During a tour of the USS Cassin Young one of the guides mentioned how the grey ships were synonymous with the Cold War and it became the standard. I understand how camp might be considered obsolete with radar. But why was grey chosen? Why not stay with the dark blues for even the slightest sight advantage?
A coming together of operational and non operational factors came together to keep the Navy 'Haze Grey and Underway" as it were.
But first we should note that it wasn't really a new thing, but a return in spirit at least to the fleet's Inter War look. The Prewar #5 Grey paint actually had a bit of a blue tint to it as well and was the baseline really for all changes the USN began looking to try from the late 30's on. #5 OG Battleship Grey.
And it did have its benefits too, especially at long range it could help the ship become less distinct with the horizon and water, especially in places where the seas and skies were something less than a stunning blue usually, such as the North Atlantic. But it was perceived in some way correctly as not being very helpful in breaking up the outline at closer distances. And with the maturation of naval aviation questions had to be asked about how the ships would stand out from the air. And aside from actual paint schemes throughout 1940 and 1941 that got progressively more blue, and also changed the tint as the old gray was also disliked for its perceived reflectiveness making it easier to spot ships. These colors, referred to as 5-D (Dark Grey) 5-S (Sea Blue) 5-N (Navy Blue) along with additional grey versions were applied to most of the fleet by December 7th in one form or another, hence why in many reproductions why Battleship Row can look downright blue. They were numbered 5 because Bureau of Ships used that to indicate that they were to be applied to vertical surfaces vs the decks for instance.
Building off those prewar experiments(and decisions like painting the masts white to try to hide their outline), additional testing, and British experiences you get the assortment and ever evolving camo patterns that seek to do more than use colors to hide a ship but use patterns or alternating color stripes. Starting with Measure 12 one of the first to enter service which is characterized by a wavy pattern of assorted blues and greys with darker colors lower to the water and lighter on top, in order to try to hide the ships outline and create the impression of false waves to make judging speed harder.
But even then ship camo can be of dubious value in many situations, in late 1943 the skipper of the destroyer Jenkins made a memo on the effectiveness of the different patterns then being used by the 6 fast battleships then in service in the Pacific. Full Report
In daylight when ships are hull down variations in color are almost impossible to observe; masts and superstructure under nearly all conditions become merely gray shapes above the horizon. The light superstructure of the MASSACHUSETTS and WASHINGTON blended with a bright sky and might impede daylight detection. However, camouflage has little effect on long range detection of the presence of ships during daylight hours. The maximum range would be between 22,000 and 26,000 yards depending on the alertness of personnel. Overcast skies seemed to make little difference as long as the horizon was not obscured by mist or squalls.
So at the point during which ships might still get the drop on one another it really didnt matter during the day what they were painted. And at night:
At night in all situations the INDIANA, and to a lesser extent the NORTH CAROLINA, was the easiest to spot due to the white blotches in camouflage. Next came the SOUTH DAKOTA and ALABAMA. Most difficult of all to see were the MASSACHUSETTS and especially the WASHINGTON. The combination of two-tone camouflage and separated superstructure of the WASHINGTON was the most effective camouflage at night. ... At night the dark paint of the SOUTH DAKOTA and ALABAMA made them loom up as bulky and therefore as large ships.
And while just one ship's observations it is indicative of the general experience with the pros and cons of different applied patterns.
Come 1944 though a new problem starts to crop up, those alternating color stripes and patterns help a bit for things like sub firing solutions, but for an aircraft they dont do much. Indeed simpler patterns that had a better chance of just blending into the ocean below could do slightly better in the face of the Kamikaze threat for instance, and some of the dazzle patterns could even make a ship more obvious from the air. So in 1945 for the Fast Carrier Force you actually see camo patterns become more simplified in general, with fewer colors, and in general making use of deck paints that were generally darker to begin with. In part because at the ranges where the ship might hope to evade detection from the air many of those stripes and patterns which might fool a sub, or confuse a gun layer were simply too small to be useful. And in the end there were 100's of instances where the USN forces came under attack from aircraft during the final stages of the Pacific War, really into the 1,000's if we count each individual strike, and only a small handful of surface engagements. So you see what became known as Camouflage Measure 13 which in most ways was a return to basics just with slightly new paint mixtures.
Meanwhile the general experience had been that haze grey tended to offer the best impact for the effort of keeping the ship painted, and the ships, and hundreds of support units and bases stocked with paint that was at least consistent enough to be mixed and be within tolerances.
So come the post war with budgets slashed and the situations where a simpler pattern offered a good amount of the benefit of a more complex one, and Haze Grey offered the best all around performance its no mystery why that became the default again. And we can honestly see plenty of times the modern Haze Grey still little changed can help ships blend in when far away or with any sort of weather.
A Tico and a pair of Burkes in fog..
The cruiser Oklahoma City underway on a clear day in the Sea of Japan.
And the USS Fitzgerald and an unknown Tico on the far side in some light fog again
Part of the impression is also bias in our data set. Nobody is usually going to the trouble of doing a photo-ex and taking pictures of the ship or task force in bad weather or when the views arent great so we also simply have plenty more photos of ships in calm clear blue seas and skies since thats when itll look nicest and its easiest to do.
