CHAPTER 1: Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage

GENERAL

If the enemy can see you, he can hit you with his fire. So you must be concealed from enemy observation and have cover from enemy fire.

When the terrain does not provide natural cover and concealment, you must prepare your cover and use natural and man-made materials to camouflage yourself, your equipment, and your position. This chapter provides guidance on the preparation and use of cover, concealment, and camouflage.

COVER

Cover gives protection from bullets, fragments of exploding rounds, flame, nuclear effects, and biological and chemical agents. Cover can also conceal you from enemy observation. Cover can be natural or man-made.

Natural cover includes such things as logs, trees, stumps, ravines, and hollows. Manmade cover includes such things as fighting positions, trenches, walls, rubble, and craters. Even the smallest depression or fold in the ground can give some cover. Look for and use every bit of cover the terrain offers.

In combat, you need protection from enemy direct and indirect fire.

To get this protection in the defense, build a fighting position (man-made cover) to add to the natural cover afforded by the terrain.

To get protection from enemy fire in the offense or when moving, use routes that put cover between you and the places where the enemy is known or thought to be. Use ravines, gullies, hills, wooded areas, walls, and other cover to keep the enemy from seeing and firing at you. Avoid open areas, and do not skyline yourself on hilltops and ridges. 

PREFACE
CHAPTER 1 - Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage
CHAPTER 2 - Fighting Positions
CHAPTER 3 - Movement
CHAPTER 4 - Observation
CHAPTER 5 - Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare
CHAPTER 6 - Combat Intelligence and Counterintelligence
CHAPTER 7 - Communications
CHAPTER 8 - First Aid and Personal Hygiene
APPENDIX A - Mines
APPENDIX B - Demolitions
APPENDIX C - Obstacles
APPENDIX D - Urban Areas
APPENDIX E - Tracking
APPENDIX F - Survival, Evasion, and Escape
APPENDIX G - Weapons and Fire Control
APPENDIX H - Field Expedient Antiarmor Devices
APPENDIX I - Range Cards
GLOSSARY
REFERENCES
AUTHORIZATION LETTER