Camouflage was it always effective or just looked good

They should be, and usually are, linked. It's just that the OP just mentioned Camo.

 

Never heard that before didn't know the soviets were into trying to deceive the Germans of their impeding attacks. I know the US did it's rather well documented the ghost army I'm sure the guy in command must have thought what a job running from place to place setting up tents blow up tanks and vehicles even blow up fake artillery. In England they would block off the entire area so no one would see what they were doing but in Europe I'm sure the locals must have caught glimpses of what was up but what kept pretty much quiet about it I guess since the Germans never seemed to catch on. They say it did help it made the Germans shift troops to stand ready that could have been used to engage allied troops else where. Wonder what they did with all that stuff after the war recycle the rubber.

 

Try searching using the Russian term маскировка Maskirovka.

Russian military deception - Wikipedia

I have quoted this bit because I first heard it in a briefing given by David Glantz in 1988 and still have a copy of the slides he used. The wikipedia entry summarises the deception plans for the major Red Army offensives.

With respect to the thread topic, camouflage is merely part of the deception plan.

 

One of the main reasons camouflage was sometimes modified(smearing mud example) is due to specific landscape - all of the models were made with somewhat similar color pattern, so obvisouly olive green wouldn't work everywhere. Also obviously eye is going to stop on shart edges of the armor, so smoothing it up even a bit would make a huge difference. Most of the time it worked okay-ish in the field - after all not all fights would happen in broad daylight, so darker tones of green would work much better in that case.

 

Effective up to Desert Storm.

 

During WW2 American aircraft plants were hidden by camo. Check this link to see the results

Operation Camouflage: Hiding an Entire Aircraft Plant Under a Fake Subdivision

How The Military Hid The Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant | Amusing Planet

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wa...es-factories-and-plants-in-wwii.html?safari=1

 

I do wonder why they bothered. I understand why this was done in Britain - they even had fake animals that were regularly moved around

Did the Germans ever try to camoflage their factories?

 

I believe they tried to camouflage one of the lakes around Berlin. Seen a photo, just can't find amything online just now.

 

They did at Hamburg...

Still looking into Berlin.

 

Maybe that's the one I was thinking of.
Cheers.

 

Used properly, it worked. Sometimes dummy things were camouflaged for the enemy to misinterpret as real.

 

Wait? What? Private property destroyed by school official?

 

Effective camouflage - false gun positions (guns removed) at Pont du Hoc that overlooked Normandy Beach. US Rangers scaled the cliffs to find nothing.
During Operation Anvil/Dragoon, First Special Service Force men storm Levant & Port Cros to disable German artillery there. No guns and resources wasted again.

 

The British employed dummy HAA batteries in the UK. Near Edinburgh, there's even one which had stands in the gunpits fo pyrotechnics to add to the illusion at night.