‘The tendency in warfare up to very recent times,’ wrote Roland Penrose in his 1941 book The Home Guard Manual of Camouflage, ‘has been to rely on sheer strength and even ostentation rather than concealment.’
Be it the shining armour of medieval knights, the scarlet coats and prominent headgear of Napoleonic troops, or even ancient fortresses with forbidding defences – all were considered intimidating enough to defeat an enemy perhaps without the need for violence.
But the savagery of the trenches, Penrose reflected wistfully, forced soldiers to give up their ‘red coats and plumes’ for uniforms that were easier to obscure. Although he admitted ostentation still had its uses – ‘as a peace-time method of upholding the prestige of governments’ – it was concealment that was now ‘the order of the day’.
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