movements—Cubism, Futurism, andVorticism. In fact, one of the Vorticistpainters, Edward Wadsworth, oversawships being dazzled in Liverpoolduring the war.”Additionally, “you have to rememberthat Wilkinson was not only aseascape painter but also a posterdesigner,” Behrens says. “So he hadto work with abstract forms, colorsand shapes.”Though the British Admiralty probablydidn’t include too many modernart enthusiasts, the losses fromU-boat attacks were so devastatingthat they soon authorized Wilkinsonto set up a camouflage unit at theRoyal Academy in London. He recruitedother artists, who were givenNaval Reserve commissions, andthey got to work.Wilkinson made models of shipson a revolving table and then viewedthem through a periscope, usingscreens, lights and backgrounds tosee how the dazzle paint schemeswould look at various times of dayand night. He used one of thosemodels to impress a visitor, KingGeorge V, who stared through theperiscope and guessed that the modelship was moving south-by-west,only to be surprised to discover thatit was moving east-by-southeast.By October 1917, British officialswere sufficiently convinced of dazzle’seffectiveness that they ordered that allmerchant ships should get the specialpaint jobs, according to a 1999 articleby Behrens.At the request of the U.S. government,Wilkinson sailed across theAtlantic in March 1918 and met withSecretary of the Navy, Franklin D.Roosevelt, and then helped to set up acamouflage unit headed by Americanimpressionist painter Everett Warner.By the end of the war, more than2,300 British ships had been decoratedwith dazzle camouflage. How successfuldazzle actually was in thwartingU-boat attacks isn’t clear. As Forbesexplains, a postwar commission concludedthat it probably only provideda slight advantage.“When the US Navy adoptedWilkinson’s scheme for both merchantand fighting ships there is statisticalevidence to support Wilkinson’s technique,”Forbes says. A total of 1,256merchant and fighting ships, werecamouflaged between March 1 andNovember 11, 1918. Ninety six shipsover 2,500 tons were sunk; of theseonly 18 were camouflaged and all ofthem were merchant ships. “None ofthe camouflaged fighting ships weresunk,” he says“It’s important to remember thatships didn’t just rely upon dazzle camouflagefor protection from U-boats,”Behrens explains. “It was used in combinationwith tactics such as zig-zaggingand traveling in convoys, in whichthe most vulnerable ships were kept inthe center of the formation, surroundedby faster, more dangerous shipscapable of destroying submarines.”The synergy of those measures was“wonderfully effective,” he says.Dazzle camouflage was resurrectedby the U.S. during World War II, andwas used on the decks of ships as well,in an effort to confuse enemy aircraft.Today’s electronic surveillance technologymakes dazzle pretty muchobsolete for protecting ships, but asForbes points out, the concept of visuallydisruptive patterns is still usedin military uniforms.62 :: bokeh
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