His idea was to cover the hulls of ships with vibrant sripes, swirls, and other irregular shapes, akin to the very best cubist art works of the day. While it sounds like he may have completely misundestood the concept of camouflage, his idea would catch on, and, as it turns out, was a stroke of genius. A painter, graphic designer and newspaper illustrator by trade, this young man came iup with a very new and seemingly counterintuitive idea - make the ships stand out! Enter Royal Navy volutneer reserve lieutenant Norman Wilkinson. Unlike his other inventions, this idea didn't work very well.ĭespite the range of ideas, nothing seemed to work. Thomas Edison actually proposed just that for American warships of the day. Various ideas were proposed, ranging from disguising ships as whales, cladding them in highly-reflective mirrors, or even, amazingly, attempting to camouflage ships as islands. The logic behind the use of dazzle camouflage. Not only that, but merchant ships and warships are very large, and they also tended to belch out quite a lot of smoke from their stacks when underway. At sea, however, things were very different. One option was to attempt to camouflage ships - a tactic that proved to be very effective on land. This was widely seen as a tragedy and an outrage, as she was clearly marked, in accordance with the Hague Convention.īetween March and December of 1917, British ships of all kinds were sunk, at a rate of 23 a week. A hospital ship, she was torpedoed by the German U-boat SM UB-40 on the 17th of April 1917, killing 34 (including 15 wounded Germans). The first casualty was the HMHS Lanfranc, in the English Channel.
The problem was compounded when, in January of 1917, The German Kaiser declared all-out unrestricted submarine warfare on any ship that came within the sights of German U-boats.
Over the course of the war, U-boats sank, or put out of action somewhere in the region 5,700 vessels, and killed more than 12,700 non-combatants. HMS West Mahomet in dazzle camouflage, circa 1918.
These vessels would take their toll on the Royal Navy, and the British merchant fleet, over the course of war. Suddenly the warships of the Royal Navy would have to contend with a new, and deadly enemy - German U-boats. But, that all changed with the outbreak of World War 1. Just prior to the First World War, the Royal Navy had undisputed mastery of many of the world's oceans. When was "dazzle camouflage" introduced, and why?
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