From: Gordon.W.I. McMillan (gwim2@student.open.ac.uk)
Date: Thu May 16 2002 - 08:47:28 PDT
bchambers@hoovers.com writes:
>Question:
>How did the US or other Allies handle the paint on vehicles in the North
>African campaign?
they used anything that came to hand, Bill.
Most vehicles that were shipped there initially were OD, and were commonly
overpainted with more OD (or any available paint) which then had buckets
of sand thrown over it for a very effective camo. the main problem in the
desert was reflection from glass and shiny surfaces rather than the exact
colour.
Later vehicles were shipped in desert sand paint but got the same
treatment at first re-paint, and apparently it was a standing order to
paint / sand cover all the glass on a vehicle that could reflect except
the area swept by the screen wipers - i expect side windows got
well-thinned paint and a handful of sand. Late photos commonly show a
mixture of desert sand and black camoflage, the exact pattern and
proportion depending very much on the unit, but quite often the original
vehicle USA, WD, or unit signs were left on small patches of OD.
The sand camo was cheap and VERY effective. British photographs of the
desert war showed vehicles that looked white - the reason for this was
that the sand camo was so effective when a photographer turned up they
actually whitewashed tanks, trucks, and other stuff just so it would show
up in a photo to be printed on poor quality newsprint - so you can't
really trust what you see in press shots.
At the other extreme the Farrand and Delorme armoured snowmobile was
tested for desert us in it's original arctic white - would you believe the
testers complained the cooling system wasn't good enough for desert use ?
Gordon
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