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.
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