Big Draw: Tanks and Dazzle Camouflage

If you follow our Facebook page you may have seen the amazing video that the Learning Officer at Brent Museum and Archives has put together explaining how to make a Dazzle Camouflage boat. We will be running a creative workshop connected to the nation wide Big Draw event in the foyer of Brent Civic Centre on Wednesday 29 October from 11:30am-4pm. We want to invite everyone to come and create a boat to build a massive flotilla.

 

 

So what is Dazzle Camouflage I hear some of you cry?

Well I hope some of these paintings give you a clue. Painting a Dazzle design on British ships was introduced in 1914. The sometimes garish colours painted in huge geometric shapes over a ships hull optically distorted the appearance of the ship. The Dazzle paint meant that it was very difficult for the enemy submarines to tell which direction the ship was traveling in and this would make it much harder for the submarines to fire accurately at the ship and sink it. Over 2,000 ships received this new jazzy paintwork. Each pattern was unique and many of the designs were created by women from the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

We do not see ships decked out in these amazing designs any more because the invention of radar made the dazzle effect obsolete. However some ships and even buildings were still being painted with Dazzle camouflage during the Second World War. The Gaumount State Cinema in Kilburn was painted with a dazzle design to try and optically distort its shape as it was so much taller than the surround buildings enemy aircraft may have tried to bomb it or used its location to help them navigate . You can see in these images from the Brent Museum and Archives collection some of the remaining paint on the Cinema.

 

 

So please come and join us on the 29 October at Brent Civic Centre to help us create the best flotilla Brent has ever seen. There will be lots of other events and activities happening that day in the Civic Centre so we hope to see you then.

For more information please visit our First World War webpage:

www.brent.gov.uk/firstworldwar

http://www.thebigdraw.org