Dazzle.

This is coolbert:

Further additional extracts with my commentary from original articles as seen at the isegoria.net Internet web site topic the Great War.

DAZZLE!

"Dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (in the U.S.) or dazzle painting, was a family of ship camouflage used extensively in World War I, and to a lesser extent in World War II and afterwards . . . [dazzle] consisted of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other."

"Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target's range, speed, and heading . . . [dazzle] intended . . . primarily to mislead the enemy about a ship's course and so to take up a poor firing position."

"Give ‘em the old razzle-dazzle"

"razzle-dazzle  3 : a confusing or colorful often gaudy action or display"

NOT SO MUCH CAMOUFLAGE BUT PATTERNS AS USED TO CONFUSE THE RANGE- FINDERS OF ENEMY NAVAL COMBAT VESSELS. PARTICULARLY THE RANGE-FINDERS OF SUBMARINES [VERY CONSTRICTED].

"During the Great War, navies learned that they couldn’t hide their ships through camouflage, because the background shifted so drastically with every change in the weather — but they could razzle-dazzle enemy range-finders with what painter Norman Wilkinson called dazzle painting"

I wonder if it has ever been determined the effectiveness of DAZZLE? I cannot recall ever having seen an image of a World War Two naval vessel or merchant shipping having the DAZZLE pattern.

Merchant vessel from the era of the Great War with dazzle pattern. I must admit with a mere glance this does appear to be confusing. The German submariner thought the same?

coolbert.