snow

winter wars

Yavoriv, Ukraine - January 28, 2022. Military training ground. Ukrainian military in winter ghillie suits

Ghillie suits may be as old as the heather-covered hills of Scottish estates, but they are still used, in this case in Ukraine, where it is critical to disappear into the environment. No longer a slim sniper’s rifle, weapons of a different size, weight and calibre indicate something of the scale of Ukraine’s winter front.

Generally, camo suits are lightweight covers over regular uniforms, in this case, white and black fibres tied onto a mesh cover, impossible to focus on, so diffuse is the outline. Farther back is a plain winter camo cover, likely nylon, printed with blotches. As this is a training exercise in the photo, no one is actually shooting at this formation. If they were, we wouldn’t see anything.

A volunteer in Lviv threads and ties camouflage strips onto a mesh base. photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

Clearly there are backstory industries going on in Ukraine, of which we hear little. There are also many commercial manufacturers of winter camouflage throughout the north, this one from Finland:

Surface markings, from Varusteleka, where even the balaclava, the cap, the face and the rifle are camouflaged.

Each army seems to have its own winter camo strategy, many of which are being supplied to Ukraine. This from Lithuania:

Ukraine Army Winter Camo Oversuit: There is such confusion generated by the surface markings as opposed to the actual motion of a ghillie suit.

Norway:

Norwegian soldiers participating in a military exercise in March, 2022. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters. Nothing as fluttery or as invisible as a ghillie suit, rather this kind of winter forest camouflage is based in fracturing of form. All the dark straps, vests, even guns, serve to destroy focus, distance, clarity. The figure in the middle simply disappears.

Canada:

Plain white camouflage for the Canadian Forces, 2014. Replaced by CADPAT, in 2019

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment’s Arctic Response Company Group conduct a winter patrol during Exercise SIBERIAN HUSKY 2019. The winter version (lead soldier) of the Canadian Disruptive Pattern camouflage is not being revised, unlike the Arid Regions and Temperate Woodland versions. Photo: Captain Ian McIntyre, 37 Canadian Brigade Group Public Affairs. ©2019 DND/MDN Canada.

It occurs to me at this point that there are so many winter conditions: forest, grassland, glaciers, arctic tundra – trees, scrub, snowdrifts, windswept rock. How specific must winter camouflage be?

Russia:

New Russian Arctic camouflage worn during a HALO insertion, 2020 [© Russian Federation MoD: Alexey Ereshko] Even the weapons are white.

And to return to Indigenous ways of winter, as a kind of corrective to all this militarism, John Tyman’s old-style website on the Inuit, specifically a section on clothing:

For survival in winter, caribou skin (with hollow hair) is still the best protection. Most clothes are still handmade from skins of animals killed for food, though modifications have been made of late. The fringe at the bottom keeps the wind out. And there is much more on Inuit winter clothing here: https://www.johntyman.com/arctic/inuit201.html

Such fur and hide clothing is not about war, or the squandering of resources, or lives. It doesn’t cope with invasions or weapons; survival is a condition of climate and millennia of learning an environment. For hunting, invisibility is about stillness, quiet and stealth.