Camouflage of ships of the First World War. The history of Dazzle camouflage - from cubist paintings to military cruisers and prints on clothing

Type 3 "Rank"

Gifted in the amount of 100 pieces to players who have reached the first rank (starting from the Second Season of the corresponding battles).

Type 3 "Halloween"

It was presented in the amount of 10 pieces to a number of players recognized as the best at the end of October 2015, in honor of the Founding Day of the Russian Navy, and was also available to players of the North American servers for 30 doubloons during the same period (promotion in honor of Halloween).

Type 3 "New Year's"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience for the battle by 100%.

It was available for 30 doubloons from December 10, 2015 to January 21, 2016 (New Year promotion).

Type 3 "Supertester"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience for the battle by 100% and credits by 20%.

Available to World of Warships supertest participants starting at the end of December 2015.

"Grand Naval Battle May 2016"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases credits by 20%.

Could be received as a reward during participation in the European event Grand Naval Battles, which was held in May 2016.

"Gamescom Black"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience for the battle by 50% and credits by 50%.

It was available for 50 doubloons from August 18, 2016 (promotion in honor of Gamescom-2016 - the annual international exhibition of computer games).

Can be issued in quantities of 5 in the “Try Your Luck” container.

Could be issued as a gift for the “Vacancy “Santa Claus”” campaign.

Anniversary of the World of Warships project

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Was available for 50 doubloons from September 20, 2016 (Birthday promotion Games World of Warships this year).

Available for purchase by collectors.

Available for purchase with tokens in the Arsenal in the "Birthday" section during the World of Warships Birthday Celebration in 2018.

"Spirit of the Ocean"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and credits per battle by 20%.

Was issued in the amount of 5 pieces in the “Try Your Luck” container during the release of update 0.5.13. Can also be obtained by issuing the following containers of the above type.

Could be given as a gift for the “Vacancy “Santa Claus”” campaign.

Can be issued for completing various combat missions.

Available for purchase by collectors.

"Rebel Flame"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases the commander's experience for the battle by 250%.

Could be issued in quantities of 5 pieces in the “Try Your Luck” container.

Could be given as a gift for the “Vacancy “Santa Claus”” campaign.

Can be issued for completing various combat missions.

Available for purchase by collectors.

"Halloween 2016"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience for the battle by 100%.

Issued in quantities of 1 piece. for completing each of the 3 additional objectives in Halloween mode.

Also available for 30 doubloons during the Halloween promotion.

Could be given as a gift for the “Vacancy “Santa Claus”” campaign.

Available for purchase by collectors.

It is a Japanese Slam Dunk with a changed icon, name and an increased number of bonuses.

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases credits for the battle by 20% and the experience of the ship commander by 333%.

How to Japanese Slam Dunk:

• Belonged to Team Japan and was available to players on North American servers for 30 doubloons from March 30 to April 15, 2016 during the Camo Faceoff promotion - it could also be purchased in the Premium Store from April 15 to April 22.

Like FTW:

"New Year 2017"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases free experience for the battle by 200%.

It could also be given as a gift to the “Vacancy “Santa Claus”” campaign.

Available for purchase by collectors.

"Valentine's Day 2017"

"Lá Fhéile Pádraig 2017"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases the ship's experience by 100% and the ship's commander's experience by 100%.

Dedicated to St. Patrick's Day 2017.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Team Water - Battle of the Elements 2017"

Available to members of the Water team for purchasing prizes in the Shop, and can also be issued if this team wins the round.

"Fire Team - Battle of the Elements 2017"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases free experience by 100%.

Available to members of the Fire team for purchasing prizes in the Shop, and can also be issued if this team wins the round.

Available for purchase in the Arsenal for 5,200.

"Sparks of Victory"

Dedicated to Victory Day 2017.

Available for purchase in the Premium Store.

Awarded for completing the Order Bearer test.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Battle-Scarred"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience for the battle by 100% and increases the experience of the ship commander by 250%.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Hunter"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 50%, increases the experience of the ship commander by 100% and increases credits per battle by 20%.

Issued as a reward in containers for completing tasks in the "Hunt for Bismarck" campaign.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Caribbean Sea"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 75%, increases ship commander experience per battle by 50%, increases credits per battle by 10% and reduces post-battle maintenance by 10% .

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Storm wind"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 75%, increases commander experience per battle by 75% and increases free experience by 75%.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

"Back to School"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases the commander's experience for the battle by 100%.

Awarded for completing the Back to Basics combat mission on North American servers. Also available for purchase in the premium store of the same region.

Available for purchase in the Arsenal for 8,000.

"Sci Fi Space"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases free experience per battle by 100% and commander experience per battle by 100%.

Was available for purchase in the North American Premium Server Store.

Issued for completing various combat missions.

For length of service

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 50%, increases free experience per battle by 50%, increases commander experience per battle by 50%, increases credits per battle by 50% , reduces the cost of ship maintenance after a battle by 50%.

Available for receipt or purchase upon receipt of a personal offer.

Tokyo Game Show 2017

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and increases free experience per battle by 300%.

"Twitch Prime"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience per battle by 125%.

Could be obtained when registering an account with Twitch Prime. Can be obtained from Twitch containers.

"Revolutionary"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 75% and increases credits per battle by 30%.

Could be purchased in-game for 60 before the release of update 0.7.3.

Available for purchase in the Arsenal for 16,000.

"Spring Sky"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 200% and increases free experience per battle by 777%.

"Eastern Lantern"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 200% and increases commander experience per battle by 555%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

Cost in credits - 450,000.

"Mosaic"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience per battle by 400%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

"International Women's Day"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases commander experience per battle by 100% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

"Pi Day"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases the commander's experience per battle by 314% and increases free experience per battle by 314%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

"Humble Bundle"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 75%, increases commander experience per battle by 75% and increases free experience per battle by 75%.

Could be obtained when registering an account with Humble Bundle.

"Community Contributor"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 150%, increases commander experience per battle by 250% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Issued to contributors - active participants in the gaming community.

"Subscriber Camouflage"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 150%, increases commander experience per battle by 50% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Can be received by the contributor's subscribers through a bonus code.

"Azur Lane - Siren"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and increases commander experience per battle by 50%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions. Can be obtained from Azur Lane containers. Can be obtained from packages with premium ships.

"Stars"n"Stripes"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 125%, increases commander experience per battle by 75% and increases free experience by 100%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

Can be purchased in the Arsenal in the “GO NAVY!” tab. during this competition.

"Eagles"

of this competition.

"Sharks"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases commander experience per battle by 75% and increases free experience by 50%.

Can be purchased in the Arsenal in the “GO NAVY!” tab. during this competition.

"Gamescom Blue"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and increases free experience by 300%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

"Mars"

It is an American Alley-Oop with a changed icon, name and an increased number of bonuses.

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 125%, increases commander experience per battle by 100% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Like American Alley-Oop:

• Part of Team USA, it was available to players on the North American servers for 30 doubloons from March 30 to April 15, 2016 during the Camo Faceoff promotion - it could also be purchased in the Premium Store from April 15 to April 22.

"Full moon"

It is a Russian Nothing But Net with a changed icon, name and an increased number of bonuses.

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 125% and increases credits by 25%.

Like Russian Nothing But Net:

• Belonged to the Russian/USSR team and was available to players of North American servers for 30 doubloons from March 30 to April 15, 2016 during the Camo Faceoff promotion - it could also be purchased in the premium store from April 15 to April 22.
• It was available for purchase by collectors.

"Sirocco"

It is a German Layup with a changed icon, name and an increased number of bonuses.

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4% and increases experience per battle by 150%.

How to German Layup:

• Belonged to the German team and was available to players of the North American servers for 30 doubloons from March 30 to April 15, 2016 during the Camo Faceoff promotion - it could also be purchased in the premium store from April 15 to April 22.
• It was available for purchase by collectors.

"Union Jack"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience for the battle by 100%, increases the experience of the ship commander by 75% and increases free experience by 50%..

"Shadow"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 75%, increases the experience of the ship commander by 100% and increases free experience by 150%.

Can be obtained from Black Friday containers. Can be obtained from Black Friday Supply. Can be purchased from the Premium Store.

"Autumn Cornucopia"

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 50%, increases free experience by 5% and increases credits per battle by 10%

Can be purchased from the Premium Store.

"New Year's serpentine"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases the experience of the ship commander by 150% and increases free experience by 100%.

Can be obtained from Santa Claus 2018 Containers. Can be obtained from official World of Warships streams.

"Victory"

Can be obtained from "Soviet Era" containers or from "Victory" Supply in late April - early May 2019. Can be purchased in the Premium Store or obtained for tokens in the Armory in the "Victory" section.

"Post-Apocalypse"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases the ship commander's experience per battle by 150% and increases free experience by 100%.

Can be obtained from “Wild Wave” containers, from “Wild Wave” Supplies, or by completing combat missions in the “Wild Wave” event Directives.

"Cote d'Azur"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases the ship commander's experience per battle by 75% and increases free experience by 50%.

Can be obtained from “French Destroyers” containers, from “French Destroyers” Supplies, from “Legion of Honor” Admiralty sets, or from completing combat missions in the “French Destroyers” event Directives.

"Red Heat"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100% and increases the experience of the ship commander per battle by 100%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

"Linus Tech Tips"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 50%, increases the ship commander's experience per battle by 200% and increases free experience per battle by 50%.

Can be purchased in the Premium Store either separately or in a package with any ship.

"Regia Marina"

Bonuses - reduces the ship's visibility by 3%, increases the dispersion of enemy shells by 4%, increases experience per battle by 100%, increases the ship commander's experience per battle by 50% and increases free experience per battle by 100%.

Can be obtained during the Italian Cruisers event different ways(for completing tasks and directives of the event, from “Italian Cruisers” containers, for Italian tokens in the Armory, from “Motherland and Honor” packages.)

Available to World of Waships volunteers.

It's dizzying, isn't it? This method of painting a ship may seem strange, if not deadly for the ship and crew. But this is only at first glance.

At one time, the good old Dazzle camouflage literally drove German submarine commanders crazy. Try, in the vast ocean, at a good distance, through the imperfect optics of those times, to identify the target, the direction and speed of its movement, draft, and other data necessary for a successful torpedo attack. This is where difficulties arose.

The result of the attack depends directly on the assessment of the situation, but if the commander sometimes could not determine in which direction he was moving, and where his bow and stern were, the effectiveness of such an attack was practically zero.

The inventor of this type of camouflage was the British artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson, who served in the submarine fleet during the First World War. His idea was not to hide the huge ship from view through the optics, but to confuse the enemy who was preparing a torpedo attack.

The main purpose of this camouflage was not so much to completely hide the object from the enemy - boiler-turbine installations were easily unmasked by smoke from the chimneys, but to make it more difficult to hit.

Since the rangefinders were optical, everything was based on the initial data (length, width of the ship, which are more or less known) and angles (distances in thousands). This camouflage was intended to distort this data.

The idea came from the avant-garde branch of Cubism - Vorticism, which was fashionable at that time.

An adept of Vorticism is Wyndham Lewis and his work “Workshop”.

The pioneer in 1917 was the liner HMS Alsatian, on which, after repeated tests on mock-ups, a new type of camouflage was tested, and then it was adopted not only in Britain, but also in the USA, France, and Russia.

Destroyer "Happy". Russian Empire, WWII, Black Sea.

Camouflage was used both on merchant ships and warships.

And not only black and white: color options ranged from green to orange. One of the journalists, having witnessed the movement of the convoy, called it “a flock of Easter eggs going out to sea.”

The color was complemented by a fake head wave under the stem, which created the effect of increasing the speed of the ship, accurate data about which is necessary when calculating the movement of the torpedo. A false head wave was applied under the stern, causing the boat commanders to have an optical illusion of the ship moving away, but in reality it was approaching.

By the way, the colors of zebras work on the same principle, and their group causes the effect of random movement, even when practically motionless. Navy veterans traditionally disdained this coloring, comparing it with the appearance of port ladies, but sailors quickly appreciated its advantages - after all, attacks by German submariners were increasingly becoming ineffective.

With the outbreak of World War II, it also found use, including in the Air Force.

P-51 Mustang fighter.

True, with the beginning of the active use of radar target detection devices, it began to gradually lose relevance, and the ships were painted in the usual foggy gray spherical color. But even today Dazzle is finding its way again. It fits perfectly with the high-tech systems of “stealth ships”.

In addition, camouflage is used on cameras on the roads of Austria that record the speed of cars: a camera painted in this way is completely invisible.

Yes, and the cruiser survived the war, unlike other sisterships.
Coincidence? Who knows?

Blinding (splitting) camouflage Razzle Dazzle) - During the First World War, the zoologist Kerr and the artist Wilkinson were developed in principle new way visual protection of ships from fire from surface ships and, above all, submarines. The main idea of ​​the “dissociating” camouflage was not to reduce the visibility of the ship, but to distort its silhouette in such a way as to make it difficult to visually determine its type, speed and distance to it

What is disguise

Tactical camouflage of ships is the development of directions, methods, techniques and methods for camouflaging naval forces and objects in wars and local conflicts.

Considering the issue of visibility of ships, we can establish that the probability of detecting a ship depends on the nature of its coloring, and therefore, camouflage painting is one of the ways to visually camouflage ships. Camouflage painting of ships is carried out in various ways, which can be divided into two main types: protective painting and camouflage (camouflage). The main tasks of camouflage painting of ships come down to:

1) reducing the visibility of the ship, i.e., in other words, reducing the range at which the ship can be detected;

2) misleading the enemy regarding the class, type, course and speed of the ship; Moreover, if the enemy’s error in determining the listed data is even temporary, the camouflage coloring will still achieve its goal.

Experience in naval battles indicates that the first is the main one, and the second is of subordinate importance. However, under certain environmental conditions, distortion of the appearance and elements of the ship's movement often becomes the main task of camouflage. With good visibility in the daytime, a decrease in visibility can be achieved almost only at large distances from the observer, and with poor visibility in the daytime, in fog, etc. - even at short distances. Observation is possible both from the air and from a ship. Finally, at night or at dusk, visibility reduction can easily be achieved at very short distances.

Reason for creation

One of the reasons for the development of this direction was the breakthrough of German engineers in the field of military industry and engineering, which entailed the creation of a new class of ships. During the First World War, the Allies, represented by England, France and the United States, were horrified by a new German development - the submarine. Hiding from the enemy's gaze under thick water, the submarines destroyed the enemy fleet with great success. One of the options for protecting against them was visual camouflage, which was carried out by painting ships, but the first fruits did not bring success. The camouflage could not adapt to the “character” of the sea; the water was constantly changing; the sky acquired a variety of colors due to changing weather conditions.

Author of the new disguise

The deplorable situation was saved by a British naval officer and artist Norman Wilkinson. Norman Wilkinson).He used crazy styles, one of which was cubism, which was becoming fashionable in the visual arts at that time. The idea is to transform the color from a camouflage style to a "dazzle coloring". Instead of hiding the ship, trying to paint it entirely in something similar to environment colors, Wilkinson suggested painting ships abstractly - “breaking” the hull with unexpected lines, creating illusory planes, angles, etc. etc. However, the apparent chaos in painting the ship was only apparent; the painting was systematized and applied according to certain rules.

Camouflage form and application rules

When solving a special camouflage problem - distortion - the coloring of a ship should deform its silhouette or imitate some other observation object.

The characteristic features of a ship's silhouette are determined by the type of ship, the outline of its hull, the location of pipes, masts, superstructures and weapons. Camouflage, first of all, should disrupt these signs through a visible change in the outline and surface topography of the ship.

The shape of the spots can be very diverse. Usually, in order to diversify the pattern, spots of various widths and sizes are taken. The main task and difficulty is the location and division of the spots relative to the outlines of the ship that need to be distorted. Distortion is based on the merging with the background (“falling away” to the background) under certain lighting conditions of part of the camouflage spots, while the spots contrasting with those falling away to the background are visible. In order for the silhouette of a ship to be dramatically changed, they strive to distort its contour lines, that is, to create apparent outlines that are completely uncharacteristic of a given ship. Therefore, the spots are divided so that they in no case repeat the actual outlines of the ship, but are oriented at some angles to them.

The camouflage of ships for operations on the high seas is a typical type of large-spotted camouflage. When choosing a camouflage pattern, they strive to select the most appropriate shape, size and location of spots, and colors. To the untrained eye, camouflage coloring appears to be a chaotic and unsystematic combination of random color spots. In fact, there is a certain system in choosing a camouflage pattern, supplemented by the practical experience of the commander.

The chimneys of ships are often painted so that the spots give the impression that they are tilted in the direction opposite to their actual tilt. Pipes, towers and other parts of the ship are painted in different colors: some are light, others are dark.

Spots with straight boundaries create the effect of sharp broken relief, protruding corners and depressions. Such outlines of spots are used in cases where one seeks to distort the heading angle or “shorten” the ship, using, for example, the merging of some spots with the wake jet (water agitated by the ship’s turbines, usually white).

When applying camouflage spots, some rules are followed:

1. A spot or stripe that begins on one plane continues on another that does not coincide with it, just as if the planes coincided with one another.

2. The bend of the contour line of the spots should in no case be on the line of conjugation of intersecting surfaces.

3. The line between two intersecting surfaces should not serve as the boundary of the spots. It is desirable that the border of the spots intersects the line of conjugation of the two surfaces at an acute angle.

4. Painting of protruding or reentering spatial corners should be done so that the spatial corner, for example, the triangular corner of the bridge, the corner of the shield of the artillery system, etc., is emphasized by a dark spot, the center of which should not coincide with the true vertex of the corner.

First tests and their results

Error in the submarine commander's calculations

German submariners of those times observed the ship only through a periscope. The submarine commander needed to visually assess the ship's course relative to the boat and its speed. The cost of a commander’s mistake is high, since “shooting” from under water is practically impossible due to the small number of torpedoes in the boat’s salvo, the enormous reload time and the low speed of the torpedo (“low” relative to the speed of an artillery shell, of course). The new coloring of the ships put the submariners into a stupor, preventing them from taking aim, since it was not clear what kind of ship it was and what its course was and, in general, where its nose was.

The US Merchant Marine began using "dazzle camouflage" beginning in March 1918. Before the end of the war, 1,256 ships were painted. Post-war calculations showed that in the period from March 1, 1918, 75 non-camouflaged ships (displacing over 2,500 tons) and only 18 camouflaged ones were lost, and of the latter, only 11 died from submarine torpedoes.

Fate after the First Pestilence

Now in Portsmouth there is an example of such camouflage: the ship HMS M33(1915). It was built in 1915, although it looks relatively modest, it fought in the First World War and even in Civil War(together with six other monitors supported the white troops in the Arkhangelsk region for several months).

At this time, the Allies tried to paint jeeps and tanks in this way, the tests were successful, due to the high speed of the objects, the camouflage successfully fulfilled its functions, scientists proved that the object became 7 percent smaller (visually) and a fighter with an RPG could miss by firing incorrectly at lead on a fast moving target.

During World War II, there were attempts to use “dazzle painting” again, but advanced target detection technologies such as radar, sonar, magnetometry, radar, gas analysis, chemical detection and the advent of naval aviation ruined this direction of “war painting.”

Gallery

Sino-Russian joint naval exercises “Maritime Cooperation 2012”.



The launch of the motor yacht Guilty, which was painted by contemporary artist Jeff Koons, 2008, part 1.



Launching of the motor yacht Guilty, which was painted by contemporary artist Jeff Koons, 2008, part 2.

“Many known types of camouflage can easily make one clearly visible object appear to be two, two objects appear to be three, and so on.”

Photo 8.

The development of technology has put an end to this type of camouflage. Or rather, on its military use: it was no longer possible to deceive optical instruments in this way. But Razzle Dazzle was immediately picked up by the post-war generation - this type of camouflage is still relevant and is often used in the creation of youth clothing lines.

And here is one of the paintings of Norman Wilkinson himself. As you can see, the artist was not a cubist at all, preferring to work in more traditional styles. This painting, created in 1915, is called "Beach in the Dardanelles with Soldiers Unloading Medical Supplies."

Photo 9.

The best artists of their time were convened to develop the design. Each ship had its own individual livery, which was designed by Abbott Thayer, Maximilian Toch, Edward Wadsworth, Everett Warner and many others. Actually, most of the surviving ships could easily be sent to the Museum of Modern Art.

Photo 10.

Photo 11.

Cubism on armor

The “knightly era” of war at sea, when brightly painted sailing ships came within pistol shot range and smashed each other at point-blank range with cannons, sank into oblivion with the advent of battleships and contact fuses. Progress once again ruined romance, if one can even talk about it in relation to war. Increasing the combat range from a few tens or hundreds of meters to miles and tens of miles immediately revealed the problem of visually detecting an enemy ship while aiming. In turn, the “target” had to merge as much as possible with the constantly changing surface of the sea.

At the end of the era of armadillos (the first years of the 20th century), a uniform spherical coloring completely coped with this task. When the super-powerful guns of battleships thundered over the ocean expanses, and the corsairs of the new era - submarines - rushed under the water - the task became many times more complicated. To solve a new problem, opticians, artists and... zoologists came to the aid of the sailors. The pioneer in this matter was the British naval officer (and, at the same time, a good painter) Norman Wilkinson, who, collaborating with zoologist John Graham Kerr, created the first “fragmentation” type naval camouflage. Now the sides of ships began to be painted in patterns of broken stripes. For the uninitiated they looked ridiculous, but for the periscope of a submarine and the sighting devices of naval artillery, the new war paint turned out to be a “tough nut to crack” - the target literally “fell apart”, making it difficult not only to aim, but also to simply determine the direction of its movement.