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

Aircraft Carriers

View by Design Number

Escort Carriers

View by Design Number

for CVE-9

Design 4A

for CVE-9

Design Number Silhouette Ships Wearing Design
for CVE-9
Measure 32
Bogue (CVE-9)Card (CVE-11)
Core (CVE-13)Block Island (CVE-21)
Croatan (CVE-25)Prince William (CVE-31)
Drawing

This is the composite of the two drawings for Measure 32 Design 4A for the Bogue class escort carriers dated March 21, 1944. The vertical colors were specified to be navy blue (5-N), haze gray (5-H), light gray (5-L) and pale gray (5-P) and the horizontal color was deck blue (20-B). On this drawing this color combination is called Measure 32, but on some other drawings this combination might be Measure 33. Like other Design 4A drawings, some edges of the navy blue (5-N) were intended to “feather” or slowly blend into the lighter color. Feathering usually required using a sprayer and might only be done at a port facility. Also notice the note in the upper left about countershading. There is a slight inconsistency in the stern view from the port view in regards to the 5-H/5-L panel in each view.

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 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 as above 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-172975 and 80-G-172976.

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