Camouflage: Basic Principles [FM 5-20]

This manual covers general camouflage principles. Camouflage uses concealment and deception to promote offensive action, to surprise, to mislead the enemy, and to prevent him from inflicting damage.

Concealment includes hiding from view, making hard to see clearly, arranging obstructions to vision, deceiving and disguising, and deception involving sound.

Coverage includes how to know what to conceal, how to conceal it, the types of materials and equipment to be used for concealment and how simple reduction of visual clues can be an effective means of camouflage.

This was the manual used to begin instruction on camouflaging all types of Army ground installations, positions, equipment, weapons, aircraft, airfields, vehicles, and personnel.