The origin of PERTH's camouflage.

[JervisBay]

I'm 162 pages into "Cruiser: The Life And Loss Of HMAS PERTH And Her Crew" (Mike Carlton, 2010. ISBN 978 1 86471 133 2) and, to my delight, came across the following extract (reproduced verbatim), which explains the Perth's camouflage:-

 

"On 28th. December [1940. Perth is attached to the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria] Perth's crew was over the side with the paint pots and brushes once again. It had been decided, on high, that the ship's pale grey paint should be replaced by a dazzling camouflage pattern to confuse enemy lookouts. In the days before radar - the Italian navy had none at all - the theory was than an observer would have difficulty telling whether the ship was coming or going.

 

There had already been an attempt in this direction. Some genius had got the idea of breaking up the cruiser's distinctive silhouette by adding odd-shaped sheets of metal to her two tall funnels. There was no science to back this up, just a rather vague hope that it might have some effect. No one ever found out if it did or not.

 

And there was not much more science in the camouflage. Everyone on board was asked to come up with ideas for a pattern. Ordinary Seaman Ross Birbeck, a young bloke who had been a hairdresser at Victor Harbour, in South Australia, won two bottles of beer with a design of big arcs of paint swooping along the ship's sides and superstructure in contrasting shades of grey. They thought that, from a distance, it made Perth look like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which ought to be more than enough to fool the dopey Eye-ties".

 

NOTE.
The camouflage pattern depicted in WoWs is that which Perth wore in her last days, not the pattern used when in the Med in 1940/41.

There were several patterns, the 1940 design (outlined above) being the first. The sheet metal appliques on the funnels, however, stayed with Perth to her end.

 

If you have an interest in Perth, I recommend this book. It is extremely well researched, beautifully written and a pleasure to read. At 700-odd pages, it is the reference for Perth.

 

LATE FOOTNOTE.

There is also Ray Parkin's first-hand account of life aboard Perth. Ray is mentioned many times in Carlton's tome.

Following the sinking Ray became a prisoner of war, came home to Australia following the war's end and went on to write his accounts of his experiences.

They are available as trilogy now but original copies may still be picked up online.

 

The three separate writings are "Out Of The Smoke"...his life aboard Perth; "Into The Smother"....his account of his captivity on the infamous and horrendous Burma Railway; and "The Sword And The Blossom"....an account of his last twelve months as a POW in Japan mining coal.

 

Ray went on to write what experts world-wide consider to be the definitive work on HM Bark Endeavour, James Cook's ship.

[anonymised]

What a neat story. <3 my perth. 

[crzyhawk]

I'll have to check that out.  The story of the ABDACOM FLOAT ships is something that interests me, Perth is a particular favorite of mine.  I don't think a warship could die a finer death than what Perth and Houston died in Sunda straight.

[SilhoutteFG]

Its a damn good read that one, I'm looking forward to getting hold of Mike's book on HMAS Australia.

 

https://www.amazon.com.au/d/ebook/Flagship-Cruiser-HMAS-Australia-Pacific-War-Japan/B01E96DQW4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1488865101&sr=1-1&keywords=9780857987792

[Fiona_Marshe]

Also, the ingame camo was only ever completed on the starboard side. Portside was blank paint as they deployed in a hurry after observation and camo design trials.

 

See www.AWM.gov.au photo archives.

 

(Primary source confirmed as well. The last two survivors live locally)

[JervisBay]

Its a damn good read that one, I'm looking forward to getting hold of Mike's book on HMAS Australia..

 

I bought that before Christmas and couldn't put it down.

Now I'm doing the same with "Cruiser...."

Carlton now has three HMAS books to his name (The first was about the Perth, the second - "First Victory" - about HMAS Sydney I & Emden and the third - "Flagship" - about HMAS Australia II) and has become an absolute "must read" author.

[JervisBay]

Also, the ingame camo was only ever completed on the starboard side. Portside was blank paint as they deployed in a hurry after observation and camo design trials.

 

You should have prefaced that info with "Spoiler Alert"!

[ES84312]

Life & loss of HMAS Perth, with Mike Carlton Part 1

[JervisBay]

Life & loss of HMAS Perth, with Mike Carlton Part 1

 

Thank you...I wasn't aware of the address given by Mike Carlton.

[hexeris]

Reading it now, great book. His book on HMAS Australia is next on the list. Perth is also one of my favourite ships in game, wish we could get the Australia as well....

[JervisBay]

........ wish we could get the Australia as well....

 

That would certainly be something to enjoy........or the Sydney - either I or II.

[JervisBay]

Also, the ingame camo was only ever completed on the starboard side. Portside was blank paint as they deployed in a hurry after observation and camo design trials.

 

See www.AWM.gov.au photo archives.

 

(Primary source confirmed as well. The last two survivors live locally)

 

Fiona....

We may all be somewhat confused...including the AWM!

Why?

Well...here is one pic of the ship taken just a couple of months before her loss. It shows the starboard side as one shade of grey:- https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P00041.031

Here is another, also taken after her refit (but perhaps earlier than the one above), which shows the starboard side as depicted in WoWs...diagonal stripes:- https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/301160/

 

Yet further into Carlton's book he states that when the ship returned to Sydney from the Med in 1941 she went into Garden Island for a complete refit and left for duty in the Pacific with two different camouflage patterns....that on the starboard side was different to that on the port side.

 

Not that it matters one iota now, of course, but it is an interesting conundrum - did Perth sport two patterns or did she have one side of her hull left in her standard grey and, if so, which side?

[Fiona_Marshe]

First photo was repaint immediately prior to camo testing (was only blank for a couple of weeks.) Test camo was then applied to starboard side for aerial observation trials.

 

Port side never had time to be done afterwards.

[Xechran]

"There had already been an attempt in this direction. Some genius had got the idea of breaking up the cruiser's distinctive silhouette by adding odd-shaped sheets of metal to her two tall funnels. There was no science to back this up, just a rather vague hope that it might have some effect. No one ever found out if it did or not.

 

And there was not much more science in the camouflage. Everyone on board was asked to come up with ideas for a pattern. Ordinary Seaman Ross Birbeck, a young bloke who had been a hairdresser at Victor Harbour, in South Australia, won two bottles of beer with a design of big arcs of paint swooping along the ship's sides and superstructure in contrasting shades of grey. They thought that, from a distance, it made Perth look like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which ought to be more than enough to fool the dopey Eye-ties".

 

 

Wait, please tell me this isn't an actual verbatim quote from the book. However well researched it may be " Some genius had got the idea of breaking up the cruiser's distinctive silhouette" is an awful informal tone for an authoritative work. And counterproductive too. The phrase itself notes Perth had an easily distinguishable silhouette, identifying a ship correctly is an important part of range finding. Any effort to alter the silhouette that might delay a correct id can be crucial. Remember a certain pair of ships firing on Prinz Eugene thinking she was Bismark?

 

The "dopey eye-ties" business sounds more like a joke someone took way too seriously. Please tell me this is just tongue in cheek authorship.

[ArmouredCarriers]

 

Mike Carleton is a journalist.

Not a historian.

So I guess the dulcet tones of the smoking room hasn't permeated his writing style.

 

He also focuses on the human story.

The raw history is very well covered - and written - in the book mentioned by the OP

 

He's also a dying breed - a traditional Aussie who wasn't raised on a diet of US sit-coms.

So he doesn't do starch, pompousness, self-importance or formality terribly well.

Kind of like the sailors he is writing about.

 

Yeah, Carleton's book and other sources states the camo was only applied to Perth very shortly before she deployed to Malaya.

The port side, from memory, was a different shade and was wavy.

[Xechran]

 

He's also a dying breed - a traditional Aussie who wasn't raised on a diet of US sit-coms.

So he doesn't do starch, pompousness, self-importance or formality terribly well.

 

 

*Shrug* Don't think its starch pompousness to give the crew due credit for what they accomplished. Lets look at the camo situation. They needed a pattern they could apply on the fly. The commander used it as a morale boost competition. And, to my knowledge, none of the UK camo patterns had 'science' behind them. Each ship had its own unique camo to make identification more difficult, something I noted as beneficial before, so its not like they gave anything up for it.

[creamgravy]

This is a great website for profile pictures http://www.perthone.com/pcamflge.html

 

"Harbour Bridge" would be a fantastic 2nd camo option 

[JervisBay]

 

Wait, please tell me this isn't an actual verbatim quote from the book. ......

The "dopey eye-ties" business sounds more like a joke someone took way too seriously. Please tell me this is just tongue in cheek authorship.

 

"Formidable" has responded to this comment perfectly so I will limit my response to simply say that Mike Carlton has produced a book (and his other two are in the same style) which is [a] fastidiously researched - complete with references and citations, written in a style which uses everyday English; where technical terms are used they are explained in layman's language and [c] is devoid of verbal pomp and circumstance, thus making the book eminently readable by anyone who enjoys a good story.

For that is what it is....the story of the Perth and her crew....it is NOT a technical publication and nor is it an official war diary or memoir.

 

And it is written by an Australian......so he calls a spade a spade where required.

[JervisBay]

 

 

*Shrug* Don't think its starch pompousness to give the crew due credit for what they accomplished. Lets look at the camo situation. They needed a pattern they could apply on the fly. The commander used it as a morale boost competition. And, to my knowledge, none of the UK camo patterns had 'science' behind them. Each ship had its own unique camo to make identification more difficult, something I noted as beneficial before, so its not like they gave anything up for it.

 

You're missing the point.....which leads to the question: have you read the book? (I would guess the answer is "no".)

The point is that the first camouflage pattern was the result of a competition involving the crew. Submit your idea and win two bottles of beer!

 

How many camouflage patterns in the US and UK navies have resulted from a shipboard art exhibition?!

 

By-the-way....the crew receive all due credit for their accomplishments right throughout the book. But they do so in the Australian style and vernacular, without the pomposity often seen in official works.

[JervisBay]

This is a great website for profile pictures http://www.perthone.com/pcamflge.html

 

"Harbour Bridge" would be a fantastic 2nd camo option 

 

Many thanks....that is indeed a great reference source.

[Fiona_Marshe]

Had a talk with David Manning earlier in the week about the HMAS Perth camouflage.

 

 

*. Port Side still had visible "rainbow" camouflage when the ship left Sydney (from deck level).  Reconciling this with the aerial photographs after leaving port, my understanding is that the dark stripe may have been overpainted with a lighter colour in preparation for the new scheme.  From the deck the old pattern was still strongly visible.  David's port side gun mount was inside of the 'rainbow arc' so was looking at it every day.

 

He digressed a bit after that about Mike Carlton (the journalist/author in the first post).  Two of Mr Manning's stories are in the book.  He was not impressed with the book and has refused to speak to him since, as Mike "inserted words into quotes that I never used and would never have used" to make the story more dramatic and stated he was a 'journalist, not an author'.

 

The most egregious problem was that the:

"camp commander did not make a 'grovelling bow' to the prisoners.  The Japanese commander paraded his troops in full uniform and fully armed.  He then made a long speech that went for nearly an hour before turning to us [the prisoners] and making a deep bow.  After all those years, we [the prisoners] understood the exact meaning of what a bow in Japanese culture meant.  It was a respectful bow.  And with that, we knew that we [the allies] had won the war."

 

Mr Manning caught up with Frank McGovern last month as well and they apparently had a long chat about various things.  The anecdote shared with me about that meeting was that Mr Manning got a story from Mr McGovern about the RN cadets being flown out of Singapore on the 13th/14th February by the Governor as "they were the future of the Royal Navy.  You should not have to suffer what is coming".  That story is probably 3rd or 4th hand, as Mr McGovern would have gotten it while a POW a few weeks after the event.

[JervisBay]

.........Two of Mr Manning's stories are in the book.  He was not impressed with the book and has refused to speak to him since, as Mike "inserted words into quotes that I never used and would never have used" to make the story more dramatic and stated he was a 'journalist, not an author'......

There is no question that Carlton is not an "author", but a journalist.

He has, on several occasions, referred to his work on the three books as assembling the results of his research and interviews. He would be the first person to agree with the statement made by Mr. Manning.

But also take into account that the passage of time can play nasty tricks with memory; we can swear blind that we never said or did something or, alternatively, that we did say or do something, yet unless we have diarised the event at the time it occurred, we may never know the truth of the matter.

After 70+ years, to be able to recall a conversation exactly as it transpired would be quite something. I'm 71 and can't remember the exact words of discussions I had six months ago.

[atPrick__]

He's also a dying breed - a traditional Aussie who wasn't raised on a diet of US sit-coms.

 

So he doesn't do starch, pompousness, self-importance or formality terribly well.

 

Kind of like the sailors he is writing about.

 

 

[Xechran]

 

He digressed a bit after that about Mike Carlton (the journalist/author in the first post).  Two of Mr Manning's stories are in the book.  He was not impressed with the book and has refused to speak to him since, as Mike "inserted words into quotes that I never used and would never have used" to make the story more dramatic and stated he was a 'journalist, not an author'.

 

 

 

That fits the impression I got from the excerpts. History doesn't need sexing up.

[ArmouredCarriers]

Yeah: It's simply unforgivable to change a direct quote.

When paraphrasing, 'journalistic license' can apply to some degree.

When quoting - no way.