For example, a bird that with blue and yellow coloring-or even a parrot with red, green, and violet coloring-appears as dull gray at a distance of 100 feet. Mother Nature also uses various colors and patterns to make certain birds and animals appear differently and fool the predators that feed upon them. These color drawings show how the three-dimensional effect of the dazzle pattern completely fools the eye of an observer, making it difficult to comprehend the shape and direction of the ship. Separately, in the United States, two artists, Abbott Thayer and George de Forest Brush, conducted groundbreaking research into camouflage in the late 1800s, focusing on certain aspects of the protective coloration of plants and animals.

Another artist, John Graham Kerr, also vied for the honor of being the father of the concept, but a court declared Wilkinson the true inventor. This technique was not the brainchild of some naval strategist or a grizzled veteran of the seas but that of British artist Norman Wilkinson, who is credited with inventing dazzle camouflage in time for the Great War. So is clothing a soldier in a color-splotched uniform or affixing leaves to his body and helmet to help him blend in with his surroundings.īut painting a ship in contrasting colors, irregular geometric shapes, zigzag lines, and bold black and white stripes seems to go against common sense. Draping a white bedsheet over a tank or artillery piece in a snowy landscape is an obvious example of camouflage. The word camouflage is derived from the French word camoufler, which means to disguise. In the military’s case, it was to disguise ships and aircraft with what is known as disruptive or “dazzle” camouflage.

They were all users of rather distinctive-some would say garish-painting styles. Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the U.S.

World of warships best camouflage