Via my beloved core 77
I find this reference to one of my favourite bits of crazy military
trivia - better even than the pigeon-guided bombs and the circular
battleship. I wanted to use this for something, years ago, but frankly
I
can't remember what and it probably wasn't that important anyway... but
it's one of those fascinating ideas which sticks. Ladies and gentlemen
-
Dazzle camouflage.
"The primary goal of dazzle painting was to confuse the U-boat commander
who was trying to observe the course and speed of his target. As you
can see in the photo of the French Cruiser "Gloire" on the left,
contrasting diagonal stripes can make it hard to see just which
direction the ship's bow is pointing."
It's a shame that there are no colour photographs from this era, as
most of the patterns were done in crazy colours, too. This colourised
photo gives some idea, though. Imagine sailing in a convoy all kitted out like this!
6 comments:
Maybe we should have armies of art students let loose upon naval docks?
You could put some of that camouflage on your car and sneak out of work early. Nobody would suspect a thing if you blend in to nature. :)
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I have a friend who is an ocean liner nut, and his museum put on a show about ocean liners decked out in dazzle camouflage when they were appropriated as troop carriers during the war - I have a boo kfrom the show somewhere. Some very famous artists were roped in to create the designs and paint the ships.
Ah: here's a link, complete with a picture of said friend:
DPC (Disruptive Pattern Camouflage) works on the same principle. We are best at recognising certain shapes. Taking away their very "shapeness" makes them difficult for our ocular processing functions to assimilate.
Dazzle camo was also used on British tanks in the North Africa campaign of WWII
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