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The bathtime of the gods...
It sometimes seems - from popular perception at least - that the standard process for painting a naval ship in the First World War was to drop a couple of tabs and try to paint cubist zebras.
By the Second World War, however, things were becoming more scientific, and the similarity of the camo scheme here on HMS Implacable to the model in the painting above perhaps suggests what's going on.
Meet the work of the Camouflage Directorate, a bunch of artists and party animals who spent the war scandalising Leamington Spa and making stuff either disappear or become significantly harder to hit.
The site started as the Civil Defence Camouflage Establishment, and Leamington was an ideal base. Close to the industrial heartlands of the Midlands, but away from the bombs. The focus was on hiding factories and other industrial sites.
In 1941 however the Royal Navy sent their own camouflage section up there to unite as the Camouflage Directorate. One of their first moves was to build a couple of tanks and start playing with model ships...
Up until now officers had been given a fair bit of licence to choose their own paint schemes.
It's how Mountbatten came to perfect a camouflage scheme for the ten minutes of each day that the sky was pink.
Don't ask what happened to a pink ship at, say, noon.
It's how Mountbatten came to perfect a camouflage scheme for the ten minutes of each day that the sky was pink.
Don't ask what happened to a pink ship at, say, noon.
Slightly more effective was Peter Scott's attempt to disguise HMS Broke, somewhat proven by another warship running into it and blaming the camouflage.
The scheme was adapted as the Western Approach scheme - seen here on HMCS Restigouche.
The scheme was adapted as the Western Approach scheme - seen here on HMCS Restigouche.
But the Camouflage Directorate were to replace these ad hoc paint jobs with something more advanced.
Supported by theatre technicians and other trades, the indoor tank could simulate any lighting or atmospheric conditions. The outdoor tank on the roof let them try it in natural light. Dozens of camouflage schemes were devised, refined, and promulgated.
By the end of the war captains could point at a catalogue and more or less pick camouflage off the page for the conditions and role they were being asked to play.
Sadly, at least according to Victorine Foot, "we rather looked down on dazzle"...
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80013230
Sadly, at least according to Victorine Foot, "we rather looked down on dazzle"...
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80013230
...which is probably why the most epic examples of it from WWII were left to the French, here with Gloire...
(footage: )
(footage: )
...and the Americans, with this, or possibly these, attempt(s) to weaponise migraines.
Despite the dazzle-bashing, this painting by Commander James Yunge-Bateman records an interesting sub-story in the war.
And if you're supposed to dress for the job you want then you'll find me wearing a sensible dress on the roof of a Leamington art gallery.
And if you're supposed to dress for the job you want then you'll find me wearing a sensible dress on the roof of a Leamington art gallery.
And just to turn the tables, here's a sketch in the IWM by Victorine Foot of Yunge-Bateman hard at work...
To put any Leamington locals out of their misery with trying to identify the building in the Yunge-Bateman painting (I'm not a monster), it's on the old art gallery roof:
Final thought - because this bunch were largely artists, a lot of the official record is their own output.
This, from the IWM, is Victorine Foot's "Camouflaging a Cruiser in Dock"...
This, from the IWM, is Victorine Foot's "Camouflaging a Cruiser in Dock"...
