Inflatable rubber Sherman tanks, wooden planes, and landing craft made out of canvas and steel tubes.
No, this isn’t the set of the latest Hollywood budget blockbuster, but just some of the hoax hardware used by Allied forces during Operation Fortitude – the name given to the astonishing attempt to construct a fake force in the south-east of England. The plan was to divert Hitler’s attention from the 160,000 troops preparing to invade Normandy in the D-Day landings of 1944.
It was a triumph. The elaborate ruse was so deceptive that, even after the landings had taken place, Hitler still believed that the main Allied attack would come from a different direction, at Pas de Calais.
This success is testament to the art of camouflage, which is now being celebrated by the Imperial War Museum.The exhibition explores many of the trailblazing techniques used during World War II, such as dummies dropped by parachute as decoy troops, cooling towers painted to resemble streets, and the ingenious disguise of factories and entire landscapes.
So if you thought camouflage was a drab world of face paint, khakis and helmets with strategically-placed branches, think again. As the exhibition reveals, it’s an area that’s attracted filmmakers, set designers, sculptors and artists ever since reconnaissance aeroplanes were first used during World War I and the need to keep weaponry under wraps grew more urgent.
Camouflage caught on quickly among the military, and the fast-thinking French led the way. Their ‘camoufleur’ artists quickly discovered that contrast and shape were more important factors than colour when it came to disguise.
Soon, renowned artists such as Jean-Louis Forain and Marcel Bain were serving in specialist camouflage units attached to regiments and giving free rein to their imaginations.
Such artists took pride in their ability to deceive, not just in the field (where many were injured or killed), but also at sea, where entire fleets of ships were given a colourful makeover with flamboyant Modernist patterns.
These ‘Dazzle’ ships were the brainchild of British marine artist Lieutenant Commander Norman Wilkinson, and before long German Expressionist Franz Marc followed suit.
The designs even excited Picasso, who claimed that they were influenced by his Cubist methods. "It is we who created that," he supposedly yelled as he watched a painted cannon being hauled through the Parisian streets.
The Dazzle ships’ garish patterns often made it impossible for the enemy to see which way it was heading, thus making it difficult for advancing submarines to plot a course for attack.
Artists were joined on the front line by filmmakers and set designers during World War II, who used their intricate studio skills to deceive on an even grander scale. Some of the most pioneering work was produced at The Camouflage Development and Training Centre at Farnham Castle in Surrey. Its exhaustive research would ultimately play a huge role in Operation Fortitude.
But while all was well on the ocean waves, camoufleurs contending with a desert landscape faced a bigger challenge. Hugh Cott, a Cambridge zoologist who had studied camouflage in nature, was the author of the influential book
Adaptive Coloration in Animals
. In 1941, he became the chief instructor at the Camouflage School at Halwan, Egypt, where his main task was to suggest the presence of vehicles and weapons where there was none, allowing real weaponry to amass elsewhere. His most famous decoys included the creation of an entire dummy rail head and the ingenious illusion of fake shadows to suggest a line of Sherman tanks parked alongside desert roads.
When artist Julian Trevelyan visited Cott, he discovered that the zoologist kept a menagerie of poisonous snakes, lizards and beetles in petrol cans around his camp, so he could study their camouflage patterns.
Taking its lead from Cott, the exhibition at the IWM examines how nature has inspired the use of camouflage in warfare, as well as taking a close look at clothing – from RAF escape boots designed to be cut down into civilian shoes with a specially-concealed knife, to the first ever French military uniform to feature the disruption pattern.
The show also highlights the influence of camouflage on high-street clothing today, with the work of famous designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, and artists such as Andy Warhol on display.
On the surface, the development of thermal imaging and heat-seeking missiles may appear to have diminished the role of camouflage in modern warfare. But, just like the IWM’s exhibition, camouflage has proven it still has the ability to surprise and alter your perceptions.
