PAST EVENTS

A talk with a difference was presented by fellow-member Mike du Toit at our October meeting. It was simply entitled "Camouflage". Mike trained as a 'Parabat' but he obviously has not only a fighting, but also an artistic streak in him, for when he joined ARMSCOR, it was in the division which deals with the planning experimentation, colour and design of anything and everything which will provide camouflage of military clothing, equipment and war materiel. Camouflage may be described as the military art of concealment and deception. This is the art of a military Magician whereby he makes things 'disappear' from human sight although it[sic] is still there, or he deceives the viewer to such an extent that he sees a thing but does not know what it is, or, alternatively thinks that what he sees is real when, in fact, it is not. Simple? Not on your life, unless you are an expert and an artist.

Furthermore camouflage used wrongly or out of place can actually be dangerous because it can make a person or object more conspicuous than would naturally be the case. These aspects our speaker illustrated by means of very deftly executed sketches and a series of some eight specimens of camouflage uniforms. When camouflage uniforms are worn out of their intended context they can, at the same time, serve as means of identification of specific units or branches of the armed forces, and have a tremendous morale boosting influence on the wearer. Camouflage, as such, is determined or influenced by a number of factors. They are the factors which, regardless of the type of observation, help to identify, or help to delay identification of an object.

They are the tell-tale elements that determine how quickly the object will be seen or how long it remains unobserved. The factors of recognition are position, shape, shadow, texture, colour, tone, movement and shine. These factors must be considered in camouflage to ensure that no one of them reveals the location of the concealed object. But that is not all; these factors depend to some extent also on related aspects, such as background, seasons of the year, time of day or night etc.

In South Africa the first serious attempts at camouflage were made during the Second Anglo-Boer War by which time khaki uniforms were in general use by the British troops. This colour was developed during England's wars in Persia and Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, the first picture of a British soldier in khaki goes back to 1850; but during the First Anglo-Boer War most British soldiers still wore scarlet tunics and the use of khaki [was] still limited. During the two World Wars, particularly the second one, the art of camouflage reached new heights and aerial observations introduced new dimensions. Camouflage nets permitted the concealment of big objects and large areas.

Fellow-member, Professor Mike Laing thanked our speaker for a most interesting talk.

The main 1ecture was preceded by a feature from MGH's Military Magazine. Darrell presented a gallery of famous military leaders, but because he had avoided the well-known, popular pictures and had chosen little known new pictures, most; of them "in colour" the audience was at times hesitant or unable to identify them. Our education improves all the time!

FUTURE EVENTS

Programme of Monthly Meetings:

NOVEMBER 8TH COLONEL PETER 'MONSTER' WILKINS, Officer Commanding, Air Force Base Durban, will present an illustrated lecture on "The Refuelling of aircarft in flight during the Falklands War". Please note that there will be a silver collection to go towards postage and stationery expenses of the monthly branch news-letter.)

December In recess

1991
January 10th Evening outing.

February 14th Fellow-member Major Darrell Hall will present an illustrated lecture on "The Saint Nazaire Raid 1942".

March 14th Mr Graham Dominy from the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg will talk on "A Comparison of the Battles of Little Big Horn (Gen Custer against the Red Indians) and Isandlwana".

The venue for all meetings will be the amenities' room, first floor, Westville North Library, 167 Blair Atholl Rd, Westville, on the second Thursday of each month commencing at 19H45. Please bring your own bottled or canned refreshments.
FRIENDS AND INTERESTED PERSONS ARE WELCOME TO COME ALONG.

1991 SUBSCRIPTION INCREASE

Our National Secretary/Treasurer, Mike Marsh, writes as follows:
"Due to the new management at the Museum, the Society has been given some recent financial blows and will have to look at a subscription increase for 1991. Gen Pretorius has increased the cost of the Journal for the last issue from R5,50 to R9,00 each and does not know yet what he will charge for the December Journal. Further he is charging the Society R3 000,00 per annum for the hire of the hall. As our present membership is only R20,00 (single) we certainly are not going to manage with the two journals per annum. ....... We are investigating different options e.g. advertising in the journal, only one edition per year, applying for grants-in-aid from the. Jhb City Council/Dept. of Education. ....... "
Mike will advise us, of the new subscription structure in due course.

APPEAL Mrs Jeanette Haw wishes to borrow or purchase the following boaks for her student son: Mein Kampf, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Das Capital, The Communist Manifesto. Her telephone No. is (031)-82mmmm.

(Mrs)Tania van der Watt
Secretary: Durban Branch
S.A. Military History Society
Box 870 Hillcrest 3650
Tel. 74mmmm