From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Fri Aug 22 2003 - 14:49:00 PDT
Oddly enough, I was involved with this topic of conversation earlier this
week. From what I can tell, however, OD is the most common color one
would see in NA on American used equipment. Here is what one of my guys
dug up:
"Most vehicles that were shipped there initially were OD, and were commonly
overpainted with more OD (or any available paint) which then had buckets
of sand thrown over it for a very effective camo. the main problem in the
desert was reflection from glass and shiny surfaces rather than the exact
colour.
Later vehicles were shipped in desert sand paint but got the same
treatment at first re-paint, and apparently it was a standing order to
paint / sand cover all the glass on a vehicle that could reflect except
the area swept by the screen wipers - i expect side windows got
well-thinned paint and a handful of sand. Late photos commonly show a
mixture of desert sand and black camoflage, the exact pattern and
proportion depending very much on the unit, but quite often the original
vehicle USA, WD, or unit signs were left on small patches of OD.
The sand camo was cheap and VERY effective. British photographs of the
desert war showed vehicles that looked white - the reason for this was
that the sand camo was so effective when a photographer turned up they
actually whitewashed tanks, trucks, and other stuff just so it would show
up in a photo to be printed on poor quality newsprint - so you can't
really trust what you see in press shots. "
>If I'm not mistaken, lots of WWII stuff sent to Africa wasn't painted
>sand color, but was covered in mud to mask the Green. ...Or maybe it was
>just the tanks, but in any case it ended up working out as very good camo!
>
>Aaron Horrocks
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: davidh [mailto:jeepers@online.no]
>Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 9:42 AM
>To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
>Subject: [MV] Desert Dodges
>
>
>I've never seen any pics of Dodge 3/4tonners (WC51, WC52, etc) in a desert
>situation. Were they used in North Africa by the Allies, and if so would
>they have been sand coloured ? If anyone can point me towards a website
>which has photos I wld be most grateful.
>
>Regards,
>David Hammond,
>Oslo, Norway.
>
>
>
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