German Naval Camouflage

CONTENTS Foreword

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Introduction Types of Camouflage Scale Effect Antecedents: Naval Markings in the Kaiser's Navy The White Circle Aerial Identification System Early Kriegsmarine Camouflage, to 1941

Individual Colour Schemes

Individual Colour Schemes (Cont’d) DESTROYERS

7 10 16 18 19 23

Z4 Richard Beitzen German destroyers, Operation Weserübung Z5 Paul Jacobi Z6 Theodor Riedel Z8 Bruno Heinemann Z14 Friedrich Ihn Z10 Hans Lody Z24 Z25 Z27 Z29

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CAPITAL SHIPS

Bismarck Tirpitz Gneisenau Scharnhorst

27 39 48 59

HEAVY CRUISERS

Deutschland/Lützow Admiral Scheer Admiral Graf Spee Admiral Hipper Blücher Prinz Eugen

74 82 94 105 123 126

LIGHT CRUISERS

Emden Königsberg Karlsruhe Köln Leipzig Nürnberg

140 145 153 157 164 170

177 178 179 179 180 181 182 183 184 184 188

Appendix German Shipboard Floatplane Colours and Markings, to 1941

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Sources

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Credits

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German Naval Camouflage 1939 – 1941 Tirpitz, December 1941

The Tirpitz as she appeared in December 1941 while in Gotenhafen (Gdynia). The main turrets are covered by canvas.

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Underneath she still carries the dark turret tops.

Tirpitz

The Tirpitz at the Seebahnhof in Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in December 1941 during her sea trials.

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GNEISENAU

Interested Japanese officers from a visiting delegation look on as Gneisenau arrives at Brest from her Atlantic operation, 23 March 1940. Note the pennants, each denoting one of her victims. The picture shows how badly the paint deteriorated after months in the Atlantic where sprucing up was challenging, especially in winter. One often sees several earlier schemes beneath a worn surface. Here a dark grey panel painted over the Baltic scheme can be seen beneath the light (hull) grey, and beneath this the remnants of a false white ‘bow’ wave and another dark grey panel of said scheme.

Gneisenau’s identifier during the harsh winter weather of early 1940. In something of an anomaly, Scharnhorst would wear a white circle on ‘A’ turret at about the same time. The only (apparent) difference on Scharnhorst’s turret top is a third colour on the circle centre, possibly red. There are signs that the Kriegsmarine was in the process of fine-tuning this air recognition system. Alternatively, it may have been a ruse to confuse enemy reconnaissance as both ships were locked in ice and ripe for air attack. The entire system was dropped shortly after this picture was taken.

Gneisenau Gneisenau, Kieler FĂśrde, 21 May 1938

The last and largest Kriegsmarine naval review was celebrated in Navy Week on this date. There were dignitaries from Hungary present as the symbolically named Prinz Eugen was to be launched. Yet, inexplicably, Gneisenau – then flagship of a rapidly expanding Kreigsmarine – was sparsely bestowed with regalia: nothing but a ship's crest, nameplate and bronze NSDAP eagle (Reichsadler) aft. By contrast, Scharnhorst displayed far more heraldry at the same event. The simplified Gneisenau shield of arms (Wappen) carried either side of the stem was derived from the much more intricate design of the entire family coat of arms (or

Familienwappen). This early version of the shield made liberal use of metallic paints. These are here represented in light greys and yellows (centre right detail) but precisely which metallic tones were used is uncertain. Note the safety-tread surface under the port and starboard 10.5cm AA mounts; this was different from the type used on her sistership Scharnhorst. In the absence of further evidence, doubts exist about the use of linoleum on this deck. The peculiar seaplane perched on the centre catapult is an He 114 prototype. Gneisenau tested several aircraft types up to 1939. Markings and colours for this machine are accurate.

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German Naval Camouflage 1939 – 1941 Gneisenau, mid 1939 to early 1940 Scheme 1

Scheme 2

Scheme 3

Scheme 4

During the early months of the war the Kriegsmarine gradually evolved their air IFF white circle system. This plate is intended to clarify the markings used by Gneisenau. Note that the 10.5cm AA deck now had teak in lieu of the textured steel plates welded on the deck seen in the previous illustration.

Scheme 1: Used on Gneisenau's foreign visits, summer 1939. The seaplane is one of the first batch of twenty Ar 196s delivered to the Luftwaffe.

Markings are accurate.

Scheme 2: The white stripe was painted on the turret top in late 1939

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(autumn?). Fortunately, there is good colour ciné footage of the background marking, which is known to be black or very dark grey. Crisp photos do exist of Leipzig with a similar multi-coloured marking.

Scheme 3: Gneisenau's most likely appearance as she forayed into the North Atlantic and pounced upon HMS Rawalpindi in the Iceland Gap, November 1939. The marking changed little but for the dark colour extending onto the turret director housing tops.

Scheme 4: 1940. Using the white circle system with ‘A’ turret marked, as was customary for ‘first of class’ ships

Gneisenau Gneisenau, early Norwegian operations, 9-23 April 1940

By some accounts Gneisenau’s main turret tops were painted yellow as early as 10 February 1940. If this was so, then the ship would have used them for Operation Nordmark. The turrets were certainly so coloured when she provided distant cover for the invasion of Norway in April 1940.

This was her appearance as she and her sistership encountered a British battle group and the ensuing duel with HMS Renown. A few days later, by order of Naval high Command the turrets were repainted red to

distinguish Kriegsmarine ships from Royal Navy ships that had begun to mimic German markings.

The air recognition markings are slightly unusual: the fore and aft disks were usually the same size, but not here. Also, there are earlier photos showing a longitudinally aligned swastika aft, but this was soon changed to the more common oblique version. Orders for the use of this device were not needlessly specific.

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German Naval Camouflage 1939 – 1941 Gneisenau, Operation Juno, 4 June 1940

Gneisenau’s appearance as her battle group sank HMS Glorious, her escorts and several other warships. She was similar but not identical to her accompanying sistership in several details, including both turret top paint scheme and the size and shape of the deck swastika markings.

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Opposite: The upper side view shows the damage inflicted by the torpedo attack

by HMS/M Clyde. There are colour photos that show the wounded Gneisenau in a fjord with red turrets, which she would have repainted while under the Luftwaffe air umbrella. Less than a year later it became customary to cover these conspicuous markings as soon as ships were safely inside friendly airspace. The RAF (and indeed airpower in general) proved to be a greater threat than previously envisaged by naval planners in all navies.

Gneisenau Gneisenau, Norway, mid 1940

The lower view is a representation of Gneisenau’s starboard side after temporary repairs to allow her to sail back to Kiel for dry-docking.

The upperworks are known to have been painted up in Norway at the same time as the hull, but it may have been removed for the voyage home, because there is evidence supporting the light upperworks seen

here. This is one of the ad hoc ’Norwegian schemes’ adopted by many surface units of the Kriegsmarine using the usual ‘peacetime colours’ in sloppily applied panels. Also shown is the patch-up job made on the forecastle sides down to waterline level. Research on the matter continues.

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German Naval Camouflage 1939 – 1941

DESTROYERS

The derelict This photo ofbow Königsberg’s of Z11 beached starboard at the midship head of area Rombaksfjord. is unremarkable Just – visible is the red stripe surrounding the white disk of the air IFF flag, stretching The dark port grey to starboard (Dunkelgrau) right across the foredeck. As the war progressed many units, especially smaller ones, dispensed with the red background. This is always hard to define, as the dark grey used contrasted poorly with red, which registers very dark on the black and white film of the period.

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Destroyers Z4 Richard Beitzen, 1940-1941

The ship is shown in standard peacetime colours (above), as indeed were most of the German destroyers early in the war. In fact, many German destroyers looked just like this throughout the war, even when deployed outside the Baltic.

Beitzen made her way to Brest late in 1940 and remained there until July 1941. Several photos – many of them in colour – show the ship wearing the complex semi-geometric camouflage depicted in the lower

illustration. Complex as it was, the scheme was almost identical port and starboard.* Of interest are the few area abreast the funnels with panels in off-white (Schnellbootweiss). Light coloured geometric areas are also seen on the funnel caps, but this was likely unpainted heat resistant paint, which was silverish and somewhat reflective. By early 1942 this camouflage was changed for a simpler disruptive scheme similar to that of Admiral Hipper.

*The possibility sometimes exists that negatives or photos are simply flipped and not truly port to starboard shots.

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German Naval Camouflage 1939 – 1941 Bismarck, German destroyers, 24 AugustOperation 1940, as commissioned Weserübung, 13 April 1940

No camouflage system had ever been used on German warships while on operations and when war broke out ships wore their standard peacetime colours. This was not peculiar to the Kriegsmarine. Italy’s Regia Marina would not delve into the matter seriously well into 1940, with the first schemes appearing in March of the next year. The Imperial Japanese Navy would tarry even more and most of their warships never used any type of concealment.

The destroyer in the side and top plan view is unidentified; next down

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is the plan view of Z11 Bernd Von Arnim and finally the same view for Z18 Hans Lüdemann (bottom). All are depicted on the same day when they were sunk during the Weserübung operations in Norway.* These variations show how captains interpreted the orders when applying the national markings. There is a strong possibility that some of the destroyers used all yellow coloured semi-turrets, as it was certainly done later on in the war; and, again, orders were not that specific. Except for the upper bridge, the decks were dark grey (Dunkelgrau). *The after flag positions on Z11 and Z18 are speculative

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Destroyers Deutschland, Z5 Paul Jacobi, Wilhelmshaven, Trondheim, June late1940 1933

Another of the previously mentioned ad hoc Norwegian camouflages, as seen on this destroyer in a fjord. No starboard view is available but this gives a good idea of just how hurried the efforts were (inset detail). It would seem that as the crew went about painting the turrets from fore to

aft, the paint was running out. The colours were standard peacetime greys from the ship’s paint lockers. Z4 Richard Beitzen is also seen about that time with a similarly applied pattern throughout vertical surfaces.*

Z6 Theodor Riedel, Norway 1941

Z6 as seen in Norwegian waters in late 1941 or early 1942, this design was the first ‘standard’ destroyer scheme with several destroyers of the 1936 type wearing it almost identically at the time. The unusual and

barely discernible ‘propeller wash’ painted aft seems more like creative thinking though.

*Also see plates ‘Gneisenau, Norway, mid 1940’, ‘Admiral Hipper, Norway, August 1940’, and ‘Nürnberg, Operation Nora, Trondheim or Elvegardsmoen, 14-19 June 1940’, on pp 53, 113 and 173.

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