God, I never thought I’d be starting a post with that title anytime soon. Boing Boing has a post about Razzle-Dazzle camouflage, used primarily in World War I battleships to confuse the enemy.
When painted with strange stripes and colours, it’s difficult for a submarine commander, for example, to tell precisely which heading the ship is on, as well as its size, outline and speed.* You can see why. The effect must have been bewildering, as this painting shows.
* This mattered because torpedoes were slow and the movement and angle of the target were crucial to a hit which would actually pierce the hull in the right place to cause magazine explosions or enough flooding to force a capsize or sinking.
tags: [razzle-dazzle] [battleships] [navy] [painting]
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