In 1917 Wilkinson once again revisited the notion of disruptive colouring, and a much more organised and coherent effort was implemented across the navy to make use of, what is now known as, Dazzle Camouflage. This idea was well received by Churchill and passed to naval officers, however it was up to individual officer whether or not this principle was acted upon. The same principle should be made use of in painting ships”.
A giraffe, or zebra, or jaguar looks extraordinarily conspicuous in a museum, but in nature when not moving, is wonderfully difficult to pick up. The same applies to the surface generally, a continuous uniform shade renders conspicuous, this can be countered by breaking up the surface by violently contrasting pigments. “It is essential to break up the regularity of the outline and this can easily be affected by strongly contesting shades. In this letter Kerr describes the following method of camouflage:
Razzle dazzle camouflage ships how to#
On the 24th September 1914 after the destruction of several British ships in only one day, Kerr wrote to Winston Churchill outlining some ideas on how to camouflage large ships, including a form of paint application that was similar to the dazzle camouflage realised by Wilkinson. Popular belief has Norman Wilkinson – an artist in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve – creating Dazzle Camouflage in 1917, however there is a potential point of contest, with others recognising John Graham Kerr as pushing this idea forward three years earlier. To counter the extreme exposure and destruction that the British Navy was being subjected to, Dazzle Camouflage was created. While painting ships grey did reduce visibility, ships would still leave a wake as they travelled and a revealing trail of smoke that resulted in British ships being sunk by the German Navy in devastating numbers. Due to constantly changing weather it was impossible to produce a camouflage that would consistently hide navies from the enemy sights. At the outbreak of World War I the British Navy was having trouble hiding its ships from German U-boats because there was no sure way to conceal ships on the open seas. Used extensively in World War I, Dazzle camouflage was a unique creation that saw the marrying of art with military strategy.
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