Hello!

I am sorry about this late answer but it took me some time to subscribe to the forum even with Google Translate! So if you do not mind I will stick to english for my posts.

I suppose you have access to the Oleg's directory where I am sending all the airfield and hangar data...considering the photo you show is in "Hangar 1"...but it is a rather well known photo, so if you do not have te access please ask him!

In this same directory there is another document with color photos, where one can see a hangar of French origin (Calais Marck) in a July 1940 photo (page 5).
It is also visible here:

[URL="[url=http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=82&u=12202081][/url]"]

These two photos show that the French Calais hangar was already painted in camouflage (grey/green). It is a pity that hanagr photos taken in 1940 are so damned rare, not to say inexistent!

I believe however that the Germans considered camouflage as vital and immediately camouflaged everything in sight immediately upon their arrival somewhere.

If we consider the hangars themselves, there were three "main" types:

- the workshop/large hangars already present (Calais, Caen, Rouen, Amiens, St Inglevert for some examples) or built by the Germans during BoB either out of prefab parts coming from Germany (St-Omer Longuenesse, St Omer Clairmarais, Marquise W and E, Monchy Breton...) or built with local material (St Omer Arques).

The larger ones with a fully metallic structure or masonry/metal structure were painted either with two-color camouflage like in Calais, single color dark green like in Caen (general case of the "demi-tonneaux" large French hangars), farm house rendition (like in your Merville photo, but with very spectacular examples in Brussels/Melbroek or several Dutch hangars).
Some even had a full canvas and wood structure made over them to change them from their recognizable blister shape in rectangulars "manor" or big farm houses, with painted doors, windows and even a second set of doors: unique example in Monchy-Breton...!

- The smaller ones, especially the large blister type found in Marquise, Zutkerque, Audembert, Caffiers, Abbeville, Rely and many others were used as workshop hangars on fighter airfields, and individual or dual hangars on larger base (Abbeville, Laon, Poix...).
Those were often covered with cardboard or wooden planking and were tar covered for waterproofing...in other terms, they were almost black!

The locallly constructed hangars made extensive use of corrugated sheet metal: in this case they were painted in green or decorated in "trompe-l'oeil"

- The individual hangars, found virtually everywhere: thes ones were also built during BoB, but only after the larger hangars, especially the workshop ones.
These small hangars had many variations:

- brick masonry and flat roof (Peuplingues, Coquelles, Monchy Breton, St Omer Brias...), with internal wooden roof structure: these ones were presumably not painted, or only the roof in tar/dark green/imitation of tiles (there is still some tar left in one of Monchy Breton hangars...)


- concrete masonry with wooden superstructure, double panned wooden or cardboard roof: usually tar covered; wooden flanks also tar or dark paint (green or Burgundy red, red being very widespread as being the usual colors used for barns around there; this also depended if the hangar was close to trees or in full view).
See the photo below: it was a small workshop hangar in Campagne les Guines: it was repainted/re-covered after war, in the same colors...

- entirely wooden construction: painted in the same colors as above, with also tar-covered roofs.

http://i80.servimg.com/u/f80/12/20/20/81/campag10.jpg

Not to mention the many non-hangar revetments with poles supporting tarpaulins or nets, tree branchs, hay bales etc...

Amically,

JVM