Something new to me...

[Zad Fnark]

Interesting article on Hyperscale today.

Apparently, back in 1933, the USN was experimenting with identification symbols on ships. It was rather subtle, and it took some eyestrain at first to see it. (before I got to the close-ups) I never heard about this and found it interesting.

Being markings, I wasn't sure whether to post it here or in the Hist/Tech section.

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/show ... ondb_1.htm

Ed-

[Cliffy B]

WOW! Neat find indeed man. Can anyone elaborate on this?

[Tracy White]

Dana gave me copies of some of the documents he found (I don't know if he found more after the fact, etc.) and I read through them. I actually don't have them with me on my laptop so I can't reference them while writing this, and I don't want to say too much and steal any thunder that he may have planned for future releases.

Put simply, there was a desire for US forces to be able to tell similar ships of the same class (at the very least) apart from each other, while hiding their identify from foreign forces. You wouldn't want an enemy fleet to be able to determine which was your flagship, for example. Experimental paints were developed, as he noted, but there were difficulties with viewing them as well as problems with the paint itself. There was some experimentation on the individual ships with the filters - unsanctioned and unofficial from what I remember, but they reported on it.

There are other photos showing these markings - I scanned in one back in October that they're visible on.

There was a notion or "common sense" that the Navy didn't do much with Camouflage between WWI and WWII, but this is another hint that this notion is not as true as we thought. There is an interesting story to discover here.

[Zad Fnark]

Very interesting stuff, Tracy.

The USN always seems to have taken a "scientific" approach to ship colors/markings, especially when groups like Eastman Kodak were involved. This seems similar in concept to today's IR markers today's troops use.

Ed-

[Tracy White]

Yes.. I never gave camouflage much thought until I volunteered to help Randy with his site. Since then, I've found USN camouflage to be an interesting and complex subject. You have the technical side working with the artistic side. You have the logistical problems, and hints of ego and hubris (Admiral King) as well as the quiet ones who were very influential (Charles Bittenger, Everett Warner, Dayton Brown....

I would love to be able to research the subject full time.