Warship Color Schemes
in World War I

Germany, Turkey, and Italy

by Mal Wright

Germany

Officially mid-grey hull with light grey upperworks and funnels. I've already mentioned the decks above. Most waterlines were painted green, rather than black. Later in the war a darker grey hull was introduced and the light grey upperworks retained. Turret tops were painted black or dark gray with white circles, for identification by Zeppelins.

The Germans went through very little changes in their schemes....they were not at sea often enough to have as much experience with visibility problems as the British. Canvas remained white for some time but was eventually painted pale grey. It is possible that the 'white' canvas, was in fact just the difference in light between metal and canvas surfaces painted in light grey. This could have been corrected later by darkening the grey to make it appear the same.

As with the British, it was common for large areas of horizontal deck around the funnels to be painted in matt black. Torpedo boats were painted black for most of the war. Later they went to mid grey and light grey or a combina-tion of both.

German submarines started out painted in mid grey. They later adopted dark grey decks and in some cases styles of disruptive camouflage. Mid-grey with dark grey decks and light grey conning tower seems to be the end of war standard.

Turkey

The Turkish major ships were normally painted in a pale khaki and the wooden decks being less scrubbed were browner. This was because of their role as a mostly coastal navy. Under German influence some ships were repainted grey. Canvas was painted in khaki as well, but this was far from standard. Waterlines, where painted in, were red. Torpedo boats were normally black or later khaki.

Italy

Italy used very dark blue grey in the early period, but went to pale grey later. The turret tops were painted in dark grey in all schemes. Many upper deck horizontal surfaces were painted dark grey. Black was commonly used around the funnels and areas where coal was loaded. The shade of pale grey was so pale as to appear almost white in some photographs. Torpedo boats were black, but later went to pale grey or mid grey.

More WWI Camoflage

BT


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