Camouflage and Colchester

Just returned from Colchester, main reason for the visit was to go to the bank, but obligatory visit to ASDA fitted in too!

By the District General Hospita (DGH) there is a fairly tall telecommunication mast, the lower part of which is dark grey and the upper part painted in broad white and red bands. Against the misty, milky autumn sky the white portions of the mast were largely invisible, and this reminded me of the tall tower cranes near The Hythe, down by the river.

Here there is one very tall crane that is painted white, and about half a mile away some more cranes painted red/orange. Again, the white crane, despite its height was far less obtrusive than the orange cranes. White is a good camouflage colour!

The idea that white is a good colour to use to disguise the shapes or visibility of objects seems counter intuitive (except in the snow!), but my thoughts about this were challenged when I recently read a book called "Ship Shape".

"Ship Shape - A Dazzle Camouflage Source Book" by Roy R. Behrens (2012) describes the development of this highly artistic form of the camoufleur's work.

http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/DazzleCamouflage.html


The above link is to an excellent resource on the art and science of camouflage.

Below is a picture of a ship in dazzle camouflage, taken from an airship flying from the Royal Naval Air Station Pembroke in WWI.

Here we have a convoy, probably off the coat of Pembrokeshire, in WWI, some of the ships wear Dazzle camouflage.

The camouflage was designed to be deceptive rather than concealing, supposedly making it harder for submarine captains to work out the speed and direction a ship might be sailing when viewed through a periscope.

To conceal a ship from view, trials showed that in the North Atlantic, against the usual pale grey sky, white paint was likely to be the most effective. The reasons for this are explained in "Ship Shape".

So, the next time you go for a walk by the seaside, observe the visibility of seagulls from sea/ground level. When are they less obvious? When do they stand out?

This is where the cranes in Colchester come in.....


I can recommend "Ship Shape".