Naval woodland camouflage

[tigercat]

I just read about Finnish Naval Camouflage . Apparently in Summer it was woodland and in winter white. Probably due to the islands amongst which they were designed to operate

http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/168-finnish-coastal-defence-ships/

Check out the "island " or  Ilmarinen

[kerick]

Wow, nice whiff ideas surrounding this bit of history!

[Father Ennis]

Really !!!   So who will be the first to build one     If not them,then something in the same vein of semi-Monitor...

[tigercat]

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/finnish-lighthouse-battleships

[Pellson]

Also Sweden and Chile routinely put camouflage on surface combatants. While I don't really know much about how Chile maintained their system, the Swedish Navy did keep the same camouflage regardless of season. Instead, different camouflage netting could be utilized as the main purpose of the camouflage was (as in the Finnish Navy) to conceal the ships while at hidden anchorages in the vast archipelagos of the country. A typical example of ship camo in the SwN can be the minelayer HMS Visborg:



Note that the colours used NOT matches the ones used by the army and the air force as these were intended to conceal equipment in forest environment while the navy aimed to make the ships look as much as parts of rocky islets as possible.

[Mossie]

Thanks for the info on the ships, not ones I knew about.

I remember seeing foliage used to conceal Tirpitz, not half as effective as that on the Ilmarinen though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tirpitz_camouflaged.jpg

[Captain Canada]

Wow...what a great thread ! Thanks Tigercat ! Love the links about the Finnish navy...what a neat ship that is ! And the island camo is phenomenal !

[perttime]

One of my mother's uncles died on the Ilmarinen.
The Finnish term for that class of ships was "panssarilaiva". That could be translated as "armoured ship".

Now, the Finnish navy doesn't have such large ships but they are still designed to operate in an archipelago, and much of the strength is painted in a woodland camo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina-class_missile_boat

http://www.puolustusvoimat.fi/portal/puolustusvoimat.fi/?1dmy&urile=wcm%3apath%3a/SU+Puolustusvoimat.fi/Puolustusvoimat.fi/Merivoimat/Perustietoa/02122009kalustoetusivu/Kalustokuvasto/

[Amphion]

....A typical example of ship camo in the SwN can be the minelayer HMS Visborg:

The ship in the photo is in fact HMS Älvsborg, a sistership, which was sold to Chile and became the Almirante Merino.