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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.]

Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster
Federal Republic of Germany

Known to collectors by a variety of names, Buntfarbenaufdruck (German 'multicoloured colour print') was the basic pattern developed for the Reichswehr (German 'Territorial Defence') in the early 1930s. It was used for the standard camouflaged Zeltbahn 31 shelter quarter, which was issued to all units of the Reichsheer (German 'Territorial Army') and Reichsmarine (German 'Territorial Navy').

The Bundeswehr ('Federal defence') was formed in 1955 and, from the start, was issued a camouflage Kampfanzug ('combat suit'). The Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster ('Bundeswehr splinter pattern') camouflage pattern was clearly inspired by the traditional German Heeres-Splittermuster 31 ('1931 Army splinter pattern').

Like Heeres-Splittermuster 31, Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster consists of a disruptive pattern of hard-edged brown and green polygons printed on a light-coloured background, with a random pattern of dashes applied to improve the camouflage effect. Unlike Heeres-Splittermuster 31, Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster uses red earth, rather than wood brown; the dashes are greyish-green, rather than dark green; and the background colour is typically a pale beige or pale grey.

These differences in colour make it quite easy to distinguish BWj-Splittertarnmuster from its war-time counterpart. However, there is one other distinguishing feature: the design is characterised by a deliberate slipping of the printing plates, which allowed white borders to show at the edges of the medium green and red earth splinter elements.

Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster was dropped in 1959. Many have speculated that this was because the camouflage pattern had too many undesirable historical associations, and this might very well have been one reason for its discontinuation. Cost may have been another: the uniform was expensive to produce and, when the Bundeswehr began to expand, the camouflage Kampfanzug simply became uneconomical. A third reason might have been the design of the uniform itself: allegedly it was poorly ventilated, and quite noisy. And the final reason might simply have been the influence of the U.S. Army, which did not use camouflage uniforms, in Europe, until some time in the late 1970s; interestingly, this was also around the time that the Bundeswehr began again to consider the use of camouflage uniforms.

Although the the camouflage Kampfanzug was officially replaced by a solid OD green uniform in 1959, a camouflaged helmet cover was retained in service. Soldiers also continued to wear the Bundeswehr-Splittertarnmuster jackets well into the 1960s and, perhaps, even longer; one photograph shows the jacket being worn, by one crewman of an armoured fighting vehicle, in the 1990s.

kamouflage.net is grateful to Dirk Lemkemeier, for his invaluable contribution to this article.

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