouflage patterns.
Tim Newark
Tim Newark is the author of several critically acclaimed military history books, including Highlander, The Fighting Irish, The Mafia at War, and Camouflage, which accompanied the Imperial War Museum exhibition. He was the editor of Military Illustrated for 17 years and has written seven TV military history documentary series, including Hitler's Bodyguards. He recently authored In & Out: a History of the Naval and Military Club for Osprey.
Read more from Tim Newark
Double Cross: The Explosive Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boardwalk Gangster: The Real Lucky Luciano Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire of Crime: Opium and the Rise of Organized Crime in the British Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHighlander: The History of the Legendary Highland Soldier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mafia at War: Allied Collusion with the Mob Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar in Britain: English Heritage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Fighting Irish: The Story of the Extraordinary Irish Soldier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe In & Out: A history of the Naval and Military Club Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Protest Vote: How Politicians Lost the Plot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Book of Camouflage
Related ebooks
Bren Gun Carrier: Britain's Universal War Machine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Army Cap Badges of the Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rise of the Tank: Armoured Vehicles and Their Use in the First World War Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5British Tanks: The Second World War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Raiding on the Western Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in the First World War 1916-18 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fallschirmjäger: German Paratroopers, 1942–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFallschirmjager: Elite German Paratroops in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sniping in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiverine Craft of the Vietnam Wars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Combined Special Operations In World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman and Russian Tank Models, 1939–45 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The M4 Carbine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army Guerrilla Warfare: Pocket Manual, 1939–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsM4 Sherman: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives Plus Specially Commissioned Colored Illustrations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trench Warfare, 1850–1950 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tank Commander Pocket Manual: 1939-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Special Forces Vehicles: 1940 to the Present Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SAS and Special Forces in World War II: The Complete Guide to Paratroop, Commando, Ranger, SS, Marine and Other Elite Units Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBiggest Stick: The Employment Of Artillery Units In Counterinsurgency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Long Range Desert Group in Action 1940–1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAllied Special Forces Insignia, 1939–1948 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe U.S. 37-mm Gun in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Red Army Guerrilla Warfare Pocket Manual, 1943 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Commando Pocket Manual: 1940-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Block By Block: The Challenges Of Urban Operations [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecond World War Infantry Tactics: The European Theatre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Commando Tactics: The Second World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeachhead Assault: The Combat History of the Royal Naval Commandos in World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scouts Out! The Development Of Reconnaissance Units In Modern Armies [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of the Peloponnesian War: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Book of Camouflage
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A brief introduction to camouflage. This book touches on some general history of camo as well as camouflage from different regions around the world. Might have been easier to focus on one region or timeframe so the flow of the writing doesn't feel jumpy. The work does incorporate plenty of pictures and illustrations. Overall, an interesting read.Net Galley Feedback
Book preview
The Book of Camouflage - Tim Newark
The very first camouflage was used by hunters to disguise themselves from their prey and could take the form of foliage or mud smeared over their bodies, to hide their scent as well as their appearance. In this scene, portrayed by artist George Catlin in 1840, North American Plains Indians creep up on grazing buffalo while wearing wolf skins; the Native Americans hope their skin covering imbues them with the spirit of the predator animal so that they can scatter and separate the buffalo just as a pack of wolves might. Hunters today continue to use camouflage, wearing both camouflage pattern textiles and the more traditional ghillie suit, which was devised by Scottish gamekeepers and made up of hundreds of strips of cloth attached to netting. The ghillie suit is a favourite with army snipers too. More recently, hunter Bill Jordan founded the Realtree camouflage company in 1986 which produces very effective textile designs of overlaying leaves, twigs and bark that create a three dimensional illusion of foliage.
British Army riflemen of the early 19th century. A soldier of the 60th (Royal American) Foot stands, while one from the 95th Rifle Regiment kneels. Both were members of elite regiments that engaged in a new kind of warfare – skirmishing – which saw them advance in open formation, using cover, to shoot at closely ordered ranks of brightly uniformed soldiers. They deployed the more accurate rifle – rather than the musket – and wore green jackets to camouflage their movements. They were the predecessors of the modern combat soldier, and the 95th has since been made famous by the Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell. The artist of this illustration was Captain Charles Hamilton Smith, who served in the 60th and was an accomplished natural historian. He once carried out an experiment to determine which was the most effective uniform colour to camouflage a soldier at a distance and concluded that grey was more effective than green – the colour worn by the Austrian sharpshooting Jager.
The Corps of Guides, a combination of cavalry and infantry raised by Henry Lumsden in the Punjab in 1846, was the first unit in the British Army to wear khaki. Khaki is a Hindi word meaning dustcoloured, derived from the Persian khak for soil or dirt. Lumdsen equipped his native soldiers with loose-fitting trousers and jackets based on the local kurta, which he then had dyed with river mud that produced more of a grey, rather than brown, colour. Major William Hodson, second-in-command of the Corps of Guides realized its camouflage value when he said the khaki uniforms made his soldiers ‘invisible in a