View Full Version : Unusual camouflage at Crewe works?
ZeBedie
4th Dec 2011, 20:36
At West Street in Crewe, the old LNWR works ends in a very long, high brick wall. During the war, this was camouflaged in an unusual way: It was disguised as streets and houses, that is, pictures of houses were painted onto the wall. If you drive past it now, it just looks like ordinary camouflage, because it’s so faded.
The disguise appeared to work because despite being a prime target, as far as I know, the Luftwaffe never hit the works. The Rolls-Royce factory over the road was not so lucky.
Was this method of camouflage unique? Does anyone know of any pictures of this, either at Crewe or anywhere else?
Atcham Tower
4th Dec 2011, 21:38
This was a fairly common method of camouflage where the potential target was close to an urban area. The hangars at Squires Gate and Northolt were examples and photos exist.
ZeBedie
4th Dec 2011, 22:28
Thanks AT. Can you point me to those photos?
Atcham Tower
6th Dec 2011, 17:59
Apologies, I forgot to reply to this earlier. I have seen the Squires Gate and Northolt pics in books but I can't recall where exactly.
evansb
6th Dec 2011, 18:27
During WW.II, the Lockheed factory at Burbank, California was covered and made to look like a rural subdivision from the air. Boeing's plants in Seattle, Washington, were covered in a similar way.
World War II-Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant Camouflage (http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?124512-World-War-II-Lockheed-Burbank-Aircraft-Plant-Camouflage)
The disguise appeared to work because despite being a prime target, as far as I know, the Luftwaffe never hit the works. The Rolls-Royce factory over the road was not so lucky.
Most WW2 bombing took place at night when camoflage would be pretty ineffective. It was better concealing things from high altitude photo-surveillance. Furthermore the accuracy of bombs dropped from aircraft of the time was not sufficiently accurate to favour one side of an individual road over another. Finally, the longstanding LNWR locomotive works (actually wartime engineering works, i believe the foundry there actually made bomb shells) was well known from before the war; I am sure the German Embassy in early 1939 built up full stocks of Ordnance Survey maps.
ZeBedie
9th Dec 2011, 13:28
The raid on Rolls was a daylight one.
742-xx
10th Dec 2011, 15:02
Here's some pics of the works from West St.
Apologies for the quality they were took on my phone.
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/ReluctantMountianeer/005.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/ReluctantMountianeer/004.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/ReluctantMountianeer/001.jpg
Here's a pic I took from 2000 feet. I'm not sure how much could be seen from a German bomber in the dark !
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/ReluctantMountianeer/Creweworks2.jpg