1916–2016: The Berger Smoke Mixture turns 100

In an attempt to cross the Daugava River close to Riga on early morning July 19 1701, King Charles XII of Sweden had his men set fire to a few dinghies filled with manure and straw. The evolving smoke nicely blended with the natural fog typical for an early morning on a river and allowed half the division to cross the water before being spotted by the Polish-Saxon forces emplaced at the East bank. Though this is surely not the first military use of smoke it is quite an accurately passed on historic account of a combined deception and camouflage operation which allowed a small force to successfully take a superior force by surprise [1] .