U.S. Navy Ships in WWII Dazzle Camouflage 1944-1945

Aircraft Carriers

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Fleet Carriers

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for CV-6

Design 4Ab

for CV-6

Design Number Silhouette Ships Wearing Design
for CV-6
Measure 33
Enterprise (CV-6)
Drawing

This is the composite of the two drawings for Measure 33 Design 4Ab for the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) dated February 23, 1944. The vertical colors were specified to be navy blue (5-N), haze gray (5-H) and pale gray (5-P) and the horizontal color was deck blue (20-B). This version of Design 4A labeled 4Ab has all solid edges instead of feathered edges as do the other 4A designs for escort carriers.

The First drawing for Design 4A was for USS Enterprise (CV-6) in March 1943. An August 1943 memo from the Pacific Fleet to the Bureau of Ships recommended: “Soft, graded patterns should be avoided until expert supervision for application may be made available.” The 4A Design for CV-6 was redrawn on February 23, 1944, and labeled 4Ab possibly because the design’s panels all had solid edges instead of the soft feathered edges of many panels of Design 4A. It is possible that the original Design 4A was modified to be 4Ab to comply with the PacFleet recommendation. Then on March 21, 1944, Design 4A was produced for the Bogue class of escort carriers and later on March 25, 1944, for the Casablanca class escort carriers and finally for the Charger class of escort carriers on May 8, 1944. Most of the escort carriers that wore Design 4A were in the Atlantic Fleet.

Original drawing source: NARA 80-G-170022.

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