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WEEKEND TELEGRAPH - 11.10.03
Hunting is probably the second oldest profession - you have to eat to thrive
and swyve. No sooner had man taken to standing on two feet and waving
a club about, but he discovered that animals regarded his figure as
a threat and would take steps (very fast ones) to prevent themselves
being converted into protein. Hom Sap on the other hand found that
by disguising himself a something natural and harmless (as it might
be a bush or a fellow herbivore) he could get close enough to the quarry
to apply lethal projection from his primitive weapon - be it a flint
arrow head or a 180 grain bullet from a Ruger .30/06 rifle. In other
words they had to learn to 'camouflage' themselves. Not that they called
it that. 'Camouflage' is a C20th word derived from the French 'camoufler'.
The 'stalking horse' of the indigenes of the American prairie, whereby
they crept up on the grazing bison by walking along concealed by their
pony, is camouflage of a sort, but in its modern use the word has come
to mean something that conceals and disrupts the shape and outline
of the human body. So the painting of face and body is not so much
meant to terrify the quarry as to conceal the shape of the hunter.
Most quarry species cannot differentiate colours, only contrasting
shades of black and white. The human face and hands show up as a startling
white and experienced hunters will learn to cover up these tell tale
signs with gloves, face masks and streaks of coloured paint. Many deerstalkers
grow beards. The SAS trooper paints his face, not to terrify the enemy,
but to enable him to get close enough to really terrify the bastard
with extreme prejudice. The Gaelic 'tartan' is one for the earliest
examples of 'DPM' (disrupted pattern material) from this was developed
the 'Estate Tweed'. Most of the big sporting estates developed their
own specially woven tweeds with colours and checks that merged into
the distinctive backgrounds of the territory on which they were used,
thus enabling the wearer to disappear into the relevant back ground.
Tweed is still one of the most effective DPMs as was demonstrated by
the brightly anoraked hiker who nearly had a heart attack when he received
a "Guid Day" at ten yards range from a clump of heather that
he had just walked past without a second glance. Tweed, woven from
wool, also has the advantage of remaining warm even when soaking wet
- a thing that no man made material has yet achieved - ask any sheep. Military
DPM was a comparatively recent lesson, learned and paid for in blood.
The red tunics of the British Army (designed to conceal blood) made
perfect targets for the snipers of the North West Frontier (India) and
the South African veldt, where khaki was found to be much more efficacious.
However plain colours are not a disruptive pattern. The first military
DPM that I have managed to discover was used by the Waffen SS on the Eastern
Front. The British version seems to have been first adopted in the 'Denison
Smock' of the early Parachute Regiment. This version seems to have maintained
with little variation even unto the present day. One of its main disadvantages
is that when sodden it just looks a solid black. The really big change in DPM is American. An American hunter called Bill
Jordan was not only a hunter, but also a skilful artist. He spent hours
in the woods studying various backgrounds of leaf and tree. From his amazing
pen and brushwork emerged 'Realtree' - the camouflage revolution. There
are now 'Realtree' patterns for a whole manner of backgrounds - hardwoods,
hardwoods (green), oakwood, wetland, winter and many more - all are real
works of art. Jordan found a process of transferring his artwork to cloth.
He leases the pattern franchises to manufacturers who fell upon them with
a whoop and holler. Mr Jordan is (I hope) a multi millionaire. I am waiting
for a new hardwood suit. If you really want to disappear in the trees,
nothing will make you look more like a tree than 'Realtree' - www.realtree.co.uk
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