Hidden in Plain Sight by Karla Stover

 

When I had my radio show and newspaper column, I was always looking for something interesting to share. One day I was browsing through old news papers and I came across a local woman who had become a camouflage artist during World War I. The article was so interesting, I read everything I could find about the Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps. which gave the nucleus for my next book.

Camouflage was developed in France  by artists such as  Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola, all of whom loved its theatrical nature. By1914 they experimented in attempts to hide military personnel, actions on the battlefields and the battlefields themselves. In 1917, a British artist named Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea to disguise ships by painting them with  optical illusions. His proposal to the Royal Navy was accepted and at his studio five designers began creating designs.  Eleven female artists went to work and between spring 1917 and autumn 1918 had "razzle dazzled", as the technique was called, more than 2,300 ships.  

Meanwhile, in the United States, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the U.S. would be entering the war. As a result, the Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps" was created. It was a "specialized unit of American female artists" tasked to "design and test camouflage techniques for the military." Before camouflage clothing came along, some soldiers rubbed mud on their clothing or painted their uniforms with splotches and lines.  But now, women were creating clothing that resembled the landscape, and that included suits resembling rocks or tree trunks for use by snipers. They help make fake tree limbs, fake trees, and disguises for equipment. Need to draw the fire, Put a phony head where the enemy could see it. While serving as a Second Lieutenant of Engineers in France, an American named Homer Saint Guadens saw how cotton for blankets was in short supply, and found a way to make blankets by recycling paper. The patterns created soon led to using green, brown or grey on the material. Snipers and scouts hid underneath one and inched along the ground. 

Behind enemy lines women made nets out of wire up to 37 feet long out of wire and fishnet to drape over tanks and conceal them from enemy aircraft. They made garlands out of green burlap to hang from trees and painted to disguise giant umbrellas. Their ages ranged from 14 to 65. 

As for the Tacoma girl, after the war she married a banker and lived in the Midwest. But she didn't forget her Puget Sound roots and endowed a building at a local seminary. I have plenty to work with. Now, will someone please crack a whip under me.

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