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Uncover your potential', indeed! Once you stop ogling the girl, though, you might notice that this Australian Special Air Service (SAS) recruiting poster shows Australian Disruptive Pattern Camouflage to very good effect. [Image courtesy Brad Turner collection.]

BGS-Sumpfmuster, third design
Federal Republic of Germany

Most countries in Europe maintain — or have maintained — 'border guards' services, separate from their police forces and armies. The Bundesrepublik Deutschland ('German Federal Republic') is no exception: its Bundesgrenzschutz ('Federal Border Guard', BGS) was formed in 1951 — some years before the Bundeswehr ('Federal Defence') — and operates under the direction of the Bundesministerium des Innern ('Federal Ministry of the Interior'). Its organisation includes the élite Grenzschutzgruppe-9 ('Border Protection Group 9', GSG-9) counter-terrorism unit, which is considered to be among the best in the world.

At the time of its formation, the BGS adopted a camouflage pattern which was clearly derived from pre-war German Heeressplittermuster 31 ('army splinter pattern '31').

In 1952, however, the BGS apparently discontinued the use of this camouflage and instead introduced Bundesgrenzschutz-Sumpfmuster ('BGS marsh pattern'), a pattern which seems to have been based on Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44 ('1944 Wehrmacht marsh pattern').

In 1959, a second version of BGS-Sumpfmuster was introduced. Like its predecessor, the design seems to have been based on Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44.

This third and final variant of Bundesgrenzschutz-Sumpfmuster appeared in 1963. Unlike the two preceding camouflage patterns, though, this version of BGS-Sumpfmuster seems to have been based on Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 43 ('1943 Wehrmacht marsh pattern') pattern. Indeed, the two patterns are so nearly identical that many of the better fake Wehrmacht uniforms were made from Bundesgrenzschutz-Sumpfmuster material.

Apart from reproduction World War II uniforms, BGS-Sumpfmuster had been used in the manufacture of a wide range of garments and equipment items, for military export and commercial markets, alike. One notable export customer is Libya, which has equipped some of its army units with uniforms patterned in BGS-Sumpfmuster.

kamouflage.net is grateful to Dominic Etzold and Steve Grammont, for their invaluable contributions to this article.

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