How to camouflage a boat?

[mlines]

Ok, so it was a success but....

From the BBC today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-16720305

It is understood the perilous journey was almost ended shortly after it started when the group was intercepted and machine gunned by a German plane.

They returned to land and set out again with the boat camouflaged by tree branches, and completed the long journey.

Sounds really like a Monty Python sketch. Surely a "tree" navigating its way across the water is just a tiny bit suspicious, I would have thought a few lobster pots, oilies and rollneck sweaters plus a cheery fishermans wave would have been better!

 

[Twister_Ken]

I see from the photocaption it is being handed over by Don Marr. Presumably he kept it in his warehouse?

 

[jhr]

<Groan>

 

[Blueboatman]

Well it was acting up a bit, the first time out

 

[ianabc]

The camouflage of the Suez Canal was

The camouflage of the Suez Canal was so good that Axis bombers could not find the canal....

 

[little_roundtop]

Not like this then?

 

[Babylon]

Surely a "tree" navigating its way across the water is just a tiny bit suspicious

Yes and no. Aside from their making use of readily-available materials, there is a good logic to this. Any scheme involving irregular, natural forms (branches not whole trees) which helps break up the easily-identifiable form of a small traditional boat would work to make their presence less spottable from the air. In terms also of colour, tree branches (grey) and leaves (deep green) from a distance smudge into the approximate colour of the sea, and could be mistaken for a large patch of detached seaweed. It also wouldn't be unusual, closer to shore where German planes would be more prevalent, to find foliage swept down rivers and out to sea.

Anyway, they were brave buggers and they made it.

 

[Seajet]

Dazzle Ships

In WWII the FW Condor aircraft were a bit of a snag even mid- Atlantic; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage