CAMOUFLEURS And the Art of War
In the spring of 1918, strange things were afoot in New York City’s Van Cortland Park. Rocks and trees were moving and calling out across the landscape. “I stumbled over a hump of grass, which squealed when I stepped on it, and rose before me,” wrote journalist Elene Foster in the New York Tribune. Foster wasn’t hallucinating. She was witnessing a specialized military unit in action. They were developing new techniques to protect American troops in World War I.
˜ e talking trees were members of the Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps, volunteer trained in the new military science of camouflage. These words come from the French word , which means to disguise.
