Poland

Poland has one of the most varied and interesting histories of using military camouflage of any nation in Europe.

During the Second World War, the Polish 1st Independent Airborne Brigade supported the British 1st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden. Under the command of Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski, the Brigade were outfitted mostly with British issue uniforms and field equipment, including the hand-painted "brushstroke" camouflage pattern Denison paratrooper smocks. Despite heavy losses during this campaign, the Polish airborne troos fought valiantly and delayed a significant number of German troops in Holland, thus preventing complete annihilation of the 1st Airborne Division.

Despite a deep connection to their British wartime allies, Poland fell under Soviet influence after the war and did not continue to use the "brushstroke" camouflage design. Yet neither were the Polish armed forces particularly influenced by Soviet models. Instead, the majority of designs seem either to have a nominal connection to German WW2 patterns, or to be completely innovative in origin. From the 1950s into the present era, Poland has always supported the use of camouflage for military personnel, not only airborne and special operations troops but for the common infantry soldier as well. They were the first Warsaw Pact nation to utilize "rain" pattern camouflage (a design that would later appear in at least half the nations within this alliance), but were also quite pioneering in their use of distinctive designs such reptile skin and leopard hide patterns.

Polish Camouflage Patterns

• The first camouflage design issued to Polish troops dates to the early 1950s and was possibly of Soviet origin. Consisting of finely-detailed leaf shapes in foliage green on a yellowish-tan or khaki background, the pattern is often nicknamed "parsley" camouflage and is most commonly associated with Romania, whom it is believed adopted the pattern after Poland discarded it. The lightweight Soviet-style oversuit and hooded poncho were only provided to special purpose units of the Polish Army, and surviving examples without Romanian markings are very few.

• A solid-white "snow" pattern is known to have been issued to Polish mountain units and other units operating in snowy conditions. Consisting of hooded poncho, smock, trousers, and overmittens, the uniforms saw service well into the 1990s. (Photograph not provided)

• Circa 1956, Poland adopted a camouflage design based loosely based on the German Wehrmacht Splittermuster (splinter) design, known as the wz56. Featuring brown & olive green splinter shapes with dark green rain straits on a yellow-tan background, there was some variability between production runs. This design was again fielded as Soviet-style two piece oversuit and only issued to airborne and reconnaissance units into the 1960s.

• Although unquestionably influenced by WW2 German camouflage designs such as Splittermuster (splinter pattern) and Sumpfmuster (marsh pattern), it was Poland that fielded the first design that has come to be known as "rain" pattern. This design is known officially as the wz58 Deszczyk. Distinguished from the WW2 designs by the simplicity of incorporating only densely concentrated lines or "rain straits" over a solid-colored field, the design is actually of limited practicality as a true camouflage design and from a distance probably serves no greater purpose than would a solid-colored uniform. Nevertheless, several other countries in the Warsaw Pact developed their own versions of the rain pattern, (most notably East Germany), and a number of insurgent movements are known to have utilized the patterns over the years. The original Polish design is a heavy pattern of brown rain straits on a greenish-grey or field grey background (two variants are documented), the rain straits being generally thinner than those found in patterns from other Warsaw Pact nations.