Dazzle camouflage, also known as Razzle Dazzle or Dazzle painting, was a camouflage paint scheme used on ships, mainly during World War I. It consisted of a complex pattern of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other. At first glance it seems like an unlikely form of camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it. Dazzle camouflage had a very specific purpose, however, which was to make it difficult to estimate the target ship’s speed and heading and so disrupt the performance of the visual rangefinders used for naval artillery at the time. In other words, its purpose was confusion, rather than concealment.
