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Dazzle camouflage, also known as Razzle Dazzle or Dazzle painting, was a camouflage paint scheme used on ships, mainly during World War I. It consisted of a complex pattern of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other. At first glance it seems like an unlikely form of camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it. Dazzle camouflage had a very specific purpose, however, which was to make it difficult to estimate the target ship's speed and heading and so disrupt the performance of the visual rangefinders used for naval artillery at the time. In other words, its purpose was confusion, rather than concealment.

The rangefinders were based on the co-incidence principle with an optical mechanism, operated by a human being to compute the range. The operator adjusted the mechanism until two half-images of the target displayed lined up into a complete picture. Dazzle camouflage was intended to make it hard to do this job because the clashing patterns wouldn't look "right" even when the two halves were correctly aligned. This became even more important when submarine periscopes were developed which included similar rangefinders. As an additional feature the dazzle pattern usually included a "false bow wave" painted on which was intended to make a true estimation of the ship's speed difficult.

The invention of dazzle camouflage is credited to artist Norman Wilkinson, who as a Lieutenant Commander was on Royal Navy patrol duty in the English Channel. Dazzle camouflage was first implemented on the merchant ship SS Industry, and HMS Alsatian became the first dazzle painted Navy ship in August 1917. The US Navy adopted the technique the next year.

All British patterns were different, and were first tested on small wooden models viewed through a periscope in a studio. Most of the model designs were painted by women artists from London's Royal Academy of Arts. A foreman then scaled up their designs for the real thing.

Dazzle camouflage's effectiveness is not entirely certain. The British Admiralty eventually came to the conclusion that the scheme had no material effect on submarine attacks, but proved to be a morale boost for crews. American naval leadership expressed the dissenting opinion that dazzle camouflage was effective. Dazzle camouflage continued to be used until the end of World War II.

William MacKay, the creator of a popular scheme of camouflage approved by the U.S. Naval Consulting Board during World War I, wrote:

"The structural and characteristic lines and angles of a ship can be either softened or destroyed. According as the ship is viewed through [a] red or green or blue filter the ship presents three different images and through none of them an image so definite as a ship painted with a flat pigment gray."

However effective the scheme was in WWI, it eventually became largely obsolete as rangefinders became more advanced, and, by the time it was put to use again in WWII, the introduction of radar soon made it essentially useless in defeating naval gunnery. However, it may still have possessed some effect in confounding submarines. In a 1919 lecture, Norman Wilkinson explained:

"The primary object of this scheme was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot when actually in firing position, but to mislead him, when the ship was first sighted, as to the correct position to take up. [Dazzle was a] method to produce an effect by paint in such a way that all accepted forms of a ship are broken up by masses of strongly contrasted colour, consequently making it a matter of difficulty for a submarine to decide on the exact course of the vessel to be attacked.... The colours mostly in use were black, white, blue and green.... When making a design for a vessel, vertical lines were largely avoided. Sloping lines, curves and stripes are by far the best and give greater distortion."

• Everett Warner
• Jon Latimer, Deception in War, London: John Murray, 2001
• Tim Newark, "Masters of Disguise", March 17/18, 2007 Financial Times

• The Development of Naval Camouflage 1914 — 1945 - Part I
• DazZLe CaMOuFlage: High Difference Camouflage (Hodge Podge)
• Razzle Dazzle Camouflage

‘Dazzle’ camouflage is related to ‘Measure 32 ‘crazy quilt’ camouflage pattern’, of Pale Grey, Haze Grey, Navy Blue and Ocean Grey. [ref. Elliot, P. American Destroyer Escorts of WW2, Almark, ISBN 0-85524-161-6, 1974]