kamouflage.net camouflage data

When Erich Honecker's government pledged aid and military assistance to SWAPO, the NVA Stricheldruck camouflaged NVA Felddienstanzug (German: 'field service suit') came to be worn by guerilla fighters of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia. [Image: Die Zeit.]

NVA Strichtarnmuster
German Democratic Republic

In 1965, the NVA-Stricheldruck (German: 'National People's Army dashed print') camouflage pattern was introduced, as a replacement for the Flächentarnmuster camouflage, which had been adopted in 1959.

Stricheldruck is a very simple two-colour camouflage pattern, comprising short, earth red vertical dashes printed over a field-grey background. There is very little contrast between the two colours, however — for which reason it seems unlikely that the pattern was an effective camouflage. As you can see, from the inset illustration on this page, the colours tend to blend with each other, even at comparatively close ranges.

Obviously, if this 'blended' colour were too dissimilar to the overall background, then a human silhouette would be recognisable.

This potential problem notwithstanding, when Erich Honecker's government pledged aid and military supplies to assist the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) in its fight against South African rule and Apartheid, the Stricheldruck camouflaged NVA Felddienstanzug (German: 'field service uniform'; FDA) came to be worn by guerilla fighters of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). For this reason, the South African Defence Force (SADF) had a small number of identical copies manufactured, for use in counter-insurgency operations.

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