Camoufleur...

Camoufleur...  That was a new word for me, until this morning.  It means “one who camouflages”.  I came across it in the context of an article on U.S. women camoufleurs of WWI who practiced in the parks of New York City.  That was an entirely new piece of WWI lore for me!  This article is quite interesting, and includes a number of photographs (like the example at right) of camouflaged women testing various techniques.

Camouflage is one technique for military deception.  The success of deception programs in general has fascinated me ever since I first read of Patton's ghost army in WWII.  That was an incredibly successful deception that contributed significantly to the Allied victory.  Such military deceptions have been a vital part of strategy since the earliest recorded wars, though they perhaps reached their peak in WWII...