Camouflage

Natural Camouflage

Scientists became particularly interested in camouflage in nature in the 19th century because they saw it as tangible evidence of the theory of natural selection, which Charles Darwin had proposed in 1859. Research of the subject advanced in the 1890s, when the U.S. artist and naturalist Abbott H. Thayer claimed to have determined why so many animals are colored lightest on their undersides, where they are the least sunlit, and darkest on their upper parts. It is now widely believed that animals with such countershading (also known as Thayer's law) appear to be less solid and less dimensional because their markings cancel out the shading effects of the overhead sun.

During the Spanish-American War, Thayer proposed unsuccessfully that countershading should be applied to U.S. ships. In 1902, he patented the idea, which he claimed to have derived from the coloration of a seagull. His research intensified and, in 1909, he and his son (Gerald H. Thayer) published a groundbreaking volume, titled Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, in which (among other things) they suggested ways to use “protective coloration” for military purposes. In addition to countershading, the book described and illustrated natural and humanmade examples of blending, disruption, and mimicry.

Military Applications

During World War I, partly through Thayer's revelations, hundreds of artists, architects, theater designers, and others were deployed by various armies as consultants in wartime deception. The French, who were the first in history to establish a military unit for that purpose, referred to this practice as camouflage, and a camouflage advisor was a camoufleur.

Initially, most ground-based or field camouflage was concerned with concealing artillery from airborne observers, who relayed the location of targets to their own long-distance artillery. In 1917, however, British attention shifted to the heavy loss of their ships from attacks by German submarines (called U-boats). This led to a new way of thinking about naval camouflage as distinct from field [Page 234]camouflage, with the result that the British began to apply erratic, abstract patterns to the surfaces of their ships. First proposed by the British artist Norman Wilkinson (who called it dazzle painting), the purpose of this method was not to conceal the ship, but rather to throw off the accuracy of the U-boat gunner, who was positioned at a considerable distance and had to aim ahead of the target. It was never scientifically confirmed to what extent this actually worked, but the U.S. government was [Page 235]sufficiently convinced that it deployed its own camouflage expert (the artist Everett Warner) and adopted a parallel strategy in the last year of World War I.

...