A shelter-half is a simple kind of partial

tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using ...

designed to provide temporary shelter and concealment when combined with one or more sections. Two sheets of canvas or a similar material (the halves) are fastened together with snaps, straps or buttons to form a larger surface. The shelter-half is then erected using poles, ropes, pegs, and whatever tools are on hand, forming an inverted V structure. Small tents like these are often called pup tents in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

Background

Shelter halves are a mainstay of most armies, and are known from the mid 19th century. Often, each soldier carries one shelter-half and half the poles, etc., and they pair off to erect a two-man tent. The size and shape of each half shelter piece may vary from army to army, but are typically rectangular, triangular or

lozenge Lozenge or losange may refer to: *Lozenge (shape), a type of rhombus *Throat lozenge, a tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to suppress throat ailments *Lozenge (heraldry), a diamond-shaped object that can be placed on the field of ...

shaped. When time and space allow, some forms of half-shelters can be combined into a larger, more complex tent. Shelter-halves are usually designed to serve double duty as ponchos against the rain, or for the concealment of

snipers A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision ri ...

. While the fabric is often simple

olive drab Olive is a dark yellowish-green color, like that of unripe or green olives. As a color word in the English language, it appears in late Middle English. Shaded toward gray, it becomes olive drab. Variations Olivine Olivine is the typical ...

, several nations use camouflaged fabric. The first printed camouflage for soldiers were the Italian '' Telo mimetico'' introduced in 1929 for their half-shelters. The first camouflage uniforms were the Second World War German paratrooper smock, based on their M1931 Splittermuster shelter-halves. Russian Army has used ''Plasch-palatkas'' (literally "cape-tents", designed to be used as both a part of a larger tent cover, or an individual weatherproof cape) since 1894, and the modern version, virtually unchanged since, was introduced in 1936,Col. S.Burdin, "The Rear and Supplies of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

" #9, 1942, in Russian with the camo version being available since 1942. To add some confusion, the ordinary waterproofed cape with a similar name (plasch-nakidka, "cape-overcoat") was issued at the same time, but these weren't intended to combine with each other.

Gallery

File:Camp Crane Pup Tents.jpg, Camp Crane pup tents File:Dutch army tent 1955.jpg, Dutch Army pup tent from 1955 File:PolnischesMilitaerzelt Bild10 ZweiZeltbahnenOberseite-I 17Aug2013 (9543480062).jpg, Two Polish Army shelter halves fastened together. File:PolnischesMilitaerzelt Bild07 ZeltAufgebautEingang-I 17Aug2013 (9543481422).jpg, Polish Army tent erected. File:Pfadfinderstamm Ägypten - Wanderung bei St. Bartholomä, Eiskapelle, 1993.png, German

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are t ...

with M1931 Splittermuster shelter-halves in 1993 File:Плащ-палатка, МО РФ, лежит на земле.JPG, Russian ''plasch-palatka'' spread over ground

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelter-Half Military personal equipment Camping equipment

Background

Gallery

See also

References