Second World War British Military Camouflage: Designing Deception

Description

Second World War British Military Camouflage offers an original approach to the cultures and geographies of military conflict, through a study of the history of camouflage. Isla Forsyth narrates the scientific biography of Dr Hugh Cott (1900-1987), eminent zoologist and artist turned camoufleur, and entwines this with the lives of other camouflage practitioners, to trace the sites of camouflage's developments. Moving through the scientists' fieldsite, the committee boardroom, the military training site and the soldiers' battlefield, this book uncovers the history of this ambiguous military invention, and subverts a long-dominant narrative of camouflage as solely a protective technology. This study demonstrates that, as camouflage transformed battlefields into unsettling theatres of war, there were lasting consequences not only for military technology and knowledge, but also for the ethics of battle and the individuals enrolled in this process.

Isla Forsyth is Assistant Professor in Cultural and Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham, UK.

An insightful and revealing study of an interdisciplinary technology with a darker, more complicated past than immediately meets the eye ... for anyone interested in the interplay between war and culture, as well as the very human stories that are so often hidden behind military technologies. * British Journal for Military History * [Forsyth] makes good use of a range of biographical and archival materials to clarify the interdisciplinary and creative nature of camouflage technology, as it was advanced by key, influential camoufleurs ... [A] book filled with valuable new insights into the development of British military camouflage in the Second World War. * Michigan War Studies Review * Of books on World War II camouflage, Isla Forsyth's is among the most engaging. Its lasting contribution comes from her keen observations of the interplay between art, science and technology, as well as her revelations about the pivotal achievements of Scottish zoologist, scientific illustrator, photographer, and British Army camoufleur Hugh B. Cott. Forsyth's book is an important and welcome addition to the ongoing worldwide discussion about the art and science of camouflage-and surveillance. * Roy R. Behrens, Professor of Art and Distinguished Scholar, University of Northern Iowa, USA * This absorbing account shows the development of camouflage to have been contingent on people, on technologies and on places. Drawing on extensive archival research, Isla Forsyth presents a new history of camouflage which reveals much about this intriguing and innovative technology. * Rachel Woodward, Professor of Human Geography, Newcastle University, UK *