CAMERA VERSUS CAMOUFLAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 250, 17 October 1918, Page 4

CAMERA VERSUS CAMOUFLAGE

(By Observer.)

The camera cannot lie, but it is tho business of tho camouflage officer to lie to tho airman's camera. Camouflage and camera ' are perpe.tual opponents, liko thief and detective, uad the air , intelligence officer must develop tho detective instinct if .he is to master the ingenious trickery 1 of the deception on the ground. # t In the Royal Air Force, aerial photographs are developed and "plotted" within a few minutes of the machine reaching tho, ground- The hour when! the'plate was exposed is known. At noon, shadows thrown by trees ,^.etc., point due north, and from the direction of the shadows cast the a-elalionship to the points" of- the compass can be judged—the principle of the sun-dial. That done, study of the salient feature's of the print, compared with tho ficklmap which is marked in small squares, "i\es the exact square and sub-square of the subject of the photographs. Next comes examination of the f print in detail. "What is to be gathered from the fact that a, man in a reaping machine has left a considerable pafch of corn standing in the middle of a field? I'ii England, only that tho wind has flattened the corn and made it uiu-eap-ablc; but in Franco such,a point might have' a very different significance, ana tho scrutineer must be alert to note the Tact with all its possible implications. A camouflage battery, well concealed, may bo given away by bare chalk showing at a point from which turf has been removed to cover the emplacement. Pits, covered with canvas as-traps for tanks, may be detected by noticing that the -wheel-marks of traffic avoid them. The position of headquarters during active operations is' sometimes found by noting the tracks leading ,to tho house so used. During a thaw the survival of small patches of snow might suggest that they have collected in tarpaulins covoring tho guns of a battery J 5 suid though barbed-wire may appear impenetrable men on a photocraph, there arc always gaps through it. which, in spite of constant change, in their position, aro discoverable by tho camera's record of footpaths showing on the earth. •Shadow is tho camera's ally, and the enemy of camouflage; and snow, apparently a cloak, is in many cases an aid to detection by camera. Troddeii snow is an unnristakeable sign of activity (unless it is camouflage suggesting that the activity is at ono place, when the reai matter of importance is at another, where the tracks are hidden by white cloths.

So the contest of wits goes on, and the R.A.F. Intelligence officer pits his training and alertness against the camouflage experts of" Germany; and: not in vain. The R.A.F. drove 'Germany, in the recent offensive, towards Amiens to bring up troops exclusively by night, keeping them hidden in deep dug-outs by <ftiy. It was a victory for the British camera.