![]() ![]() ![]() Moreover, unlike forests and deserts, the sea offered no suitable background for an object to blend in, the volatile weather conditions constantly altering light and cloud patterns. The first hurdle were the ships themselves – to the trained eye of a gunner, a vessel’s shape, size, and position betrayed her direction and speed within seconds. Like many others at the time, marine artist Norman Wilkinson experimented with camouflage techniques, but each new attempt led the British volunteer to the same unsurmountable problems. (Source: The Illustrated London News, Norman Wilkinson, 1915) In early 1917, while many on the British Isles followed the carnage with despair, one man got creative. By the end of the war, U-boats sank more than 5,000 ships and killed nearly 13,000 men. The ease with which Imperial U-boats took out British vessels became even more alarming with Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare. By 1916, one in every five British supply ships in the English Channel fell victim to German torpedoes. On, the RMS Lusitania was attacked and sunk by German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 of her 1,962 passengers. Having tried and failed to measure up to the Royal Navy, the German Admiralty had redrafted its strategy for the new century, investing heavily in a novel but promising technology – the submarine. (Source: New-York Tribune)Ī formidable naval power, Britain entered the Great War with a somewhat lofty confidence, which was not meant to last. Thus begins the story of a crazy and brilliant invention: dazzle camouflage. The German gunner holds his breath, makes a guesstimate of the thing’s trajectory, and fires a torpedo. But what he sees through the periscope today looks more like a Picasso painting than a troopship – giant stripes of black and white, random geometrical patterns, inverted perspective. With a brain trained to work like a computer, he knows what he is doing, having sunk many British vessels since the German Empire began unrestricted submarine warfare three years earlier. The gunner has had a few brief moments to peek through the periscope and to make a quick appraisal of an enemy ship’s type, speed, and direction. Now imagine the same bewildered conversations taking place inside a German U-boat, in the summer of 1918. If you have ever been to a modern-art gallery, you must have heard the likes of: ![]()
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