U.S. Army troops, World War Two, wearing the duck hunter pattern of camouflage developed for the Army. This pattern wasn't used by the Army long, as it was found in Europe that troops routinely associated camouflage with the SS. This photo is additionally interesting in that every soldier in the photograph is armed with a bolt action M1903 and M1917s rifles, rather than the M1 Garand, and the one soldier with a hat wears the early war pattern of fatigue brimmed hat. It's probably a relatively early war photo. The use of M1917s is fairly rarely seen in photographs from World War Two.
The duck hunter pattern was a product of World War Two. The U.S. Army started developing it after the Germans, and then the British, introduced camouflage smocks early in the war. The Germans were pioneers in the field, realizing that with cotton print clothing it was now easy to issue a smock with a camouflage pattern. The British did the same for paratroopers after being impressed with German paratroopers early in the war. The US followed suit, but not being too keen on smocks, simply went for a cotton camouflage uniform.
That uniform saw very little Army use in the war, because by the time the Army first fielded it in June 1944, camouflage was already heavily associated with German machinegun crews, and camouflage wearing U.S. troops started to take some friendly fire. So the pattern was withdrawn, and the existing clothing supplied to the Marines, who wore it in the Pacific. That soured the US Army on camouflage for a long time, but duck hunters did take up the pattern post war, and it came to be identified with them as a result. This was so much the case that when the Army first bought some camouflage uniforms, again in this pattern, on a limited basis early in the Vietnam War and during the Bay of Pigs adventure, for Cubans, it bought civilian duck hunter items, which were pretty close to the U.S. Army item of World War Two anyway. Indeed, I have a shirt in the pattern that I used hunting as a kid, and it's darned near identical to the World War Two Army item.
It wasn't until the Vietnam War that the US really changed its mind about camouflage. The war saw the unofficial adoption of Vietnamized French patterns (the Lizard pattern) in the form of the Tiger Stripe pattern. By war's end, the services had introduced the woodlands pattern in a tropical combat uniform, although it was issued mostly to Marines and Air Force ground support personnel. It wasn't until the early 1980s that the Army started to issue a new woodlands pattern to every soldier.
By that time, I was in the National Guard and my basic training cycle was the first one at Ft. Sill to receive the new woodland uniform.
At that time, if you wore camouflage, it meant one of three things. 1) you were in the service; 2) you were a hunter, and probably a bird hunter; 3) you'd recently been in the service. That's about it.
Somehow, since that time, the wearing of camouflage has exploded as a major fashion item. It's simply everywhere.
Yesterday, in the office, I saw a pair of camouflage Capri pants. I see camouflage ball caps everywhere. Lots of kids routinely wear camouflage shorts. I've even seen an advertisement for camouflage saddle oxford shoes.
How did that all occur?
Your camouflaged correspondent in South Korea. First pattern woodlands BDU uniform, with woodlands M65 Field Jacket, and Vietnam War era pattern reversible helmet cover.
5 comments:
I thought camouflage became more common place because of the efforts of the two camouflage companies of Realtree (Bill Jordan) and Mossy Oak (Toxey Haas) starting back in the '80's.
Both of the companies were involved in marketing their different camo patterns through different areas all the way from hunting TV shows, magazines, Nascar, firearm manufacturers, and clothing.
It takes a real entrepreneur to turn a simple camo pattern into a gigantic hunting and lifestyle business.
FWIW, I never wore my camoflauge clothing anywhere except when I was hunting because I wanted to be as scent-free as possible and didn't want it to get contaminated.
That's interesting. I hadn't really considered the impact of civilian hunting patters, but it it is indeed the case that you see bits and pieces of it everywhere. Perhaps a "back to nature" sort of yearning at work there?
You also see version of the old woodland pattern everywhere, even though a lot of them aren't quite right, so to speak. On ball caps and the like the various civilian patterns are really common, but woodland patterns are common on everything.
"FWIW, I never wore my camoflauge clothing anywhere except when I was hunting because I wanted to be as scent-free as possible and didn't want it to get contaminated."
While I don't wear camouflage as a fashion item, I'll confess to being somewhat of a camo aficionado. It's no doubt because in my formative years I became a dedicated hunter, and I remain in my formative years, having never really mentally advanced much past age 16. Even my son will occasionally look at me and state "you never grew up, did you?"
Anyhow, on civilian camo patters, the only things I have are some real tree Carhartt dungarees. The pattern is amazingly effective for sagebrush, and I'll wear them hunting.
Otherwise, for the most part, I've tended to stick with one of the various military patterns over the years. It's probably because that's what I grew used to while a Guardsman, and its what I'm used to now. I still have woodland BDU trousers, but I've picked up surplus USAF and USMC camo as well. A really great pattern is the MultiCam pattern that the Army is currently using. Amazingly effective here locally.
Another really good one here locally is the Australian frog pattern, which looks a great deal like the old U.S. Army duck hunter pattern, but which supposedly isn't inspired by it.
Yet another really effective one here locally, surprisingly, is the old Tiger Stripe patter, which the Army used unofficially during the Vietnam War. When I was a teenager I was in the Civil Air Patrol and actually acquired a set of what were probably Vietnamese fatigues in that pattern, which I wore out hunting. They'd probably be worth a fortune now.
I have two pairs of New Zealand Military surplus camouflage pants that I bought about 20 years ago that I really like. NZ camo is similar to British camo, but it seems to have more contrast (it's darker black and lighter tans, etc.).
One pair was manufactured in 1980 and the other in 1982 (pretty interesting that they put the date of manufacture on a pair of pants).
They are my go-to pants to wear for almost all hunting, and it's amazing that they are still in decent shape after being worn for twenty years and being almost 35 years old. That's what I like about most of the military surplus clothing, it seems to wear better and last longer.
I used to have a burning desire to get some Predator camo since it looked like it would work in almost any environment, but never got around to actually getting any (if I'm remembering it right, I liked the pattern, but didn't like the durability of the clothing).
The NZ pattern is a version of the British Disruptive Pattern, which is an excellent camouflage. Some claim the Disruptive Pattern is a version of the Woodlands Pattern, but I believe it may have been adopted by the UK first. It's a very similar pattern, but with more dramatic swatches. I have a British smock that I bought at one time for hunting in the Disruptive Pattern, but unfortunately it's a bit too small for me now.
There's also a desert Disruptive Pattern which is two shades of tan. It's a very good pattern as well, probably better than the U.S. "Chocolate Chip" pattern which was our first modern desert pattern, but not as good as the later desert pattern that replaced it.
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