The
Development of Naval Camouflage 1914 – 1945
Part III: British Camouflage in World War II
By
Alan Raven
(Article
reprinted courtesy of Plastic Ship
Modeler Magazine issue #97/1)
design was
produced, only to be worn by Fleet destroyers. Known as the “Special Emergency
Fleet Destroyer Scheme”, it comprised just one pattern along with a set of new
colors, which were; G20, B30, G45, and white.
These colors formed part of a new range that came into widespread use in
early 1943. Even though the pattern
was for destroyers of the O and P class, several other fleet destroyers took up
the design including some from the Tribal class, and it was even worn in 1945 by
the new Battle class destroyer BARFLEUR. Like
other designs it was rarely carried as per the issued pattern, and there were
large numbers of variations. Generally
however, the essence of the design was retained.
As
far as the Western Approaches schemes were concerned their general use spread to
the point where it had overwhelming use on escort vessels operating in the North
Atlantic. In addition to the 1941
patterns the camouflage section had issued in 1942 a large number of class
patterns suitable for almost any class of small ship.
In these 1942 patterns there was less use of the pale green, with some of
the patterns having only Western Approaches Pale Blue and white.
Time and time again the virtues of Western Approaches camouflage was
proven by escorts being able to run down on U-Boats to very close ranges before
being seen. Signalmen very often
had trouble when sending by signal lamp to a ship wearing a Western Approaches
pattern. It should be realized that
the signal lamp crosshairs had to be trained on the receiving ship’s bridge,
and so effective was the camouflage that quite often the vessel slipped in and
out of visibility, with the result that messages often had to be repeated.
So
successful from the very start was the Western Approaches type, that in some
cases it was taken to the absolute extreme with a few ships being painted in
overall white, without any measure of the disruption in the form of pale blue
and pale green panels. The first
ships to use the “White” camouflage were those under the command of Captain
Baker-Cresswell during the winter of 1941-42 and included the destroyers
BULLDOG, AMAZON, and BROADWAY and the corvettes AUBRIETIA, HOLLYHOCK, and
NIGELLA. These particular ships were only painted white during the
winter months, and in summer reverted back
to Mountbatten Pink, the color that Baker-Cresswell felt was best for
concealment at dawn and dusk, the most critical period for escorts and ships in
convoy.
The
reader will have appreciated by now that concealment camouflage was generally
most effective when used by small vessels, which leads conveniently to a brief
coverage of the smallest combatants, those of the coastal forces; the MBTs, MGBs,
and MLs. In the 1940 period evidence suggests that most coastal forces
craft were overall dark or medium grey (507A – 507C). These tones continued to be used throughout 1941 and into
1942, as they believed to be the best concealment colors for general conditions
during dark nights and where moonlight could not be ruled out.
In spite of this belief a number of MBTs started to carry Mountbatten
Pink, or Plymouth Pink. Those serving in home waters tended to wear the latter two
colors, and these boats operating in the Mediterranean carried one of the two
greys.
In
the middle of 1942 the growing shortage of green pigment led to new individual
and class designs being drawn up by the beginning of 1943.
These designs introduced a new range of colors, ones that demanded less
green pigment than before, and that superceded the previous 1941-42 range.
They were; G5, G10, PB10, G20, B30, G45, and B55.
PB10 was a special dark blue that Mediterranean station submarines had
started to use in 1940 and by mid 1942 the camouflage section had formally
incorporated it into the color range. The
dark blue was believed to be especially effective in the shallow waters of the
Mediterranean, where aircraft could spot submarines down to one hundred feet
below the surface if they were painted in the overall green (MS3) scheme that
many Home Fleet submarines wore.
Some
of the range of colors first appeared in mid 1942 with the Special Emergency
Fleet scheme, and during the first months of 1943 the remainder appeared in a
series of designs for destroyers down to MBTs.
In addition to the new colors and patterns was the introduction of a
range of designs in the intermediate range, which fell midway in average
tone between the dark and light types.
This new range was felt necessary as it gave a greater number of choices
to the commanders. Mid 1942 found
British warships operating from the
Arctic to Eastern waters with a range of weather conditions so great that
captains felt they needed the greatest possible choice of camouflage.
The
new designs were significantly different in several ways from the 1942 series. First, they tended to use only three or four colors instead
of four and five. Second, a more
simple approach was adopted with regards to the patterns. Panels became less complicated in shape and showed a more
flowing line tending to run horizontally rather than vertically as so many of
the earlier designs had done. Also,
the amount of blue was drastically reduced.
B15 was only used to any extent in the intermediate designs and its
sparing use is obvious from studies of photographs. There was a greater contrast in tones between the colors, not
only in the fewer colors covering the same tonal range from dark to light, but
also a greater difference as applied to a ship. For example, G45 would seldom be used next to B30 without a
third color such as G10 dividing the two. This
use of contrast between colors produced a substantial degree of disruption and
the 1943 types (apart from the Western Approaches designs) were intended to be
disruptive in effect rather than produce concealment, whereas this had been the
reverse with the previous Admiralty disruptives.
1943
saw the Royal Navy gain supremacy in the Mediterranean and large numbers of
fleet destroyers transferred to the area as support for the bigger ships and for
operations in the Aegean and Adriatic. Most
of these transferred to their new commands wearing Western Approaches or
Admiralty Light Disruptive camouflage, types quite unsuitable for use in the
Mediterranean where strong sunlight is the rule.
Subsequently their paint schemes changed, with many donning the Emergency
Intermediate or Emergency Dark types.
Of
the small ships performing convoy escort work in the North Atlantic, the
overwhelming majority continued to wear the Western Approaches type, but in
early 1943 they started to display the new range of patterns, and with them, a
new color. The previous use of pale blue and pale green was dropped and
all designs now used G55 and white. The
average overall tone became lighter thus giving further emphasis to concealment
with very little disruptive effect. Noticeable
was the large area of white at the bow, sometimes extending back almost to the
bridge, a measure designed to present the lightest possible tone to a U-boat
when the escort vessel was approaching head-on.
It was felt that this would give the attacking ship a little more time to
get closer before being seen.
Appearing
on the scene in March 1943 was the new American destroyer escort.
Seventy-eight of these DEs were transferred to the Royal Navy between
March 1943 and February 1944.
They were delivered complete with camouflage, a one-off type that the
Americans
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