A HISTORY OF CAMOUFLAGE: CONCEALMENT AND DECEPTION

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION

We keep hammering along with the conviction that "honesty is the best policy;" these pretty sentences do well for a child's copy-book, but the man who acts upon them in war had better sheath his sword forever. Field Marshal Lord Wolseley (11,36)

Camouflage, concealment, and deception have been ignored in our military schools and doctrinal literature to a large extent since the end of the Vietnam War. The services are showing renewed interest in camouflage and deception. The Army is developing new camouflage arid deception doctrine and draft joint doctrine has been written. In this paper I shall review historical examples on the use of camouflage, concealment and deception in order to develop a list of lessons we should have learned about their use. While some older historical examples will be explored the focus will be on the period from World War II to the present.