Also known as razzle dazzle, designed not to conceal ships from submarines, but to make the estimation of their speed, heading and range difficult, resulting, in theory, in a poor estimation of their position, and therefore, poor accuracy of any torpedo launched at them.
Implemented during World War 1 after its conception by the British artist Norman Wilkinson, but during its use it was never successfully proved as effective, or ineffective for that regard, and so by the start of World War 2 it had been effectively passed out for more conventional paint schemes.
Also known as razzle dazzle, designed not to conceal ships from submarines, but to make the estimation of their speed, heading and range difficult, resulting, in theory, in a poor estimation of their position, and therefore, poor accuracy of any torpedo launched at them.
Implemented during World War 1 after its conception by the British artist Norman Wilkinson, but during its use it was never successfully proved as effective, or ineffective for that regard, and so by the start of World War 2 it had been effectively passed out for more conventional paint schemes.
In 1918, the Admiralty analysed shipping losses, but was unable to draw clear conclusions. Dazzle ships were attacked in 1.47% of sailings, compared to 1.12% for uncamouflaged ships, suggesting increased visibility, but as Wilkinson (the artist responsible for the idea of dazzle camouflage) had argued, dazzle was not attempting to make ships hard to see. Suggestively, of the ships that were struck by torpedoes, 43% of the dazzle ships sank, compared to 54% of the uncamouflaged; and similarly, 41% of the dazzle ships were struck amidships, compared to 52% of the uncamouflaged. These comparisons could be taken to imply that submarine commanders did have more difficulty in deciding where a ship was heading and where to aim. However, the ships painted in dazzle were larger than the uncamouflaged ships, 38% of them being over 5000 tons compared to only 13% of uncamouflaged ships, making comparisons unreliable.
With hindsight, too many factors (choice of colour scheme; size and speed of ships; tactics used) had been varied for it to be possible to determine which factors were significant or which schemes worked best. Thayer (an American artist and camouflage expert) did carry out an experiment on dazzle camouflage, but it failed to show any reliable advantage over plain paintwork.
There’s an article by the Smithsonian that goes into some detail and quotes a study from 1919 saying that it probably did work. And there’s a Plos One article from 2011 that covers the concept as well, but this time applied to land vehicles which again seems to lend weight to the idea that it works.
