White Washed MV's

[tyler]

Hi, a previous post got me thinking, how common was it for armies to white wash the vehicles during snowie winters in Europe in WW2, also did only certain countries do this or did they just paint them white? Here are some pics Bovingdon of a few US WW2 vehicles painted in winter schemes.

 

Thanks.

 

Tyler.

[Rlangham]

very common i'd have thought - seen plenty of pictures of whitewashed Churchills, cromwells etc, plus the M10 Achilles at the top is a British one (17pdr gun). Not sure about having them painted entirely white in NW Europe, especially as if it thawed you'd have a tank that would stick out liek a sore thumb, whitewash could be easily removed and put on when needed.

[ashley]

Hi Tyler

the application of winter camoflage was quite prolific in the German and Russian armies (as needs dictated) as well as other armies,

as the winters on the Russian front really were a hell on earth.

Of course the winter of 1944 was also the worst (European) winter on record for years.

Most applications were of course carried out in whitewash of some discription so it could be removed in the spring.

The last picture you posted does not look very convincing to me and looks lke the museum had some left over paint from some where :cry:

though the two U.S. and the russian vehicles look quite convincing the last one (german) i think is particulary poor (JMO)

Ashley

 

P.S. if any members here have what they belive to be an original snowcamo german helmet for sale i would be very interested :wink:

[Rlangham]

Think the last one is actually a Russian SU-76, have to agree the camo does look poor, kind of similar to this one http://wio.ru/tank/gal2/su-76.jpg

[Degsy]

On the Eastern front the shade of camo had to be changed quite frequently as the early snows were a very different colour to mid and late winter snow, similarly spring needed bright shades of green varying through duller shades to yellow in the autumn.