tjstoneman wrote:
PENELOPE's brown and white scheme is also explained in Ed Gordon H.M.S. "Pepperpot!": The "Penelope" in World War Two (Robert Hale Ltd: 15 Aug 1985). According to Alan Raven, she wore a multi coloured scheme BEFORE she grounded in April, thus TWO different types of camouflage within two months.
Having just read through the HMS Pepperpot book first chapter, which covers from being in the Med to getting back to the Clyde for repairs mid May 40, it seems to me that the Alan Raven quote needs to be interpreted carefully. After sailing from Scapa on 7th April, Penelope was employed in open waters against the larger German units before first going closer inshore on 10th April as part of the back up to the RN destroyers attacking the German units in Narvik at dawn and she was then involved with the aftermath of that and then being told to prepare to lead the next attack into Narvik which she said couldn't be ready until the 12th. Before that went any further on the 11th she was sent to follow up reports of German support ships and grounded at 1441. The damage was so extensive that she could barely stay afloat let alone move without assistance and in military terms all she could do was very limited AA in self defence until temporarily patched sufficiently to be towed back to UK. The Alan Raven bit about "lulls in the fighting etc" doesn't seem to match the actual situation at all - there was no period then where an air threat close inshore had developed and I doubt Penelope dropped her anchor until the passage to "Cripples Creek" had completed. It is also thrown into question by the three photos in the Pepperpot book clearly showing the port side with the pattern used in the WEM print plus two shots close to while afloat (and listing) and being repaired for tow. It seems to me any shot taken in drydock after this adds nothing new apart from maybe showing the starboard side and can only be the scheme depicted by WEM anyway.
The Pepperpot account is specific about the brown and white colours for the makeshift scheme and it being varied as the time progressed and the snow on the hills melted. It would be interesting to know more about the likely paint stocks carried onboard at the time - perhaps some of our heavyweight camouflage experts could comment - as a complete repaint of the ship would require considerable stocks well beyond that needed for touching up weather damage etc. Perhaps the raw materials to make up white and brown were already available onboard as they were used in other colours? Otherwise did they get paint from the Norwegians that were assisting with all the ships at Skjelfjord. If the answer is no to both, then you are left starting to think that whatever Penelope was wearing when she sailed from Scapa must have been quite similar to what is shown in the WEM print. But that seems so much of a one-off and very different from other depictions of the Scapa Flotta scheme that it is hard to accept - the scheme reported by Alan Raven seems more likely but doesn't fit his narrative.
It would be very interesting to clarify what scheme Penelope had on sailing from Scapa as that would be how she was on the afternoon of 10th April and at an important what-if point in naval history when a decision for Penelope to promptly reattack the german destroyers at Narvik could have considerably changed how the Norwegian campaign developed.