A shelter-half is a simple kind of partial tent designed to provide temporary shelter and concealment when combined with one or more sections. Two sheets of canvas or a similar material (the halves) are fastened together with snaps, straps or buttons to form a larger surface. The shelter-half is then erected using poles, ropes, pegs, and whatever tools are on hand, forming an inverted V structure. [1] Small tents like these are often called pup tents in American English.
Shelter halves are a mainstay of most armies, and are known from the mid 19th century. [2] Often, each soldier carries one shelter-half and half the poles, etc., and they pair off to erect a two-man tent. The size and shape of each half shelter piece may vary from army to army, but are typically rectangular, triangular or lozenge shaped. When time and space allow, some forms of half-shelters can be combined into a larger, more complex tent. [3]
Shelter-halves are usually designed to serve double duty as ponchos against the rain, or for the concealment of snipers. While the fabric is often simple olive drab, several nations use camouflaged fabric. The first printed camouflage for soldiers were the Italian Telo mimetico introduced in 1929 for their half-shelters. The first camouflage uniforms were the Second World War German paratrooper smock, based on their M1931 Splittermuster shelter-halves. [4] The Austro-Hungarian army used the M888 zeltbahn that was first issued in an ochre color, later in grey color that had a bayonet hole allowing the rifle to be used as an ad-hoc tent pole. Russian Army has used plasch-palatkas (literally "cape-tents", designed to be used as both a part of a larger tent cover, or an individual weatherproof cape) since 1894, [5] and the modern version, virtually unchanged since, was introduced in 1936, [6] with the camo version being available since 1942. [6] To add some confusion, the ordinary waterproofed cape with a similar name (plasch-nakidka, "cape-overcoat") was issued at the same time, but these were not intended to combine with each other. [5]
A commercially sold example known as a zelter shelter exists. [7]
The color khaki is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge.
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs. First used as portable homes by nomads, tents are now more often used for recreational camping and as temporary shelters.
The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) is a camouflaged combat uniform that was used by the United States Armed Forces as their standard combat uniform from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. Since then, it has been replaced or supplanted in every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.
A poncho is a kind of plainly formed, loose outer garment originating in the Americas, traditionally and still usually made of fabric, and designed to keep the body warm. Ponchos have been used by the Native American peoples of the Andes, Patagonia, and the Valley of Mexico since pre-Hispanic times, in places now under the territory of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, and have also become familiar in parts of the U.S. A rain poncho is made from a watertight material designed to keep the body dry from the rain.
The M1 helmet is a combat helmet that was used by the U.S. military from World War II until 1985, when it was succeeded by the PASGT helmet. The M1 helmet has become an icon of the US military, with its design inspiring other militaries around the world.
A combat uniform, also called field uniform, battledress or military fatigues, is a casual type of uniform used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for everyday fieldwork and combat duty purposes, as opposed to dress uniforms worn in functions and parades. It generally consists of a jacket, trousers and shirt or T-shirt, all cut to be looser and more comfortable than more formal uniforms. Design may depend on regiment or service branch, e.g. army, navy, air force, marines, etc. In the army branches, fabrics tend to come in camouflage, disruptive pattern or else green, brown or khaki monochrome, in order to approximate the background and make the soldier less visible in nature. In Western dress codes, field uniform is considered equivalent to civilian casual wear. As such, field uniform is considered less formal than service dress uniform, generally aimed at office or staff use, as well as mess dress uniform, and full dress uniform.
The U.S. Army's M1943 uniform was a combat uniform manufactured in windproof cotton sateen cloth introduced in 1943 to replace a variety of other specialist uniforms and some inadequate garments, like the M1941 Field Jacket. It was used through the remainder of World War II and into the Korean War with modifications before being replaced by the OG-107 uniform beginning in 1952.
The United States Army in World War II used a variety of standard and non-standard dress and battle uniforms, which often changed depending upon the theater of war, climatic environment, and supply exigencies.
Military camouflage is the use of camouflage by an armed force to protect personnel and equipment from observation by enemy forces. In practice, this means applying colour and materials to military equipment of all kinds, including vehicles, ships, aircraft, gun positions and battledress, either to conceal it from observation (crypsis), or to make it appear as something else (mimicry). The French slang word camouflage came into common English usage during World War I when the concept of visual deception developed into an essential part of modern military tactics. In that war, long-range artillery and observation from the air combined to expand the field of fire, and camouflage was widely used to decrease the danger of being targeted or to enable surprise. As such, military camouflage is a form of military deception in addition to cultural functions such as political identification.
The Jacket, Field, O.D. is a field jacket that was used by US Army soldiers, most famously during the beginning of World War II. In 1941 it started to be phased in as a replacement for the wool four-pocket service coat of World War I, but around 1943 it was replaced in turn by the improved M1943 model. Owing to wide adoption, the M1941 is usually recognized as a symbol of the World War II American G.I. The jacket was made in a light shade of olive drab called O.D. number 2.
The Desert Night Camouflage pattern is a two-color grid camouflage pattern used by the United States military during the Gulf War. It was designed to aid soldiers in concealment from Soviet-based night vision devices (NVDs). The pattern is now considered obsolete due to the increase in capability of foreign night vision devices.
Type 07 is a group of military uniforms used by all branches of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the paramilitary Chinese People's Armed Police Force. Introduced in 2007, the Type 07 uniforms replaced the Type 87 service uniforms used by regular units and the Type 97 Service Dress uniforms of the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison and the People's Liberation Army Macau Garrison. The Type 07 uniforms were first seen in late June 2007 during a celebration ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong.
The following is a general overview of the Heer main uniforms, used by the German Army prior to and during World War II.
Splittertarnmuster, Splittertarn or Splittermuster (splinter-pattern) is a four-colour military camouflage pattern developed by Germany in the late 1920s, first issued to the Reichswehr in 1931.
M1929 Telo mimetico was a military camouflage pattern used by the Italian Army for shelter-halves and later for uniforms for much of the 20th century. Being first issued in 1929 and only fully discontinued in the early 1990s, it has the distinction of being the first printed camouflage pattern for general issue, and the camouflage pattern in longest continuous use in the world.
German World War II camouflage patterns formed a family of disruptively patterned military camouflage designs for clothing, used and in the main designed during the Second World War. The first pattern, Splittertarnmuster, was designed in 1931 and was initially intended for Zeltbahn shelter halves. The clothing patterns developed from it combined a pattern of interlocking irregular green, brown, and buff polygons with vertical "rain" streaks. Later patterns, all said to have been designed for the Waffen-SS by Johann Georg Otto Schick, evolved into more leaf-like forms with rounded dots or irregular shapes. Camouflage smocks were designed to be reversible, providing camouflage for two seasons, whether summer and autumn, or summer and winter (snow). Distribution was limited to the Waffen-SS, ostensibly because of a patent, though variants were used by other units, including the Luftwaffe. Production was limited by shortage of materials, especially of high quality waterproof cotton duck.
Snow camouflage is the use of a coloration or pattern for effective camouflage in winter, often combined with a different summer camouflage. Summer patterns are typically disruptively patterned combinations of shades of browns and greys, up to black, while winter patterns are dominated by white to match snowy landscapes.
Swiss Militärblachen, a kind of Military Shelter-half, are square tarpaulins printed with camouflage. They are used as rain protection, as elements in bivouac and for camouflaging military equipment. They are specially treated and therefore water repellent and highly resistant to abrasion and dirt. "Blache" is Swiss German. The word is not used in any other german-speaking country. In Germany and Austria, shelter-halves are known as "Mehrzweckplane", however, the ones used there are trapezoid-shaped.
Xingkong, is a military camouflage pattern adopted in 2019 by all branches of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Introduced in 2019, the Xingkong pattern replaced the Type 07 camouflage on the Type 07 service uniforms used by regular units. The new uniform and Xingkong camouflage were first seen in late September 2019 before the celebration ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
The Netherlands Fractal Pattern (NFP) was developed as a collaboration project between the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Dutch Ministry of Defence in order to replace all the camouflage patterns in use by the Dutch military.
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