British Army Colours and Disruptive
Camouflage in the United Kingdom, France and N.W. Europe, 1936-45
by Mike Starmer
Latest in this series of self-produced books on British vehicle schemes,
this follows the same format as earlier titles. It is without frills,
its 32 are spiral bound and is all in black and white apart from the colour
cover illustration. Whatever it might lack in appearance is more than
made up for in its content.
It covers the varies colours and camouflage schemes used by units wihin
the UK and serving with the British Expeditionary Forces in France in
1939-40, units from the UK in Tunisia in 1942-43 and in the campaign in
Northwest Europe 1944-45. It uses original official sources, both the
Army Council Instructions or ACIs which introduced and withdrew colours
and schemes as the war progressed, and the various Military Training Pamphlets
issued to aid the correct application of each system as it came in including
illustrations from them. British practice was also followed by Canadian
forces in the UK as well as Free Forces including the Poles, Czechs and
Belgians.
The account begins with pre-war experiments into camouflage and then
details the system in use at the outbreak of war, the green colours used
in the period with extracts from the 1939 "Camouflage - Disruptive
Painting of Vehicles" pamphlet, the changeover to brown shades with
darker overpainting and Military Training Pamphlet No 46 of 1941 which
introduced various schemes including what has is commonly known as "Mickey
Mouse Ear", and the introduction of the British "Olive Drab"
equivalent used in the European campaign.
Along with these the principles for vehicle camouflage painting is described,
such as why top surfaces of trucks were painted a dark shade and how shadows
were disguised. There are a few notes on markings though only covering
standard serial number and basic identification signs such as AFV recognition
markings used in the BEF, the later RAC flash and the Allied white star
from the 1944-45 campaign.
Most of the text and illustrations come from the original sources with
explanatory notes added. Modellers and vehicle restorers will find the
colour chips of the early-war G3, G2 and G4 greens, SCC2 and the SCC1a
and Dark Tarmac shading colours and the final SCC14 and SCC15 shades very
useful. Recommended colour mixes for provided for Humbrol paints with
a few for WEM colours, the actual paint chips can be used to match the
shades if using other brands.
This brief description of the content may make it look as if there is
little in the book but this is far from the case. Previous attempts at
describing colours have fallen down as they did not have all the instructions
for each change and often missed the all-important dates when each was
introduced. With all these and the colour chips you have an authoritative
one-volume refernce on colour schemes which will be an invaluable source
to be used again and again.
Copies are available direct from the author, payment has to be a cheque
or money order in Sterling as he cannot accept credit cards. Price including
UK postage is £11.00 or £12,00 outside the UK. The author's
address is 18 Hillside Road, Piddington, Northants, NN7 2DB, England and
please include an IRC if you write to him. His email is michael@starmer2209.fsnet.co.uk
The book also notes that his earlier books on the Caunter scheme, El Alamein
and after and Sicily and Italy are also still available.
Peter Brown
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