kamouflage.net camouflage data

The soldier in the foreground wears a hooded Tarnhemd (German: camouflage smock) camouflaged in the later Sumpfmuster 44; the hood is tucked inside the collar. The Tarnhemd worn by the soldier in the background is camouflaged in Sumpfmuster 43. [Image: Daniel Peterson/The Crowood Press Ltd.]

Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44
Greater German Reich

In 1944, the Wehrmacht ('Defence Force') issued another version of the Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 43 ('1943 defence force marsh pattern') camouflage. Known as Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44 ('1944 defence force marsh pattern'), the burred edges of the wood brown and medium green elements were softened even further and the splinter effect was all but lost.

Like Heeres-Splittermuster 31 ('1931 army splinter pattern') and Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 43 before it, Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 44 was produced on light grey-green and tan backgrounds, and the whole design was overprinted with a random pattern of green dashes, to improve the camouflage effect.

During World War II, most of the items that had been manufactured in Heeres-Splittermuster 31 and Luftwaffe-Splittermuster 41 ('1941 Luftwaffe splinter pattern') were superceded by versions manufactured in one or more Sumpfmuster designs. The only excpetion appears to be the Zeltbahn 31 shelter quarter, which continued to be produced in the Army splinter pattern until the end of the war.

Versions of Sumpfmuster were also used after World War II. In the mid 1960s, for example, the Bundesgrenzschutz ('Federal Border Guard', BGS) adopted a camouflage pattern — Bundesgrenzschutz-Sumpfmuster ('Federal Border Guard marsh pattern') — that was closely based on the Wehrmachts-Sumpfmuster 43. In fact, the two patterns are so nearly identical that many of the better fake Wehrmacht uniforms were made from Bundesgrenzschutz-Sumpfmuster material.

However, the post-war use of camouflage patterns based on Sumpfmuster was not restricted to the Federal Republic of Germany. The Republic of Austria, the Republic of Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia have all used forms of this camouflage pattern.

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