kamouflage.net camouflage data

Soldiers of the Swiss Armed Forces on manouevres, 1957. In that year the Swiss Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports first fielded the distinctive Leibermuster Kampfanzug ('body pattern combat suit') uniform. [Image: Editions Recontre and Edito-Service S.A..]

1955 Swiss Leibermuster
Swiss Confederation

After the Second World War, the Swiss Army used variations of the German Heeres-Splittermuster 31 and Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44 camouflage for helmet covers and shelter halves. In 1955, however, a new camouflaged combat uniform was trialled.

Subsequently adopted in 1957, the Swiss Leibermuster ('body pattern') is a six-colour camouflage pattern, of which the earlier examples comprise a sand-coloured background, white flecks overprinted with a very light green, overprinted with feathered, leaf-shaped medium green and red swathes, overprinted with black 'branches'; it has been claimed that these black branches, which are infrared absorbent, were meant to fool the earliest night vision systems, which relied on large IR illuminators. The shapes of the various elements are closely based on SS-Leibermuster, although the colours used seem to have been inspired more by the Czechoslovakian Leibermuster, which appeared in the mid-1950s.

Over the years there has been considerable variation in the colour of the base fabric, with light brown, tan and even a flesh-like colour being attested. There has also been a lot of difference in the thickness of the black 'branches'. Later versions of the pattern did not use overprinting, and so the repetition of the pattern is much more evident.

Although the pattern is still used by reservists, the issue of Swiss Leibermuster was discontinued in 1993. However, the 1993 Swiss woodland camouflage, which replaced it, really differs only in the colours that it uses — the shapes used are much the same.

Widely known as 'Alpenflage', by collectors, Swiss Leibermuster was also nicknamed 'Vierfruchtpyjama' — 'four-fruits pyjamas' — by Swiss soldiers.

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