The Enigmatic Camouflage of the Wehrmacht

A Historian's Headache

For a long time, it was assumed that early German armour was uniform grey - RAL 7021 "Panzergrau". As we don't have 4k HDR images from actual, in-the-field 1941 Panzerkampfwagen, everyone was left assuming. Yes, the colour is grey, but which grey? Is the sun shining, or is it getting dark? That will influence how the colour is seen! And don't mention non-colour-calibrated monitors, all set up slightly different. What is vibrant Kermit green on one, is drab khaki on another screen. But then someone found high-resolution images, and Bovington found an unopened, boxed periscope in Dunkergelb. Finally, we could narrow down the correct colours. But there is still a lot of discussion about the correct shades used or, for example, about what colour the outlines of turret numbers were.

This further examination showed, for example, that these early Panzer were painted in a grey base coat, overlaid with a brown "cloud pattern". It may be that some green was also added on manouvers, but this is by no means certain. And we can't confirm any of this from the official documentation either: the official Wehrmacht guidelines left much room for interpretation and changed constantly. Most factories applied only the base colors during vehicle production, and field units used camouflage paste to adapth the vehicle's camouflage to local conditions. Some factories, however, supplied vehiocles with a camo scheme as suggested by the OKH regulations. However, most units often just improvised. This lead to a fascinating – yet frustrating for historians – diversity in camouflage styles.

So, can we lay down some guidelines? Yeah, sure we can!

Yes, that's a Chally, I know.

• Before 1939, vehicles were painted in RAL7021 Panzergrau with RAL8002 Signalbraun patterns.
• In 1940, new vehicles were delivered in only 7021 to save on paint. However, this did not work very well in green fields or on dusty roads.
• So, in 1943 a dark yellow (RAL7028 Dunkergelb) was issued. As before, old vehicles weren't repainted, but camo paste was applied to them. In this way, we see early Panthers at Kursk sporting a dark grey with yellow paint job.
• Winter camouflage was just white caulking over the existing paint base.
• There actually was a difference between different batches of dark yellow: the 1943 version appears to be more orange, while later versions are lighter and more sandy. Additional camouflage was added in the field, using RAL 6003 olive green and RAL 8017 chocolate brown. The result was a vast array of two- and three-color camouflage schemes, with variations even within the same unit. And even then, dark grey vehicles continued to serve, ofcourse with added yellow paste splotches.
• As the war continued, even more creative camouflage patterns were seen. Dark yellow with red-brown and green cloud patches, green with yellow turtleshell lines, dark yellow with brown stripes.
• This lack of uniformity did not escape the attention of the OKH. In August 1944, the factories were told to apply a RAL7028 base color, with olive green 6003 and red/chocolate brown 8017 in patches. This led to a more uniform camouflage scheme, which was known as the "Hinterhalt" or ambush-camouflage. That was designed to better hide the combat vehicles under trees, which was urgently needed because of the many Allied fighter-bombers air superiority after the Normandy landings.
• The war was not going in Germany's favour and a lot of costs needed to be cut. Zimmerit was dropped, as was the "complicated" paint scheme. After September 1944, new tanks were no longer painted at all, but delivered in RAL 8012-coloured primer, again leaving the camouflagin up to individual crews. They used whatever paint they could find, from stolen US olive paint to (it is rumoured) purple gouache.
• The final instruction came in November 1944, only to be implemented by June 1945. Yes, that is two months after the end of the war, so it oficially never happened. Factories were to paint tanks in an olive green RAL 6003 base coat, with a sharply defined camouflage pattern in red/chocolate brown and dark yellow. Some of these vehicles existed, either in monochrome green or with added camo patterns in any available colours.
• Vehicles going to North Africa had their own patterns: at first, the planners wanted to use a RAL 8000 base coat with RAL 7008 olive green patterns, but that was to dark for the desert. After March 1942, they switched to a more sandy-coloured RAL 8020, with added stripes or spots in leftover 7021 dark grey. However, after they conquered the Britisch stocks at Tobruk, most British and German vehicles ended up being the same colour: 1015 Desert Sand. Sand and sun were hard on the paint, so that we again see much variation.
• Did the Green Tiger of Tunisia actually exist? We don't really know; sPzAbt 501's vehicles were sand brown (8020) out of the factory, but the prevalence of British and US paints makes it more than possible that some Panzer crews had fun re-painting their rigs.

My colour set

In my case, I guesstimated base colours from a mix of actual RAL values, Tamiya AS paint and a book. I then used a web colour kit to derive lighter and darker variations, which I'll use consistently, or not at all, if I feel like it.

Base colours

Accent colours