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

10.07.2020

Type 3 "Ranked"

It is given 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 who were recognized as the best at the end of October 2015, in honor of the Day of the Foundation of the Russian Navy, and was also available to North American server players for 30 doubloons during the same period (Halloween promotion).

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 per battle by 100%.

It was available for 30 doubloons between December 10, 2015 and January 21, 2016 (New Year's promotion).

Type 3 "Supertest"

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

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

"Grand Naval Battle May 2016"

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

Could have been obtained as a reward while participating in the Grand Naval Battles European event, 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 per 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 a Try Your Luck container.

Could be given out as a gift of the promotion "Vacancy "Santa Claus"".

Anniversary of the World of Warships project

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 free experience per battle by 100%.

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

Available for purchase by collectors.

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

"Spirit of the Ocean"

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

It was issued in the amount of 5 pieces in the "Try Your Luck" container during the release of update 0.5.13 . It can also be obtained by issuing the following containers of the above type.

Could be given out as a gift of the action "Vacancy "Santa Claus"".

Can be issued for completing various combat missions.

Available for purchase by collectors.

"Rebel Flame"

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

Could be issued in the amount of 5 pieces in the "Try Your Luck" container.

Could be given out as a gift of the action "Vacancy "Santa Claus"".

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 per battle by 100%.

Issued in the amount of 1 pc. for completing each of the 3 additional objectives in the Halloween mode.

Also available for 30 doubloons during the Halloween promotion.

Could be given out as a gift of the action "Vacancy "Santa Claus"".

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 per battle by 20% and the experience of the ship's commander by 333%.

Like Japanese Slam Dunk:

It belonged to the Japan team 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 was also available 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 per battle by 200%.

It could also be given out as a gift of the action "Vacancy "Santa Claus"".

Available for purchase by collectors.

"Valentine's Day 2017"

La Fhéile Padraig 2017

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

Dedicated to St. Patrick's Day 2017.

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Water Team - Elemental Battle 2017"

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

"Team Fire - Elemental Battle 2017"

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

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

Available for purchase at 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 challenge.

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Forged in Battle"

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's commander by 250%.

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Hunter"

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

Received as a reward in containers for completing quests in the Hunt for Bismarck campaign.

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Caribbean"

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

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Storm wind"

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

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

"Back to School"

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

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

Available for purchase at the Arsenal for 8,000 .

"Sci Fi Space"

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

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

Awarded for completing various combat missions.

For years of service

Bonuses - reduces ship visibility by 3%, increases enemy projectile dispersion by 4%, increases experience per battle by 50%, increases free experience per battle by 50%, increases commander's experience per battle by 50%, increases credits per battle by 50% , reduces the cost of maintaining the ship after the battle by 50%.

Available to receive or purchase upon receipt of a personal offer.

Tokyo Game Show 2017

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 free experience per battle by 300%.

"Twitch Prime"

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

Could be obtained during account registration in Twitch Prime. Can be obtained from Twitch containers.

"Revolutionary"

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

It could be purchased in the game for 60 before the release of update 0.7.3.

Available for purchase at the Arsenal for 16,000 .

"Spring Sky"

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

"Oriental Lantern"

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

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

The cost in credits is 450,000 .

"Mosaic"

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

Could be obtained when registering an account in the Humble Bundle.

"Community Contributor"

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

Issued to contributors - active members of the gaming community.

"Subscriber Camouflage"

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

Can be obtained by subscribers of the contributor through a bonus code.

"Azur Lane - Siren"

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

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

"Stars" n "Stripes"

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's 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!" during this competition.

Eagles

this competition.

Sharks

Can be purchased in the Arsenal in the "GO NAVY!" during this competition.

"Gamescom Blue"

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 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%, an increase in experience per battle by 125%, an increase in commander's experience per battle by 100% and an increase in free experience per battle by 100%.

Like American Alley-Oop:

It belonged to Team USA 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 was also available in the premium store from April 15 to April 22.

Like Mars:

"Full moon"

It is a Russian Nothing But Net 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% and increases credits by 25%.

Like Russian Nothing But Net:

It belonged to the Russia/USSR team 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 was also available in the premium store from April 15 to April 22.
It was available for purchase by collectors.

Like a full moon

"Sirocco"

It is a German Layup 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% and increases experience per battle by 150%.

Like German Layout:

It belonged to the German team 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 was also available in the premium store from April 15 to April 22.
It was available for purchase by collectors.

Like Sirocco:

"Union Jack"

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

"Shadow"

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

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

"Autumn cornucopia"

Bonuses - reduces the visibility of the ship 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 Shop.

"New Year's Serpentine"

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

"Victory"

Can be obtained from the Soviet Era containers or from the Pobeda supply in late April - early May 2019. Can be purchased in the Premium Shop or obtained for tokens in the Armory in the Pobeda section.

"Post-apocalypse"

Can be obtained from Wild Wave containers, Wild Wave Supply, or by completing combat missions of the Wild Wave Event Directives .

"Cote d'Azur"

Can be obtained from French Destroyers containers, from the French Destroyers Supply, Legion of Honor Admiralty packs, or by completing combat missions of 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 the experience per battle by 100% and increases the experience of the ship's commander per battle by 100%.

Can be obtained during various combat missions.

Linus Tech Tips

It can be purchased in the Premium Shop both separately and in a package with any ship.

Regia Marina

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 "Homeland and Honor" packages.)

Available to World of Waships volunteers.

Cruiser "Gloire" (Gloire), which became part of the French Navy in 1937.

Dizzying, isn't it? This way of painting the 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 vastness of the ocean, with 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 the difficulty 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 during the First World War in the submarine fleet. His idea was not to hide the huge ship from view through the optics, but to confuse the enemy preparing a torpedo attack.

The main purpose of this camouflage was not so much to completely hide the object from the enemy - boiler and turbine installations were easily unmasked by smoke from the chimneys, but to complicate the 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 (thousandths of a distance). This camouflage was designed to distort this data.

The idea came from the avant-garde offshoot of Cubism, Vorticism, which was then fashionable.

Adept vorticism - 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, WWI, 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 leaving the sea."

They complemented the color of the fake bow wave under the stem, which creates the effect of increasing the speed of the ship, accurate data on which are 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 removal of the vessel, which in reality is approaching.

By the way, the coloring of zebras works on the same principle, and their group causes the effect of erratic movement, even when they are practically motionless. Naval veterans traditionally treated this coloring with disdain, comparing it with the appearance of port ladies, but the sailors quickly appreciated its advantages - after all, attacks by German submariners were increasingly futile.

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

Fighter P-51 "Mustang".

True, with the beginning of the active use of radar means of detecting targets, he began to gradually lose relevance, and the ships were painted in the usual foggy gray ball color. But even today, Dazzle again finds a use for itself. It is perfectly combined with the high-tech systems of the "stealth ships".

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

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

Blinding (splitting) disguise (eng. Razzle Dazzle) - During the First World War, he was a zoologist Kerr and an artist Wilkinson was developed in principle new way visual protection of ships from the fire of 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 ways of camouflaging the forces and objects of the fleet in wars and local conflicts.

Considering the question of the visibility of ships, it can be established 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 are reduced to:

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

2) misleading the enemy about the class, type, course and speed of the ship; at the same time, if the error in determining the listed data is even temporary for the enemy, camouflage coloring will still achieve its goal.

Experience in naval battles indicates that the first is the main one, and the second has a subordinate meaning. However, under certain conditions, the distortion of the appearance and elements of the movement of the ship often becomes the main task of camouflage. With good visibility in the daytime, a reduction in visibility can be achieved practically 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 the ship. Finally, at night or at dusk, a reduction in visibility can be easily achieved even 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 led to the creation of a new class of ships. During the First World War, the allies represented by England, France and the North American United States were horrified by the new German development - the submarine. Hiding from the eyes of the enemy under the water column, the submarines destroyed the enemy fleet with great success. One of the options for protection against them was visual camouflage, which was carried out by painting the ships, but the first fruits did not bring success. The disguise 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 the British navy officer and artist Norman Wilkinson (Eng. Norman Wilkinson). He applied crazy styles, one of which was cubism, which was in vogue in those days in the visual arts. The idea is to turn the color from a camouflage style to a "dazzle coloring". Instead of hiding the ship, trying to paint it entirely in some similar environment colors, Wilkinson suggested painting ships abstractly - “breaking” the hull with unexpected lines, creating illusory planes, angles, etc. etc. However, the apparent chaos in the painting of the ship was only apparent, the painting was systematized and applied according to certain rules.

Camouflage uniform and application rules

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

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

The shape of the spots can be very diverse. Usually, in order to diversify the pattern, take spots of various widths and sizes. The main task and difficulty is the location and breakdown of spots relative to the outlines of the ship that need to be distorted. The distortion is based on merging with the background (“falling away” to the background) under certain lighting conditions, part of the camouflage spots, while spots that contrast with those that have fallen off to the background are visible. In order for the ship's silhouette to be drastically changed, they strive to distort its contour lines, that is, to create apparent outlines that are completely uncharacteristic of the given ship. Therefore, the spots are broken up so that in no case do they 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 choose the most appropriate shape, size and location of spots, colors. To the inexperienced eye, camouflage coloring appears to be a chaotic and unsystematic combination of arbitrary color patches. 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 in such a way that the stains give the impression of leaning in the opposite direction from the actual slant. Pipes, towers and other parts of the ship are painted in different colors: some are light, others are dark.

Spots with rectilinear borders create the effect of a sharp broken relief, protruding corners and depressions. Such outlines of spots are used in cases where they seek to distort the heading angle or "shorten" the ship, using, for example, the merging of some spots with the wake stream (the water agitated by the ship's turbines is usually white).

When applying camouflage spots, some rules are observed:

1. A spot or a strip that began on one plane continues on another, which 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 located on the junction line of intersecting surfaces.

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

4. The coloring of protruding or incoming spatial corners should be done in such a way that the spatial corner, for example, the trihedral angle of the bridge, the corner of the artillery system shield, etc., is emphasized by a dark spot, the center of which should not coincide with the true top of the corner.

First tests and their results

An error in the calculations of the submarine commander

German submariners of those times observed the ship only through the periscope. The submarine commander needed to visually assess the ship's course relative to the boat and its speed. The price of a commander's mistake is high, since "zeroing" from under water is practically impossible due to the small number of torpedoes in the salvo of the boat, the huge 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 introduced divers into a stupor, preventing them from aiming, 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 Navy began to use "dazzle camouflage" beginning in March 1918. Before the end of the war, 1256 ships were painted. Post-war calculations showed that in the period from March 1, 1918, 75 non-camouflaged ships (with a displacement of over 2500 tons) and only 18 camouflaged ones were lost, and of the latter, only 11 were killed by submarine torpedoes.

Fate after the First World War

Now in Portsmouth there is an example of such a disguise: 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, he 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 objects, the camouflage successfully performed its functions, scientists proved that the object becomes 7 percent smaller (visually) and an RPG fighter could miss by not firing correctly at lead on a fast moving target.

During the Second World War, there were attempts to reapply "blinding coloring", but advanced target detection technologies such as radar, sonars, magnetometry, radar, gas analysis, chemical detection and the advent of naval aviation ruined this direction of "war painting".

Gallery

Sino-Russian joint naval exercises "Marine Interaction-2012".

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

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

“Many well-known types of camouflage can easily make one highly visible object appear as two, two objects as three, and so on”

Photo 8.

The development of technology 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. On the other hand, the Razzle Dazzle was instantly 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 on the Dardanelles with soldiers unloading medicines."

Photo 9.

The best artists of their time were called to develop the design. Each ship had its own individual painting, which was worked on by Abbot Thayer, Maximilian Toch, Edward Wadsworth, Everett Warner and many others. Actually, most of the surviving ships could be safely sent to the Museum of Modern Art.

Photo 10.

Photo 11.

Cubism on armor

The "knight's era" of the war at sea, when brightly painted sailing ships converged at a distance of a pistol shot and smashed each other from cannons point-blank, has sunk into oblivion along with the advent of battleships and contact fuses. Progress has once again ruined romance, if one can speak of it at all 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 visual detection of an enemy ship during 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 heavy-duty guns of battleships rumbled over the ocean expanses, and corsairs of the new time - submarines - flew underwater - the task became many times more complicated. To solve a new problem, opticians, artists and ... zoologists came to the aid of the sailors. The British naval officer (and, at the same time, a good painter) Norman Wilkinson became a pioneer in this matter, who, collaborating with the zoologist John Graham Kerr, created the first "crushing" type naval camouflage. Now the sides of the ships began to be painted in patterns of broken stripes. For the uninitiated, they looked ridiculous, but for the periscope of a submarine and sighting devices of naval artillery, the new war paint turned out to be a “tough nut” - the target literally “split into pieces”, making it difficult not only to aim, but simply to determine the direction of its movement.