Sherman Firefly - What were those wavy lines for? 

For anyone who doubts the effectiveness of a wavy white line, I can personally attest that it took me a solid second or so to realize that the sherman at 5:16 was not a 75!! Just imagine how much harder it would be to spot at 800m away through an AT gun optic

That one Sherman was likely too important to risk losing in action. They raised morale and helped argue the best form of gun disguise. That tank deserves a medal!

Even from these very well lit shots with no obstruction, the paint still got me for a bit, even when I was expecting it. I would guess that from far away, with obstructions, it probably did its job quite well. Great video!

I've always wanted to see some photos or something at the right distance, angles, and backgrounds to see how much of a difference it could make to the enemy. 5:15 though gave me a decent idea. I first glanced at the PaK 43 on the Jagdpanther, then looked at the Sherman and asked myself "why are we showing one with a 75mm if this is about the camo on the 17 pounder?" only to take a closer look down the barrel and realize it actually was.

5:20 I now see how effective that was, I didn't notice the extra 5 feet on that cannon

I'll admit, it works. With a quick glance, you cannot tell the length of the barrel.

Panzerchunkywagon is the model I want to find out more about

Even if you think you know about a subject,it's always refreshing to get new information that adds to ones knowledge.This site never disappoints 👍👍🇧🇴

Well done. I thought I knew already, but this added much more depth to what I'd read elsewhere. Thanks!

What really stood out to me was how many in conflict tanks had extreme quantities of tracks mounted as up armour.

Thanks. Love your video’s. 👍🏻 Greetings from Belgium

Another great video thank you :) The picture around 5:20 is perfect. I had to look at it twice and even then it was easy to 'lose' the rest of the barrel.

British camouflage department must have been among the best in the world! 😁

Good choice of photos towards the end of the video, thst really showed how effective the counter shading was! Also the camouflage boys went to extraordinary lengths to protect their supplies of beer and pies.

I made a model of the Firefly a few years back. Barrel painted with the cammo. When I came back to some photos I had taken a little later, the end (scale) 5ft had disappeared! I couldn't believe how effective it was.

I suspect the use of this on the likes of the Tortoise and Centurion was intended as cheap and easy outright disruptive camouflage. The gun really stands out in how artificially straight it is, so I can see the logic of wanting to opt for a more extreme pattern to disrupt that appearance. Also, the gun is the part of the tank that is typically going to be most exposed and moving around most obviously. I strongly suspect that the profile of the gun is the thing that gives away most tanks when they're spotted

🤣 the description of the "british camouflage dept" is hysterical! gotta love 🇬🇧 humor.

I like the idea of the fake muzzle and the fake 17lb gun. Very interesting.

Well done. I'd seen period B&W photos, drawings, etc. and never thought it worked, but then the well lit and high def color (and one B&W period) photos had me double taking. Crazy how such a simple trick plays on our brain.

Quite relevant to this topic are things done to warships such as various geometric camouflage (think dazzle) and false bow waves. I can't count the number of times I have seen a photo of an old warship with a false bow wave and my brain immediately thought that the ship was under way. Even though a second later I would realize, through the use of other cues, that the ship was either barely moving, or not moving at all. I really can understand how such things would have made it harder to target back in the days before radar guided guns. It is quite remarkable how your brain locks in on singular and obvious cues, even when you are aware of them being faked.

Reminds me of the bit from Kelly's heroes where they put pipe on their Sherman's gun to make it look bigger.

This "Counter-shading" as it was called didn't start with the Fireflies - some desert standard Shermans had it as part of the camoflage scheme where there was also white under the front of the transmission, all to reduce shadows under the harsh desert sun. Tanks with much smaller guns were also counter-shaded on the barrel like the 2pdrs on Covenanters.

It must work, it took a second or three to realise it was a Firefly next to the Jagdpanther.

I laughed out loud when it finally dawned on me what I was looking at with the camouflage department picture!

WOW! I thought I knew about this, but I had only seen B&W photos before. So, I assumed I would not be fooled if I saw the barrel in full color (outside, with full color background). But, your video proved me wrong, or that this simple camo pattern on the barrel really worked. I was amazed when I did a quick glance at the photos in your video, and how effective it was to fool me (at a glance) to think the barrel was short, even when the POV is close to the target tank. This video is excellent for proving the effectiveness of this particular camo technique. Optical illusions depend on our brain’s quick, initial assumptions and pattern recognition (shape recognition), based on what we have seen before, so we can be fooled by what is right in front of us.

Really nice and interesting piece of history, thanks.

Greetings from Orange County, California. Always been a military history buff and that is what my degree is in (history). So I found this video very interesting. Cheers

Note that the pattern is replicating the countershading effect that critters often have - they often have lighter fur or feathers underneath and darker on top, as it's opposite to what the brain expects from a 3D object and thus harder/longer to detect as they end up looking rather flat instead of being properly shaded. I'd say that's why it continued past the need to disguise long-barrelled Shermans and such: makes the barrel harder to see, and thus less obvious if it's sticking out of cover and/or camouflage.

2:26 Alright that killed me lol

I suspect that the post war use was to assist in concealing the barrel itself. It's relatively easy to conceal the rest of the tank, but that long straight sticky out bit is rather obvious even under the best of circumstances.

Some warships also did this on bow/stern sections to mess with identification of speed and size.

I am sure I've seen submarines with the same pattern. It must of worked because I've yet to read anything about submarines being attacked by anti-tank guns. The camouflage is similar is similar to the countershading found on animals which helps deal with the shadow you would get underneath an animal.

It's amazing how well it works even when you are this close

Ah yes, that well known military terminology "long pointy shooty stick"

If you look at the barrel, it doesn't really fool you. BUT, you're looking at the barrel because you know it's painted. If you look directly at the tank, as you would be on the battlefield, you see the tank and it's "short" barrel. Even in the pictures above, just looking directly at the Firefly at 05.15, all you see in the peripheral is a 75mm barrel, so the counter-shading does work.

cool vid, ed, cheers! i like the wavy line, and i've, oddly enough, never even heard of the muzzle brake trick before!

The technique is not disruptive camouflage it is counter shading, examples of which are more commonly seen on aircraft and (historically) naval vessels. I recall reading that on occasion it was used downward facing surfaces on tanks including the hull to reduce the contrast between the different reflective planes and making the tank less visible from a distance. The concept was developed by Abbott Thayer who also worked on dazzle and disruptive camouflage during WW1. Y

It might have become something of a lucky charm for tank crews, seeing as it saved the hide of tank crews in WW2.

“Big Long Shooty Stick” is my new go-to term for a tank’s main gun.😂

Tell the scriptwriters of 'Fury' about the big gun being the first target for German anti tank hunters. Thus Brad Pitt's tank would have been the first to be hit - end of film.

Got seriously Monty Python "How hot to be seen" vibes from the British Camouflage Department. Love it. 🤣

I could see how from a long distance with the heat mirage on a warm gun barrel, especially on a hot summer day, wavy camouflage could be effective, thanks! 👍

So what you’re saying with the earlier fake 17pdr tests is that Oddball wasn’t actually off base with his fake barrel extension

Disguised the Firefly as a regular Sherman as the wavy lines matched the jagged silhouette of hedge rows and distant clouds. The light underside helped the gun vanish against the sky as the tanks crested inclines.

“long, big shooty stick” - best quote of the day!

Day trading, Amazon, train derailed, RU-vid algorithms. Love the video. Thanks for your hard work.

I love a day when I learn something new. Thanks! That was interesting and well researched.

Considering that this camo doesnt cost anything its surprisingly effective. Same principle is used for face camo, to break the facial features, you use dark paint for areas which are best lit and light paint for shadowed parts.

I served for over 20 years with the 72's and we used to paint our barrels everytime we boinked in the tank.

It always makes me laugh at that scene in Kelly's Heroes where Oddball tells Kelly they fit tubes over their gun barrels to make them look bigger to scare off the German tanks - all they would be doing is to makes themselves a priority target! That's Hollywood researchers for you!

Great photos and info!

Two best named cammo schemes… 1; early WW2 British ‘Mickey Mouse Ears’ on vehicles. 2; Australian personnel uniforms ‘Bruised Banana’.

2:26 that’s some serious camouflage- can’t see either the main building OR the workshop. Impressive work. 😉

It took me half a second looking at the first shot for me to realise its purpose and that it probably did its job fairly well

Dad was a GGFG tank commander in WWII. He said they tried the extensions on some of their tanks. Really ticked off the crews.

At 5:17 I initially didn’t see the barrel length because of the camouflage, I guess it worked 😂

2:30 THAT is the best sales pitch I ever saw !!!

Panzerchunkywagon VI... I spit lemonade all over my keyboard!

It was to make it look like it has the standard 75/76 short barrel German tankers would always go for the fireflys first.

Will draw a Colt Navy on my UZI ! Thank's for the hint !

Thank you, sir!

It's hard to determine how extensively the Germans were prioritising the longer barreled guns. On a base level It's extremely difficult to see the guns at long range, especially if the vehicle is headed towards you. I'm sure I've read some form of report saying this is why the false barrel on the rear of the tank wasn't adopted. Any range close enough for the enemy to spot the shorter barrel was close enough you'd really rather have the turret facing front! And secondly, on a more statistical level, Fireflies suffered fewer proportional losses than the 75mm tanks, whereas you'd expect the reverse if the Fireflies were public enemy #1. Granted, the usage was a factor - Fireflies were generally held back and brought forwards to engage enemy armour only when needed. Although this too suggests that disguising the gun wasn't all that important. This goes even for Cromwell units, many of which had to make do with Fireflies (rather than the rarer Challenger), you'd think the Firefly would stick out like a sore thumb but they still suffered lower losses than the Cromwells around them. This doesn't detract from the purpose of the countershading at all - the *fear* that Fireflies would be prioritised as targets was very definitely real, which is what led to such extensive effort to prevent that. But the question is there how realistic a fear that actually was.

Cheers. Something that I had never gotten around to investigating!

The barrel camouflage was often credited to artist Rex Whistler who served with Guards Armoured Division in Normandy 1944 until he was killed in action. The Sherman Firefly was in short supply only up to August 1944, after that date the number of Firefly tanks rapidly increased to 2 tanks per troop, constituting 50% of the fighting strength of the regiment. In all 2,150 Firefly's were built.

QUESTION - Sometimes I've seen pictures of Wehrmacht tanks, with painted hoops/rings around their barrels. Were these a means of keeping a kill-score?

1:45 “long big short stick” Bro I can’t rn😂

Thanks for sharing.

My theory was exactly what you noted at 6:13. Nice to know I wasn't completely wrong.

The wider doctrine of camouflage is based on disrupting shape, shine, silhouette and shadow. Scrim started to come in in the late 60s, as a step-up from hessian, and soon mated with cargo nets to disrupt heavy weapon emplacements. However, in preceding years, breaking up long barrel lines became an obvious necessity.

Good example of countershading camouflage !

Incredibly interesting!

'Panzer Chunkywagon VI' LOL

The old infantry recon tip if you need to buy time, is to wave hello if you encounter an opposing force. It takes someone longer to respond to a hello gesture (as they have to work out just who you are) than to an angry gesture. What's this got to do with a great video on gun barrel camo? It's seconds that matter, and if someone is traversing a tank turret locked down, through viewfinders, or binoculars, that camo effect could take a few seconds to register. Those seconds could allow a Firefly to get off a couple of rounds at the target that has now got its main gun pointed elsewhere. As others have said, the images included, are good enough that at a glance I'd mistake the barrel length, and that's knowing we are talking about the subject.

"and which ones has the long big shooty stick" 😂

Nature has used this trick since the beginning! Dark on top and light underneath is a common pattern; scales or fur. Shadow on the light underside, and sun on the dark top makes for a more homogeneous blob all round. Cheap and easy camo!

The photo of the British Camouflage Hq. made me giggle.

Answer: Disruption camo...it was done to break up a 76mm barrel silhouette so Germans didn't kill them first and make it look like a short US 75mm at a distance. Germans prioritized the longer gunned tanks as the main threat.

I very much appreciated the image of the British Camouflage Department Building at 2:33. I reckon the Italians had a better idea by fitting 5 reverse gears to their tanks, just repeating an old joke! BTW, is that a disruptive barrel camouflage on the spine of your chair at the end of this piece?

I knew about the paint, but I've never seen the dummy muzzle brake before. Every day is a school day.

Good to see prison libraries have the info needed for your research.

"Did it work?" We don't know. It didn't really matter if it worked, or not; as long as the Firefly crews believed that it worked. Moral is important, and can often be boosted by simple means like this.

At last, something I knew before you told it to me.

It just clicked in my head. It's counter shading! paint the top dark and paint the bottom light to counter the natural shadows that are present from having the sun above. Counter shading, once you know that it's a thing, it shows up EVERYWHERE.

People need to keep in mind that most tank combat was at a good distance and often with obstacles in the way or smoke in the air, A couple of these painted barrels in the video actually had me fooled for a few seconds when i wasn't paying full attention despite being up close and in full daylight, imagine what It'd be like at a several hundred meters on an overcast day and multiple tanks, i could easily imagine not seeing it then

Very interesting Video! 😃

2:25 Brilliant lol

It's for accurate aiming sighting.& Leveling of the tank barrel for the live round leaves the tank barrel. &To explain the proximately time frame of when the tank barrel will start smoking.,or smoke after the live tank round has been being fired.& Left from the barrel.

Probably just to impress girls tbh

I'd suspect the most noticeable element that distinguishes a tank from any random boulder, wrecked car, or lumpy thing at a distance is the very straight barrel. It's also the thing you would need to more often expose when shooting from behind some cover, so making the whole barrel harder to see would probably make any tank more stealthy.

Always felt the counter shading on British tank barrels was some of the most effective use of camouflage ever used in combat. And it's a pretty simple scheme as well.

Nice article on the subject. The only thing missing is how to replicate it in War Thunder with the customization decals.

I worked in the camouflage centre, that's me on the left near the fountain

"long big shooty stick" 🤣 Yup pretty much

It's the same theory as to why some animals have dark back fur and light color belly fur. Bobcats face there back to the sun and there belly facing forward as they wait in ambush.

After watching this I noticed while watching a documentary called "The Channel's Superguns" that they also painted the wavy white bottom on the English Dover super gun "Clem" @39:16. I wonder why and why on the bottom part all the way, wouldn't that part be hidden from a reconnaissance plane? Maybe to hide it from ground based telescopes. Looks like another video topic for your channel!

The barrel camo would help hide the barrel when the rest of the tank is concealed. For instance if coming around a corner or if the tank is bunkered up.

I guessed it was specific Firefly camouflage to obscure the longer barrel but arrived on the wrong motivation. First thing that came to mind was that when positioning the tanks close to a ridge on high, the longer barrels would be visible from below even if the hull and turret weren't. The light underside would then be harder to see against the lighter sky. The real reason was surprising as was the effectiveness. Even with those closeup shots I had to blink to see the full length of the barrel.

My first instinct would be to stick a drainpipe on the regular Shermans, but there you go.

Good video, I knew they painted the gun on the firefly but what I did not know is they mounted a fake barrel on the ordinary sherman. 🙂

very impressive I used the disruptive barrel camo following the method as per vidio and !!!BOOM!!! My War Thunder ratio went way up 🤣🤣 instant subscribe