What´s the grau and gelb story?

[umlaut]

Hi

I ´ve been wondering about this grau and gelb thing for quite a while now - without being able to find any answers by searching this forum. My questions are these:

In CMBB the base colors of the german AFVs change from grey to yellow in march 43. Is that a historical fact - or just a CMBB thing? Did the germans simply decide that grey was SO last year and withdrew all vehicles in march 43 to repaint them for a new spring collection?

And why? Did they consider yellowish colors to be better camoflage? Or was it simply because they´d got stuck with a huge surplus of yellow paint when the north african-campaign ended?

Cheers

[luderbamsen]

There are plenty of grogs here that can give you the long story, but the short one goes like this: Yes, it's a historical fact. AFAIK, the yellow colour is actually different from the tan colour used in North Africa. Along with the yellow base coat, units were issued red-brown and green paste (to be mixed with water or gasoline) and were then to paint camouflage patterns as they saw fit.

[dieseltaylor]

http://germandressdaggers.com/Panzer%20Section%20%20Markings%20and%20camaflouge.htm

[Earl Grey]

Well, luderbamsen effectively has said all that is necessary. I'll try to be as short and precise as possible with a few additional facts:

- According to HM Nr.181 and 322 (dated February 1943) all vehicles were to be painted in Dunkelgelb (RAL7028) at the factory

- Frontline units were to be supplied with camouflage paste in Olivgrün (RAL6003) and Schokoladenbraun (RAL8017) and to paint their vehicles in a disruptive pattern according to regional/seasonal requirements

- Schwarzgrau (often referred to as "Panzer Grey", RAL 7021) vehicles were not to be completely repainted, but instead had a variety of two-color and three-color patterns applied to them

Which leads to the conclusion that there surely was a transition period in which Dunkelgelb and Schwarzgrau vehicles were used alongside each other in the same units to varying degrees. It is, of course, difficult (and not really necessary) coding-wise to implement such a transition period in the game - although it would have been a nice option for modders.

Reasons for the change probably were (which I can only confirm from secondary soruces, but which sound plausible to me) that

1) Grey was used on the vehicles because they were supposed to be parked in the shadows and the color would help hide them from the air

2) Dust and mud would accumulate on grey vehicles according to regional/seasonal conditions and help the vehicle blend in with the surroundings

3) Introduction of Dunkelgelb because of the lack of suitable buildings and woods to park the vehicles and the predominant color of the Russian steppe in summer which is a dull tan

If I got anything wrong, I ask someone more knowledgeable than me to correct my above statement as necessary. Either way, there still are 2 patterns which also might need to be discussed at this point: yellow on grey and green on grey, both reported already in 1942.

[JasonC]

Steppe isn't forest, thus the change. Main reason.

[umlaut]

Thanks a lot for clearing that up, guys. I had already suspected that the yellow colors were indeed for camouflage purposes, but I´d never imagined that the grey served the same purpose. Thanks.