Camouflage in Modern Warfare

Abstract

SINCE the publication in NATURE of June 22 of the leading article under this title, correspondence has revealed the interest which has been aroused. On p. 168 a letter on the subject, written from the point of view of the artist, demonstrates that scientific workers are not alone in their criticism of the official methods of dealing with camouflage. In this connexion, it is worth while directing attention to an article in the July issue of the Nautical Magazine, in which Sir John Graham Kerr discusses camouflage in its application to ships at sea. The article includes a reprint of the original letter drafted by Prof. Graham Kerr, as he then was, and circulated by the Admiralty to the Navy on November 10, 1914, on the use of paint camouflage for diminishing the visibility of ships at a distance. Effective camouflage, whether on land or sea, depends on two fundamental principles: compensative or counter-shading, and parti-colouring or disruptive pattern. The effect of imitative colouring, the basis of the artist's technique, is entirely overborne by the effects of light and shadow.