In other words, Wilkinson’s idea was to “dazzle” the gunner so that he would either be unable to take the shot with any confidence or spoil it if he did. The conspicuous markings obscure the ship’s heading. Norman Wilkinson explained in 1919 that he had intended dazzle primarily to mislead the enemy about a ship’s course and so cause them to take up a poor firing position.Ĭlaimed effectiveness: Artist’s conception of a U-boat commander’s periscope view of a merchant ship in dazzle camouflage (left) and the same ship uncamouflaged (right), Encyclopædia Britannica, 1922.
Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target’s range, speed, and heading. The design consists of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other. Thus “dazzle” camouflage - bold stripes, curves, and zig-zags in colors like black, white, blue, fuchsia, and green - was born. Norman Wilkinson recalls: “I suddenly got the idea that since it was impossible to paint a ship so that she could not be seen by a submarine, the extreme opposite was the answer - in other words to paint her, not for low visibility, but in such a way as to break up her form and thus confuse a submarine officer as to the course on which she was heading.” The idea is credited to the British artist Norman Wilkinson who came with this idea in 1917, a time when German U-Boat attacks on British ships seemed unstoppable. A tank can camouflage itself among trees and the surrounding terrain, a submarine can lurk beneath the waves and it’s by default hidden, but what about camouflaging a ship?ĭazzle camouflage (also known as Razzle Dazzle or Dazzle painting) was a military camouflage paint scheme used on ships, extensively during World War I and to a lesser extent in World War II. Throughout world history, camouflage has been used to prevent an enemy from noticing a hidden object. The carrier is painted in ‘dazzle’ camouflage. Airmen and seamen cheering King George V from the aircraft carrier ‘Argus’ on his visit to the Fleet at Rosyth, on the Firth of Forth.
0 kommentar(er)
