America's Munitions 1917-1918

by Benedict Crowell; United States. War Department

When the Dijon camouflage plant was projected it was expected that the American forces would require great quantities of camouflaged observation posts, silhouettes, dummy heads, snipers' suits, and other concealing devices. It was for this production that the toy shop at Dijon was erected, this shop being a kind of studio for the painters and sculptors connected with the Fortieth Engineers, which was the camouflage regiment. These various devices for deceiving the enemy, however, were used principally in the stagnant action of the trench warfare deadlock. By the time American forces came into the war in large numbers the struggle had become one of movement in which the trenches were left far behind. Also, American troops found themselves largely in sectors which were well wooded and therefore provided plenty of secure observation. The result was that there was never a great use on the part of American troops of these clever and interesting exploits in camouflage with which the public is familiar.

One of the best observation posts was the imitation of a tree trunk made of armor plate and set up in advanced positions during the night. Both the British and the French made considerable use of these. The British tree consisted of an oval shell of manganese steel. This was covered with tin, crimped in imitation of bark, and further camouflaged with paint and plaster and natural bark.

When it was desired to set up such a post a camouflage artist would surreptitiously make a faithful sketch of the tree trunk to be duplicated in armor plate. This sketch was then taken back to the workshop, where the spurious tree was built in exact duplication. The metal tree was built to rest on a base with hinges holding it down on one side. During the night two saps, or trenches, would be dug to the natural tree selected. Workers in one of these trenches would fell the branchless stub and carry it back out of the way. The armor plate tree would be drawn up in the other trench. The base would be set in place, and then the whole tree was raised on its hinges by means of ropes until it was upright and as life-like as artistry could make it. Inside the tree was a flight of iron steps leading to a seat in the upper part of the trunk. At this seat were peepholes and a stand for the phone which was connected up with the exchange at the adjoining trench. The sap, covered over, served as the gallery leading back to the trench.

The American camouflage force built only a single one of these trees, using it as a training device. Such objects were useless in an advancing movement, since, under such circumstances, they would play an important part only a short while and would then be left far in the rear.

The Dijon factory, however, turned out a number of small observation posts for use at the edges of shell holes. These were known to our troops as beehives and to the English soldiers as domes. Each one was built of light metal and covered with chicken wire and plaster. It was camouflaged with paint and bits of grass to simulate the appearance of the surrounding terrain, often being studded with tin cans or old shoes to make it appear to be an accumulation of rubbish. The favorite way of making the peephole for a beehive was to cover with gauze a hole cut in the bottom of an old shoe, which was then fastened to the observation post.

Another device built by the Dijon factory was the trench periscope. This was built and set up to look like an ordinary stick, thrown down casually upon the ground. For periscopes, too, we also used imitation stakes placed naturally in the barbed-wire entanglements. The British on occasions used imitation trench telephone poles to mask their periscopes.

The Dijon shop turned out large numbers of silhouettes and dummies. They were drawn from life by artists at Dijon and then cut out from ordinary wall board. Soldiers of the Fortieth Regiment posed as models for these silhouettes. All sorts of postures were employed, but nearly all of them represented soldiers in the act of climbing out of a trench or running, gun in hand, towards the enemy. The uniforms were painted in neutral shades, but the faces and hands were highly colored to be visible at considerable distances during the gray and mist of dawn, when silhouettes were usually employed.

The object of these dummy heads and silhouettes was to draw the fire of the enemy so as to make him reveal his strength and positions. The usual method of use was to place a number of silhouettes, possibly several dozen of them, in shell holes out in front of the trenches. The silhouettes were mounted so that they could be made to stand erect instantly whenever the ropes were pulled from the trenches. At the appointed moment the ropes would all be pulled at once, and the appearance to the enemy would be that of a raiding party starting out at top speed.

The British troops called this operation the Chinese attack. The Germans made no extensive employment of it. The silhouettes nearly always fooled the enemy, as indeed they would deceive anybody in such light and under such circumstances. The British were often amused to read in the German communiques that these Chinese attacks were regarded by the enemy as the real thing. More than one such "repulse" of silhouettes has gone down into the German records as a local success. On one occasion the Germans took a Chinese attack so seriously that they concentrated troops against it with the result that the British were able to gain considerable ground at the points weakened on both sides of the pseudo attack.