USN WW2 ship's bell camo ?

[mister me]

hello !

a little question :

concerning USN WW2 camo rules, are the ship's bells painted camo color or left bare natural bronze ?

thx !

[Tracy White]

I don't have anything concrete, but the 1943 Painting and Cementing Guide does say in the Miscellaneous section: "Frequently handled brightwork metal objects shall normally be left unpainted."

I don't think they would have been polished. I have a photo of North Carolina somewhere that I believe shows the bell in war time but I haven't had time to look for it.

[mister me]

ok then I will leave them in a dull natural bronze color then.

thanks !

[Tracy White]

I stumbled across this last week in the archives and can say we know that Missouri's was camouflaged when she was new at least:

1944-7-23_BB-63Bell.jpg

[EJFoeth]

Nice find

[Tracy White]

I know I have a couple of photos of North Carolina's aft superstructure probably including her bell, but they were miss-filed and I can't remember specifically where. I'll be looking for it again soon, now that the rush to prepare for the trip and trip itself is over.

[mister me]

ouch !

a new pandora's box openend ???? camo'ed ? yes ? no ?

[Tracy White]

Finally found the photo I was thinking of:

BB55 2444-43.jpg

Tone and luster of the bell look the same as the bulkhead behind to me.

[Admhawk]

I have to say a definite Maybe! I thought it might be tied to the Camo Measure, or ship size, but it's hard to tell. It seems more are painted than not, but as always, there are exceptions.

Destroyers Not Painted:




Destroyers Painted:



Cruiser Not Sure:


Cruiser, I don't think it's painted:


Cruisers Painted:

[Tracy White]

Stumbled across another shot tonight - this looks like the bell on CV-19 Hancock was camouflaged. November 1944, shot from one of the stern Quad 40mms looking forward. The bell wasn't fully in the photo.