Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1917-12-20
CAM0UFLAGE STYLES
CHANGE WITH SEASONS
(By Henry G. Wales)

(By Henry G. WaIesl
PARIS, Dec. 20.-Camouflage camps
are working at top speed now all
over France, preparing new material
OF all kinds for the winter to re-
place that which has been in use
since last spring. Styles in camou.
ilage change each spring and fall. TO
follow the cOure of the seasons.
For spring and summer. green and
blue are the predominant colors in
camounage. because foliage and grass
make those the prevalent colors on
the average landscape IN autumn
various changes are made TO suit
climatic conditions, as. for example,
in the case OF big gun hidden by
| false bushes and vines. During the
summer it looked natural enough in
its leafy green bower. but with all
vegetation dead in the late fall. IL is
| necessary to change the green mask
gradually TO brown or gray, Just as
1 dying. For winter the camounage
runs to white, for snow scenes, mixed
with black, brown and gray for mud
The French army Is continually
| paying more and more attention TO
/ its camouflage service and there are
numbers of American camouflage stu.
dents in the various camps, learning
the art that they may handle il for
the United States army.
Various sectors fthe front have
their own special camouflage camps.
The chiefs of these camps are often
cX-scene painters, and many of them
are old habitues of Montparnassc and
prevailing color conditions at the
front and concentrate all their energy
on devising camouflage to meet those
particular conditions.
In the Vosges, for instance. the
! terrain everywhere is hilly and even
mountainous, and the slopes are GOV
cred with evergreen trees and brush
CamOutiage installed there must bc
OF very different character to thai
used in Champagne. however, where
the country is ilat-gently rolling
and the soil peculiarly yellow an,
almost sandy. The terrible ravaget
of nearly two years OF continuou!
|. fighting in the Verdun sector, alon!
both banks of the Mcuse, has caused
that whole battlefield TO take on ;
sombrc. dark look. as though ever!
inch of the ground was seeped il
blood. Black is the color note uset
nj Vcrdun. as the ground has beer
ChuTned up times innumerablc b!
high explosive shells and shrapnel
and the earth Is impregnated will
u steel. mclinitc. trinitrotoluene ant
II leaves its trace in withered vege
tation. Even weeds do not spring u
in places lately visited by the tcrrlbl
chemical connections waited acros
mo Mans Land"
Further east in the Rheims.Sois
sons-Saint Quentin districts. the loan
| is of the familiar dark brown colol
which shades off to n darker hue a.
the fertile plains Of Flanders are
reached
! Each particular forest along the
/ front presents its own problem. In
| the Argonne, where the Crown Prince
has been held stationary for more
/ than three years. the Camouilag'
artists have had to keep changing
their properties" continually. Al
activity there for months, the -T'renCl
I and German batteries shell cacl
other and the advanced lines vicor
ousIy every day. After all this time
the repeated bombardments hav,
withered away the forest TO mer
collection of battered, blackened ire
stumps in some places, In othe
places. however the trees are still
standing and are in full leaf in tn
summer. Parts of the forest are 1
evcrErecns, but these are general
shclled frequently TO scare sniper
and observers out of their branchc
| Roads near the front are AWAY
CamounaGcd by endless screen,