
Beauty and the Battleship: Marine Camouflage in World War I - Thevet
http://www.historytoday.com/margaret-fm-walker/beauty-and-battleship
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dsl
This type of camo is still used in the modern day by car manufacturers. The
wild patterns help disrupt camera auto-focus, and makes it more difficult to
work out the shapes and dimensions from body panels when you do get a photo.

[http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2012/04/spy-photo-
camera-...](http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2012/04/spy-photo-camera-camo-
explained-whats-with-the-swirlies.html)

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febeling
Last time this came up I remember reading somewhere that dazzle camo isn't so
much meant to conceal the vessel, as to make it harder to tell the course it
is running - through a submarine's periscope. That was said to be critical for
torpedo attack. I felt that makes the whole idea much more plausible.

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taspeotis
I quite enjoy these WW2 shenanigans [1]

> To escape detection by Japanese aircraft (which the minesweeper did not have
> the armament to defend effectively against), the ship was heavily
> camouflaged with jungle foliage, giving the impression of a small island.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Abraham_Crijnssen_(193...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Abraham_Crijnssen_\(1936\))

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lb1lf
@febeling - quite true, and most effective at that! I believe schemes like
these were deployed to some extent also in WWII, however the advent of sonar
and, later, radar probably made it less effective.

It would still make life harder for the hunter, though - getting a good
bearing/range/speed observation would definitely take longer, leaving the
submarine vulnerable to detection for the duration.

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everyone
Is there somewhere where I can see more pictures of Dazzled ships?

~~~
lb1lf
This would probably be a good start:

    
    
         http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=dazzled+ships

