Why did the French wear brightly colored uniforms in WWI...?

Question

when all the other armies were already using darker duller colors for camoflage?
And when did they finally switch to a more camoflaged color?
(apart from the new blue uniform they started wearing into in the second year of the war)

Answer 1

It was the traditional military outfit, that's why.



As to camouflage, um, that's nice and all, but there generally wasn't too much of a need for it during trench warfare. It doesn't matter all too much what you're wearing (except that it's durable) when you're absolutely covered in mud and grime and the only time someone has a clear shot at you is when you're running straight through the clear no-man's land, where they'd still notice a person in camouflage and mow them down in a hail of bullets just like the rest.



You have to understand that the war was less about mobility than many of the following ones, and so camouflage and staying hidden weren't so much the concern. It was known where the enemy was; the problem was that neither side could get the other to budge without sending over vast amounts of soldiers to be fed into the meatgrinder that was the other side's defenses, based on the hope that the machine guns and the like would be unable to kill enough people to stop the trench from being breached.



After that obscene cost in human life, of course, they'd only have gained a couple yards, and were just as likely to be fought back to the previous trench.



Anyway, that aside, they updated their uniforms mostly because the older fashion ones weren't really suited to the environment they were put in (a lot of time being wasted on clean-up, for example) and the newer style was seen as more practical to wear.

Answer 2

First of, let me correct three things:

1. The French were NOT the only one to wear bright colors at the beginning of WWI - look up the Austro-Hungarian, Belgian etc. uniforms of the beginning of WWI.

2. Camouflage uniforms date back to WWII not WWI (the German Flecktarn is considered the first modern camouflage pattern).

3. The French armies only used red pants for less than a year (from September 1914 to mid-1915).



As for the why... the main reason is that this uniform 'philosophy' comes from the Napoleonic wars era - at that time, there was no concern for concealment. Another reason is that this specific red color was obtained from a plant (Rubia tinctorum) which culture was of some economical importance in the south of France at that time.

Answer 3

French Ww1 Uniforms

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Why did the French wear brightly colored uniforms in WWI...?

when all the other armies were already using darker duller colors for camoflage?

And when did they finally switch to a more camoflaged color?

(apart from the new blue uniform they started wearing into in the second year of the war)

Answer 5

Ww1 French Uniform

Answer 6

First of all, camo uniforms actually DO date to WWI or before: not the advanced camo of today of the US army with it s ACU (Army Combat Uniform), but it was designed to be dull and hard to make out against a landscape. The Germans had begun wearing field grey, and the British a dull brownish green. When forward-thinking French officers like Ferdinand Foch pointed out how the French should follow the examples of the Germans and British, he was shouted down because the tradition of the French Army, with its famous blue shirts and red pants was deemed to be more important.



And the idea of camo not being required in trench warfare is just patently untrue. First of all, World War I did not BEGIN as a trench war, it only became one after the German advance on Paris was stopped, and in those early battles (like the Battle of the Frontiers) French soldiers paid dearly for their bright uniforms.

Answer 7

That is a great link. Americans used drab uniforms during the civil war. Blues, grey and brown tended to blend with the great volume of black powder smoke. The North had a sniper unit that wore green. Some British unit used a green and black uniform during the Napoleonic wars.

Answer 8

French Uniforms Ww1

Answer 9

Pride.

Answer 10

Because the French are terrible in wars