Raymond Deghels papers

Raymond Deghels (1896-1964?) was born in Ternat, Belgium, and served in the Belgian Armed Forces during War War I, including time spent as a prisoner of war, for which he later received a veteran’s medal. He received his graduation certificate from the Union Coloniale Belge in 1920. In 1939, he filed a patent for a non-reflective “luminophobe” paint to camouflage military aircraft. This invention proved of interest to the Belgian, British, French, and Swedish governments.

Under the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, he was conscripted – perhaps forcibly – into the Luftwaffe. When the occupation ended in 1944, he was arrested by the Belgian government and imprisoned for nearly five months for “economic collaboration” with the enemy. Deghels fought this charge until the case was finally dismissed in 1955. The experience led him to write a two-part autobiographical novel, "Luminophobe: ou l’avion invisible," relating his travails. "Réveil dans le ténèbres" and "Secrets de L’invisible" are the first and second volumes, apparently never published despite a prospectus soliciting subscriptions. His legal difficulties did not stop him from filing a patent for a “Chromatophore” paint in 1955, designed to ensure “the complete and permanent concealment of mobile military vehicles and objectives.”

Deghels was married to Marcelle Henriette Rougier in 1922. His death date could not be verified but is possibly 1964.