“You’re all stupid. See, they’re going to be looking for army guys.” -Peter Griffin in a clown costume

It's great that the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen has been preserved as a museum ship not only for its unusual and unique story, but also because not a lot of naval vessels of the interwar era exist.

Gotta love that CADPAT!! But british have never used digital.

Even though forests cover only 2.1% of Afghanistan, those lush areas have a disproportionately high concentration of people, meaning that a disproportionately high amount of fighting happens in those areas. Though the decision is definitely suspect, it's not as crazy as it sounds at first.

The reason dazzle camouflage was so effective in the early era of submarines and ship-to-ship warfare is the manner in which periscopes/range finders judged distance. They used split image (stereo) or markings in the reticle. The split image version made two different images of the target and the operator adjusted on image until it aligned with the second image - this was done by aligning horizontal or vertical parts of the ship. BUT, since the ships was painted in a way where either vertical or horizontal shapes were made to look diagonal, it was hard for the operator to line up the image, causing the shot or torpedo to fall short or go long. Same with artillery or main guns. The fact is, if you try to use surplus range finders of that old variety and try to range a target looking like a zebra, you will miss almost every shot. The lines are so chaotic that they will not align in the optic and therefore throw off proper range distances.

Dazzle camouflage has recently returned to the Royal Navy, both HMS Tamar and HMS Severn sporting the new paintwork. Edit: HMS Spey also has a dazzle camouflage.

1:44 Actually, it has already been recently discovered that the black and white stripes of a zebra were used to deter and repel disease-carrying horse flies, since their compound eyes have difficulty tracking wavy and zig zag patterns as they approach rapidly towards such irregularly patterned surfaces

Ships during WW2 also painted white "froth" at the bottom bow of the ship to make observers think the ship was moving faster than it was by the splash of the parting water at the front of the bow seeming larger. They also painted blue "waterlines" high on the hull to make observers think the ship was deeper in the water than it was to confuse torpedo target depths. Experienced U-boat captains chose cargo ship targets by how deep they were in the water, indicating a heavier cargo load. Japanese sub captains were wary of high riding ships indicating they may be armed Q-ships that carried no cargo for speed and being too shallow for deep running torpedoes meant to spring a trap for an attacking submarine. The pink color used on British rovers was used because dawn and dusk raids were common on the offensive. Pink is the only color that reflects and absorbs equal amounts of light. I have not seen this myself, but supposedly, the pink trucks would look practically transparent on the horizon at dusk and dawn.

Not a weird camouflage but it his just reminded me of this, I met a man years ago who fought in WW2 during one of my old high schools Veterans Day ceremonies. He told me a story about how when he and his unit went through a German town they found that the Hitler Youth of the town had hidden their radios in piles of wood to keep contact with whoever they were supposed to report into after the US troops had moved on from the town. I believe the man has passed on now sadly because I didn’t see him the next year or the years after.

The german ship "Graf Spee" disguised itself as british ship to approach targets - the first test was done with one of it's supply ships, which fled when they spotted the Spee. (Interesting: The ship sank 9 allied ships without causing a single casuality before the battle near Montevideo)

Soldier 1: "Haha, you are using grannie's doily as camo?" Soldier 2: "Don't laugh. The enemy set a candy dish on my head."

11:49 last time I checked, the British don't use digitised camouflage. The US and Canadians do, but I'm 99% certain that the UK doesn't

CADPAT was the first mass produced, computer design aided, printed, digital camouflage pattern adopted by any military. It was co-developed between companies in Canada and Sweden to replace our dated OD uniforms. Large amounts of satellite imagery of Canada's forests were used to generate multiple patterns utilizing the most common colours. There were a few teething problems with quality control and fading on the initial batches, but today they are extremely comfortable uniforms. Honestly they're as comfortable as pajamas. They're about to be updated with a more universal colour pallette, swapping the unique pine green colours for a more arid selection. CADPAT is fantastic in our native forests for about 3 - 4 months out of the year. The new CADPAT rollout should be much more effective universal uniform for arid and forested environments and for spring and fall when the forests lose their green hues.

Disguising a ship as an entire island is really creative

Fun fact, the US Navy almost went with the M81 pattern camouflage with same colors found on the Type 1 Naval Working Uniform instead of the digital pattern that the Type 1s had.

There was a misconception for sailors during our time wearing the NWU type III that our digital blue was to hide us better in the water( much to the fear of sailors since it would be hard to find you if you fell overboard) However the blue, dark blue, and grey pattern was chosen not for personal concealment, but to hide the most common things that would make your uniform dirty on a ship. Paint, oils and rust 😌

Pretty sure this is the first time we've seen a modern Canadian military depiction from you guys! Looks awesome!

Another detail on the Marine's MARPAT, there's little EGA's spread out at random through the pattern.

3:38: What's a zebra doing in the sea?

Finally Canada gets some recognition even though they say we have weid camo. Would love to see more History on Canadian military history

The word and invention of Camouflage was invented by two French painters mobilized in the 6th Artillery Regiment: Lucien Victor Guirand de Scévola (1871-1950) and Louis Guingot (1864-1948) in the 1910's but French commanders preferred the ultra visible old style Napoleonic uniforms pretty but stupid for the Great War

I always assumed that digital camo was created by an older general who just found out that his computer has a program called "paint" on it.

The universal camo the US military tried wasn't odd in itself, but that it took a decade for the military to realize it didn't work.

4:05 actually really effective method

“That flag is a symbol we attach our emotions to, but it isn't the emotion itself and it isn't the thing we really care about. Sometimes we don't even realize what we really care about, because we get so distracted by the symbols.” ― Tom Wolfe,

This is interesting! Never really thought of making a metal behemoth look like a island

The Afghan SPEC4CES woodland camo worked really well in the mountains with all the rocks. Yes Afghanistan is mostly desert but those mountains are part of that desert. Talk to any US grunt that worked along side Afgans who wore the camo and they'd say it worked well for the country.

2:51 FUN FACT if I'm right thats RMS Olympic the oldest sister of titanic

1:12 to skip ad

It is important to note that digital camo was invented in Canada, and first used by Canadian Forces. it was then adopted by the USMC and then later by the US Army.

I still don't understand why 'digital' camo. It looks cool, but is there more of an advantage vs splotched camo? Also, I loved those doily helmets, it looks like it would work perfectly!

As time goes on, the animation for this channel gets better and better. I've been a huge fan of this channel for 3 years now, and still a fan! Great job guys! Keep on truckin'!

A buddy of mine who was on one of the first roto's to Afghanistan joked that even though our troops deployed in forest green CADPAT (causing a controversy at home), the locals could more easily identify them as Canadians versus the Americans, and in some instances were less hostile to them.

that Afghan camo does work, I mean just look at Afghanistan last year, not a single soldier to be seen when the Taliban took over.....

-Ok boys we're gonna fight in the desert, any suggestions for the camo? -Beige? Nahhh. -Tan? Naaaahhh. -_wHat Ab0uT PiNk loL?_

Ok, most of afghanistan is not actually desert. 70% of the county is woodland, lush, forrests, and greens. Which is exactly why Marines have a woodland Marpat, Raiders use M81 Woodland, ect.

"It was to be distinctive and stand out as the camouflage pattern for the US Marines." Being distinctive and standing out is exactly what you don't want in camouflage. The Marines can never catch a break.

The Desert Night camouflage was designed alongside the U.S. six-color desert camouflage. Meaning it was first made in the early to mid sixties, as was the six-color. The reasoning for their creation was, to my knowledge, a possible conflict in Israel involving the Russians. Anyways, the pattern was made to disguise the wearer from early Soviet NVGs and general night vision devices. That's the reason for the grid-like pattern. Though, by the time it was first deployed in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, it was already incredibly obsolete.

Dazzle camo is surprisingly still used today by the automotive industry. When manufacturers test their new concept cars on the road, they're often painted in these black and white swirled designs known as "spy shot wrapping", which make it difficult for digital cameras to focus on the car and make it hard to make out the fine details of a car's design like paneling

The Berlin camouflage was also used on the armoured personnel carriers of the three British infantry battalions in Berlin: there were more of those than there were tanks in the Berlin armoured squadron. It was actually very effective!

Good vid just a correction: 1:44 you say the romans during the 4th century AD under the command of julius caesar. Julius caesar died in 44BC on the ides of march in rome,italy(then roman republic).

During war - "That's the most weirdest island i have ever seen.." Post war - *"They played us like a damn fiddle"*

2:32:The colour scheme for both Su-47s of Mimic Squadrons call signs "Rage" and "Scream"

8:25 Much respect

I am seriously impressed. You even nailed the details of the C7A2 for the Canadian Army!

We can all agree that simple history never disappoints us with their content

4th century AD (300-400AD)... Julius Caesar (100BC-44BC)... That was a fail right there.

Excellently neat job guys!!

2:00 Actually the Brits changed thier traditonal red coats to a bright withe uniforms to fit in to the subtropical climate of India. Those white uniforms were actually easier to spot than the red one. So the soldiers dyed the with coffee. The point is, that those khakis were not issued as camoflage, because the were issued white.

I can't help but feel that American UCP should have been included in this list, especially alongside the ANA's odd choice in camouflage.

They really do be putting my grandma's table decoration and a flower pot on U.S Soldier's helmet back in WW2

I remember one time I went paint balling wearing a bright red jacket. As my teammates and I were walking to our starting point, I said to them "you're all stupid. They're gonna be expecting people with camouflage

did u serious skip 20,000 years of human history for the last 100 years?

You forgot about the grey US Digital camo they used in the mid to late 2000's. Literally the most useless camo ever used. It was phased out as quickly as it was introduced.

Very great video right on bro!

I’m here to appreciate the last few seconds of the video. Love it!

I still think the camo used by the SS and German army in ww2 was and is some of the most effective camo patterns to have ever been used. Especially the oakleaf pattern that was reversible for autumn and spring and would choose it over any of the modern patterns used today.

Errr... @3:15 Since during WWI most if not ALL the ships were using coal, and have smoke stacks, wouldn't the direction of the exhaust give away the direction of the ship? 🤦‍♂🤷‍♂

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

The best way to start a day is a cup of coffee, a nice sandwitch and a new simple history video. Change my mind.

If y'all ever do the worse camo patterns in history, please bring up the Army's UCP's (the gray and blue digital pattern). It only blends in with gravel lol

I wish Simple History is my history teacher ❤️ The animation has also improved a lot over the years!

Amazing video once again simple history!

Excellent job

I once searched for a model rocket in high grass for two hours. The owner of the rocket thought that gold mylar tape covering would be easy to see. Nope. Every surface of the rocket acted like a mirror, reflecting tall grass images. The lucky searcher stepped on it! Sometimes, gaudy and bright, like gold-tint mirrors, works surprisingly well.

The ANA's camo looked really good while they put their weapons down and hands up immediately when the Taliban came through...

“The Pentagon needlessly spent millions on forest camo Afghan uniforms.” Not to mention the $80 million in equipment they just left behind.

This is the 1st time watching the day it was actually uploaded. Always incredibly interesting & informative 👍

Amazing the differences in Camo throughout time, and what kind if things the human mind can come up with. The Germans in WW2 had some of the best camo

You missed the brick wall camouflage that was seen on various British tanks on Malta in WWII.

I appreciate the small details, like the correct illustration of the C7A2 rifle for the Canadian soldiers

Great information .

Finally, a good video and a special brew coffee in the morning. Thank you for entertaining me for the past 4 years.

6:30 Is that Captain Price? 😂

Fun fact: Dazzle camouflage is actually still used by car manufacturers for their prototype/unreleased cars to help ensure that a high quality image of the car and or an image that shows the car’s definite shape isn’t leaked to the internet since the pattern of said camouflage messes with the focusing technology of most modern digital cameras…

I like the floating tropical island idea, the fact that the ship blended in very well is incredible. Very intelligent men, they were the only ones to flee the area, impressive!

6:10 is that captain price in the passenger seat?

Video starts at 1:20

6:05 "The Vengabus starts playing"

7:47 Band of Brothers episode reference.

My favorite military camouflage is M81 woodland, its also used by reserve soldiers in my country 🇭🇷

The night camouflage was designed to be used against outdated soviet night vision during desert storm.

Keep it up simple history, the animation is improving 👍

I enjoyed a longer video like this

I know this has nothing to do with camouflage but do you think you guys could talk about the battle of fallujah I know it’s a controversial battle but I really think it would be cool cause I would like to learn more about it

It impresses me how quickly a couple of people working on this channel can make several animations per month. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for video sir

I got one of the Night Desert Camo parkas, cool piece of kit.

The German battleship Emden in WWI disguised it self as an Entente ship by adding a fake forth smokestack. (Something you normally wouldn't see on a German one.) Post Russia's exit of WWI would the British Major-General Lionel Dunsterville also disguise Russian ships as Serbian one by flipping the Russian flag upside down. He claimed it was to show his support for the Bolshevik Revolution, but he clearly wanted to artificially inflate the numbers of Entente forces in the Iran region.

How could Julius Caesar lead a scouting mission on the British coast in the 4th Century AD if he died in 44 BCE?

I have been on the Abraham Crijnsen once at the ‘Marine museum’ and that was already cool, but knowing it was once fitted with such wired camouflage is even cooler!

My favorite (not shown here) is still the US Army's new multi cam pattern. The greens and browns are subdued quite a bit making the colors a bit more like you'd see in nature. Still blends in okay in the desert (compared to other woodland patterns) and doesn't use the weird digital pattern that doesn't seem to match anything anywhere. I've never seen digital nature.

best camo: soviets in finlands with bright red jackets

The weirdest camouflages were in my opinion nwu type I and early blue us air force tiger stripe .

Interesting fact: The Finnish Defense Forces, when originally designing their modern day service camouflage (M05 camo), decided to use several pictures taken from local woodlands as basis for the digital pattern. So the camouflage is essentially a mashup of multiple photographs, smashed into digital form.

As some pointed out a lot of Afghans do live in wooded and grassy areas so a green/brown pattern is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Another thing to consider is night operations. Afghan Special Forces used a green/black tiger stripe pattern due to their night raids.

You should have covered Useless Camouflage Pattern the US Army ran with for years smh

Im surprised you made no mention of the German camo uniforms used by the SS in WW2, the Germans probably used camoflauge more than any other country in ww2.

I love history. Very useful in tactics.

Fine Display Simple History. Who would of thought Pink is good Camo? Great work