German camouflaged vehicle shelters Normandy

[Knevi]

In his "D-Day to Berlin", while discussing German camo, Terence Wise refers to

"...hundreds of camouflaged shelters...built along the roadsides...in northern France".

 

I guessed that they were built by pioneer regiments rather than ad hoc and so there would be some unity of construction to them. I've nurtured the idea of a vignette of including such a shelter but I haven't found any definitive pics of them in use.

 

There are lots of views of AFV's in hedgerows, woods, verges etc but can anyone point me to a description or depiction of such a shelter or has research moved on as to their existence? 

[WYATT]

more than likely means the shelter halves that the German infantry were issued with and more than likely vehicle crews got either issued or managed to get hold of, i think they are called zeltbahn if you google it they come up 

[Knevi]

36 minutes ago, WYATT said:

more than likely means the shelter halves that the German infantry were issued with and more than likely vehicle crews got either issued or managed to get hold of, i think they are called zeltbahn if you google it they come up 

Thanks for the response. I read it as being a more permanent structure used as a turnout to accommodate vehicles and tanks.

[WYATT]

there would be photos and I don't ever recall seeing anything like that, you would camo the vehicle using cam nets etc but cant see anything permanent being built 

[Knevi]

Yes, the absence of photographic evidence is fairly compelling.

[Phil1960]

Hi Knevi, I dont know is this can be useful but these fake weapons in Normandy 1944 are very interesting to me. Source: Wikimedia  Commons

Ciao 

Filippo

 

[Knevi]

6 minutes ago, Phil1960 said:

Hi Knevi, I dont know is this can be useful but these fake weapons in Normandy 1944 are very interesting to me. Source: Wikimedia  Commons

Ciao 

Filippo

 

Thanks Filippo. They do look like interesting diversions

[Bozothenutter]

Didn't the Germans use one man bunkers?

😡 won't let me add links...

Just google "german one man bunker"

   

[Knevi]

On 17/02/2022 at 17:34, Bozothenutter said:

Didn't the Germans use one man bunkers?

😡 won't let me add links...

Just google "german one man bunker"

   

Those things scare me to death. Thanks for the reply but I'm trying to track down a shelter for an AFV.

[Kingsman]

I can see the idea of preparing hides for formations held in reserve further south in case they were called forward, perhaps in response to an invasion alert.  I believe the Russians did something similar for vehicles moving forward for one of their offensives.

 

But as people have said, the lack of any evidence suggests not.  I can't believe that no-one in Allied forces photographed them or even made use of them and that they have never been noted in any accounts.

[Jochen Barett]

They were camouflaged with German perfection, so nobody found them yet.

[Longbow]

1 hour ago, Das Abteilung said:

I can see the idea of preparing hides for formations held in reserve further south in case they were called forward, perhaps in response to an invasion alert.  I believe the Russians did something similar for vehicles moving forward for one of their offensives.

 

Yup. @Das Abteilung is correct.

Pretty simple to make camouflaged hides from natural materials, as long as you don't kill the trees, and have a sea of dead brown in a forrest of green. 

[Knevi]

Thanks @Das Abteilung@Jochen Barett and @Longbow for your assistance