The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-02-10
.CAMOUfLAGE STYLES
. ARE EVER CHANGING
TO FOLLOW SEASONS
Green and Blue Give Way 70 Sonbcr
Coiors Representing Winter
Landscape.
AMERICANS STUDY
CAMoUFTAAGE ART
verfun Battle Leaves No Vegetation
and Black II Color Note In That
Sector.
(By HENRY a. WALES

10y S. WA1lESS-l
Paris. Feb. s.--Camoufiage 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-
Hage change each spring and fall, to
follow the course of the seasons.
For spring and summer, green and
nsue are the predominant colors in
eamounags, because foliage and grass
make thoee the prevalent coiors on
che average landscape. In autumn
various changes are made to suit
climatic conditions as. for exam pie
in the case OF big gun hidden by
false bushes and vines. During the
summer It looked natural enough In
it's ieafy green bower, but with all
vegetation dead in the late fall 1t
In necessary to change the green
mask gradually TO q brown or gray.
sust as though the camoufage bushes
were dying For winter the cannon
ra3e runs to whits, for snow scenes.
mixed with baak, brown and gray
FOR mud.
The rrArch army 10 continually
paying more and more attention 10
sts cAmoufage service and there are
numbers of American camoufage stu
dents In the various camps learning
the art, that they may handle u TOT
the United states army 49,.
Various sectors of the 'front.' haVs
4hatr own special canaouhage camps
The chiefs OF these camps are otten
mx-scene painters. and many of them
~are old habitues of Montparnasse ana
she Latin Quarter. They stnay me
preyAiline color conditions AT the
kront and concentrate all their energy
on devising camounage 10 meet tnofe
particular conditions.
In the vosgss. for instance. the
s%-rnIn everywhere is hilly and even
xnounta inous, and the slopes are coy"
arad with evergreen trees ana nrdshs
Cnmcuffage installed there must be
OF very different character 10 that
used Tn Champagne. however. where
the country Ia nat--gently rolling
and the soil peculiarly yellow and
almost sandy. The terrible ravages
of nearly two years of continuous
GRbting In the Verdun sector, along
both banks OF the Mouse. has caused
that whole battlefield to take on a
son4bre. dark look, as though every
inch of the ground was seeped IN
blood Black is the color note used
at Verdun, as the ground has oeen
ohurned up times innumershle by
hIrh explosive shells and shrapuel.
and the earth la impregnated with
steel. rneIinite, trinitrotoluene ana
lvdaIte Wherever gas has been usao
II leaves It's trace In withered vese-
tatfon. Even weeds do not spring w
~ nlscss latsiv visited by the terrible
cheuascal connections waited scrosa
"No Mans Land
Further east in the Rhsirns-sots-
mo5s-saint Quentin districts. the loan
n of the familiar dark brown color
yehich shades of to q darker hue as
the fertile plains Of Flanders are
reached
Each particular forest along the
front presents its own problem. In
the Arsonna where the crown prince
has been held stationary for more
than three years. the cAmounase
artists have had 20 keep changing
their properties continually. Al
though there has been no infantry
activity there for months. the French
and German batteries shell each
ether and the advanced lines vieor-
suxiy every day After all this time,
she repeated bomhardments have
wfthered away the forest to a mere
collection of battered. blackened tree
rtumps In some places. On other
places, however. the trees are stfil
standing and are In full leaf in the
xur,mer Parts of the forest are In
evergreens. but these are generally
mhelled frequently to scare snfpers
and observers out of their branches.
Roads near the front are always
eamouftaFed by endless screens placed
along the edges and held In place
by poles. Sometimes the screens are
OF canvas ana painted 10 represent
q field or the adjacent terrain. Again,
the screens are merely huge nets.
with grass brush. leaves and other
foliage woven into the mesh. Some
exposed roads have overhead camou-
rage, too. TO hide the passage OF
troops and motor trucks from enemy
aeropianes. Screens like election
banners in New York are suspended
over the road, so that an aviator
must be directly over moving OBJ
5ect 70 see IT. Looking from an an
gle. the overhead screens overlap and
MASK the roadway.
Aeropianes are camoudaged. too
Double cssnounage Is used. for enemy
sirmen who look down on the ma
chimes and for antl-aircraft gunners
who look up at them. The under sides
OF the aeroplaness wings and the bot
tom of the fuseiage-the body--and the
under sides of the tall are painted a
light blue or pale green. Hecked with
white This makes the machine hard
the upper surfaces of the wings and
the fuseiase ana tail are painted brown,
dark green and deep blue. Such ma
chimes are particularly hard to locate
by an airman above. especially II they
are flying over wooded ground The
aviator cannot be guided by the sound
of the motor. as the anti-aircraft gun
ner can. because his own motor deaf
ems him.
The great naval gums and howitzers.
measuring up to twenty-six inches in
calibre. which France mounts on enor-
nous cars and runs up to within range
of the enemy lines at night ON rail-
road tracks for their fires of destruc-
tfon." are cleverly camouhaged. Tho
most eagle-eyed aeroplane observer
could ny over a battery OF these mon
sters at 5000 feet elevation and be en-
tirsly unaware of their presence. Every
battery carries crew of camounage
artists with II. and they keep repaint-
Ing and retouching the gun and it's car
continually as they shift their posi-
tion and the weather changes,
<xn ANTI fynUvxs eTYrsvrryc