From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Mon Jan 03 2005 - 22:05:12 PST
Just to pimp the book a bit more... I have a set and it is an amazing
work. If any of you have a strong interest in the use of camouflage in
military, nature, and popular culture... there is NO better source of
info out there at any price. And I'm not just saying that because I
(very modestly) contributed to its creation :-) I know several others
who helped this project along over the last 2 years and all agree it
surpassed our expectations. And trust me... we're a fussy bunch when it
comes to this subject!
Only downside is the cost. But once you have it in your hands you'll
understand why it is a bit on the pricey side. I had the same feeling
when I got my first Hunnicutt book!
Steve
P.S. The HORRIBLE state of the USD has made this so much more expensive
than it would otherwise be because it is published in the UK.
>I just read a book review that perhaps the group might find of interest. It
>is about camouflage, a subject near and dear to many MV collectors. I've
>provided the link to the article, and a brief excerpt.
>
>I had no idea the desert pattern was so old. I'd love to read the book, but
>it's a bit too expensive. (Even with my discount !)
>
>Herr Bookmonger
>
>-------------------------
>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1419611,00.html
>
>How we have come to look like trees
>
>DISRUPTIVE PATTERN MATERIAL: An Encyclopędia of Camouflage: Nature,
>Military, Culture
>By Hardy Blechman
>
>"Army Surplus" - selling battlefield gear for camping and other recreations,
>including college life - was a phenomenon of the Baby Boom years in the
>United States, that strange moment of relieved optimism after 1945. One
>happy consequence of the Second World War was astonishing improvements in
>mass production. And there was a lot of production left over for the masses.
>Maybe you did not buy a Consolidated Liberator B24 bomber, but you might buy
>a bivouac tent or ETO (European Theatre of Operations) fatigues.
>
>Camouflage is a 20th-century phenomenon, a direct consequence of new
>military technologies. Observation balloons had been used in the American
>Civil War, but they were tethered and had limited effect on the conflict
>which remained essentially close combat. But the arrival, first, of
>machineguns, then of spotter planes, changed the geometry and scale of
>battle.
>
>Soldiers were once brightly coloured for purposes of threatening martial
>display as well as ready recognition, but when a belt-fed recoil-operated
>Maxim gun had a range of several hundred yards, high visibility became a
>liability for the squaddie more than an operational convenience for the
>commanding officer. Early in the First World War French soldiers suffered
>heavy casualties, partly on account of their bright red trousers.
>Accordingly, a Section de Camouflage was created in 1915, recruiting stage
>designers and artists.
>
> the United States has done more work on camouflage than any other nation.
>What's Norman Schwarzkopf wearing? That's "six-colour desert camouflage
>pattern for dry hot terrains" designed in 1962, issued first in 1981. Army
>BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) camouflage began development at the Engineering
>Research and Development Laboratory at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The evolution
>of the popular "Woodland" pattern was a response in the Sixties to the
>arrival of night-vision goggles. Research eventually determined that a
>mixture of: light green 354, dark green 355, brown 356, and black 357
>provided, when printed on 50/50 nylon cotton, an effect that "closely
>mimicked the visual and near-infrared spectral reflectance properties of
>typical woodland". Which is to say soldiers looked like trees. And then what
>happened? In 2004 "Woodland" was replaced by a digitally generated pattern.
>
> DPM Ltd, £100; 944pp, 2 vols
>ISBN 0 954 34040 X
>
>($190.71 !)
>
>
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