Norway

Norwegian Camouflage Patterns

• During the Second World War, hand-made all-white snow uniforms were worn by Norwegian troops until the nation was overrun by Nazi Germany. White oversuits have continued in use into the present era, although of varying types of fabric and styles of uniform. (no photo)

• In the 1950s, Norway experimented with simple camouflage patterns printed on a combination poncho & shelter half. One version incorporates blue-grey, dark green, reddish-brown and dark pink long "wave" shapes bordered with dark brown. These were in service into the 1970s and possibly later.

• The second Norwegian shelter pattern features blue-grey, dark green, reddish-brown and olive green irregular shapes with smaller, dark brown squiggles.

• A camouflage pattern for the Norwegian Air Force was introduced in the early 1980s and ceased in 1996. The pattern is the same as that of the Danish Army scarves, using a different colorway, and was worn by Air Force ground defence & ground crew personnel. Some versions of the pattern appear more green, while others have a stronger brownish tint.

• The standard Norwegian Army pattern is known as the M/75, probably for its year of development. Featuring large dark olive and russet shapes on a khaki-green background, the initial version was only printed on a combat field jacket that was worn with plain olive green trousers. This was the standard uniform of the Norwegian Army until the early 1990s.

• Circa 1998 a new style uniform was fielded for the Norwegian Army - the M/98 pattern. This uniform used essentially the same camouflage pattern as the M/75, although the colors are different. A ripstop version of the standard combat uniform was introduced in 2004, printed using the same colorway. As with earlier Norwegian patterns, subtle color differences are found among different production runs.

• Norway introduced a desert version of their standard camouflage pattern in 2003. It features reddish brown & beige shapes on a sandy background. The M/03 uniform was initially produced using a twill blend fabric, but this changed in 2004 to a ripstop fabric.

• Norwegian special operations forces have recently adopted a version of the commercial Multicam pattern for issue to their personnel.