Editing Smoke screen (section)

==Tactics==
===History===
[[File:Troops coming ashore from a landing craft under a smoke screen during Combined Operations training at Inveraray, Scotland, 9 October 1941. H14597.jpg|thumb|British and Scottish soldiers disembarking from a [[landing craft]] under a smoke screen, 1941]]

The first documented use of a smoke screen was circa 2000 B.C. in the wars of ancient India, where incendiary devices and toxic fumes caused people to fall asleep.<ref>A History of Chemical warfare by Kim Coleman (2005) (978-1-4039-3459-8)</ref>

It was later recorded by a Greek historian, [[Thucydides]], who described that the smoke created by the burning of sulphur, wood and pitch was carried by the wind into Plataea (428 B.C.) and later at Delium (423 B.C.) and that at Delium, defenders were driven from the city walls.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=ffoulkes |first=Charles |date=1940 |title=Fire, Smoke and Gas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44219889 |journal=Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research |volume=19 |issue=75 |pages=144–148 |jstor=44219889 |issn=0037-9700}}</ref>

In 1622, a smoke screen was used at the [[Battle of Macau]] by the Dutch. A barrel of damp gunpowder was fired into the wind so that the Dutch could land under the cover of smoke.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ohio.edu/news/2020/09/ohio-researchers-working-obscurants-modern-era#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20recorded,landing%20under%20cover%20of%20smoke. | title=OHIO researchers working on obscurants for the modern era | date=28 September 2020 }}</ref>

Later, between 1790 and 1810, [[Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald]] (1775–1860), a Scottish Naval commander and officer in the [[Royal Navy]] who fought during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, devised a smoke screen created through the burning of sulphur which would be used in warfare after learning about the same methods used at Delium and Plataea.<ref>Lord Cochrane, Naval Commander, Radical, Inventor (1775-1860), A Study of His Earlier Career, 1775-1818 by John Sugden, July 1981. - https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3466/1/290354.pdf</ref><ref>The Kalgoorlie Miner, Thu 11 Sep 1930 (Page 6)</ref>

[[Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald]]'s grandson, [[Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald]], described in his autobiography how he spoke to [[Winston Churchill]] (who once galloped for him when he had a brigade at manœuvres in England) of the importance of using smoke-screens on the battleground, it would in turn be used in both [[WWI]] & [[WW2]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khHGxwEACAAJ |title=My Army Life |date=1926 |publisher=Edward Arnold & Company |language=en}}</ref>

===Land warfare===
[[File:Awm 128387 nadzab.jpg|thumb|right|A smoke screen obstructing the view of the parachute [[landing at Nadzab]], 1943]]
Smoke screens are usually used by infantry to conceal their movement in areas of enemy fire. They can also be used by [[armoured fighting vehicle]]s, such as [[tank]]s, to conceal a withdrawal. They have regularly been used since [[Early thermal weapons|earliest times]] to disorient or drive off attackers.

During the First World War the Germans used a lot of smoke screens (''Nebel'') to hide [[Batterie Pommern]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/feldpost14/albums/72157656806020692/with/15690769743|website=www.flickr.com |title=Batterij Pommern (Lange Max) - Koekelare - Moere |date=18 January 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/feldpost14/26825063811/in/album-72157656806020692/|website=www.flickr.com |title=Rookpotten in de omgeving van batterij 'Pommern' (Lange Max) - Koekelare - Moere |date=8 May 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/feldpost14/24638543822/in/album-72157656806020692/|website=www.flickr.com |title=Rookpotten in de omgeving van batterij 'Pommern' (Lange Max) - Koekelare - Moere |date=31 January 2016 }}</ref>

A toxic variant of the smokescreen was used and devised by [[Frank Arthur Brock]] who used it during the [[Zeebrugge Raid]] on 23 April 1918, the British Royal Navy's attempt to neutralize the key Belgian port of Bruges-[[Zeebrugge]].

For the crossing of the [[Dnieper river]] in October 1943, the [[Red Army]] laid a smoke screen {{convert|30|km|mi}} long. At the [[Operation Shingle|Anzio beachhead]] in 1944, US [[Chemical Corps]] troops maintained a {{convert|25|km|mi|abbr=on}} "light haze" smokescreen around the harbour throughout daylight hours, for two months. The density of this screen was adjusted to be sufficient to prevent observation by German forward observers in the surrounding hills, yet not inhibit port operations.

In the Vietnam War, "Smoke Ships" were introduced as part of a new Air Mobile Concept to protect crew and man on the ground from small arms fire. In 1964 and 1965, the "Smoke Ship" was first employed by the [[145th Combat Aviation Battalion]] using the [[UH-1B]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.118ahc.org/118thAHC.htm|title=118thAHC|website=www.118ahc.org}}</ref>

===Naval warfare===
[[File:USS Lexington (CV-2) steams through smoke screen 1929.jpg|thumb|{{USS|Lexington|CV-2}} obscured by a smoke screen, 1929]]
There are a number of early examples of using [[early thermal weapons|incendiary weapons]] at sea, such as [[Greek fire]], [[stink bomb|stinkpot]]s, [[fire ship]]s, and incendiaries on the decks of [[turtle ship]]s, which also had the effect of creating smoke. The naval smoke screen is often said to have been proposed by Sir [[Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald|Thomas Cochrane]] in 1812, although Cochrane's proposal was as much an asphyxiant as an obscurant. It is not until the early twentieth century that there is clear evidence of deliberate use of large scale naval smokescreens as a major tactic.

During the [[American Civil War]], the first smoke screen was used by the ''[[CSS Robert E. Lee|R.E. Lee]]'', [[Blockade runner|running the blockade]] and escaping the {{USS|Iroquois|1859|6}}.

The use of smoke screens was common in the naval battles of [[World War I]] and [[World War II]].