HMS Nelson - 1941 through 1945 camouflage

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

We have been working behind the scenes with our friend Richard Dennis for some time to map out how HMS Nelson's camouflage scheme evolved from the beginning of WW2 through to the end of the war.

 

We are fairly comfortable we have these mostly right, and indeed various snippets of colour cinefilm help us pin down certain starting points to work away from (e.g. B5 and MS4 on the port side of B-turret as shown in the screen capture below). There is always room for uncertainty of course, and there's always a chance we're mistaken in some areas. We have mapped here the camouflage changes and time windows as best we are able to. We hope these are useful to model makers.

 

Happy modelling folks!

 

With the Home Fleet until being torpedoed in September 1941:

 

After refit she was painted in a new Admiralty Disruptive pattern scheme through to late 1942:

 

By spring 1943 she had received some detail changes, including deletion of the MS4 "slash" on the starboard quarter and the starboard side of the funnel being painted mostly B5 similar to the port side:

 

The 1941 era "MS & B" paints were, as many now know, replaced with the simplified "G&B" series paints as of May 1943. We don't know when HMS Nelson would have started to repaint after the new paints came into use, but photographs of her into 1944 still show tidy paintwork so reason suggests that her MS4 was replaced with the tonal equivalent B30, giving the ship a new overall bluish appearance:

 

She headed to the east coast of the USA for refit in late 1944 and emerged in January 1945 sporting new Bofors AA gun mounts on equally new platforms. She left the dockyard wearing the new Admiralty standard "Scheme A":

 

[foeth]

You probably saw this clip, but just in case: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060015143

(at around the 45s mark).

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi EJ, I had not infact seen that particular clip before although it's somewhat ghostly seeing Orkney in colour on cinefilm as I recognize some of those locations and the place looks much the same today unlike Shetland where I was born which underwent a drastic "modernisation" at the end of the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of the UK's oil industry which passed Orkney by.

 

Fortunately the clip of Nelson doesn't change my views of what colours she was wearing. I think we can safely say this was still fairly early in the stated time window too thanks to particular details in the camouflage design which were painted out in 1943.

[foeth]

For me, the clip is a great confirmation of the research effort on the colours (pattern second); such a good fit. Not that I had doubts  I do not know the region though, as far as Scotland is concerned I only visited Edinburgh (vacation) and Glasgow (work)… more visiting is required!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       G'day @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies, @foeth, I thought that was interesting footage, particularly the guns firing and the 'blow-outs' after. Thanks for sharing.

I'm certainly no expert but I thought it was early/mid war rather than later because the Edinburgh/Belfast class cruiser at 3.46 and 4.20 didn't have a radar lantern abaft the main director on the fwd superstructure.       Regards, Jeff.

[EwenS]

12 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

       G'day @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies, @foeth, I thought that was interesting footage, particularly the guns firing and the 'blow-outs' after. Thanks for sharing.

I'm certainly no expert but I thought it was early/mid war rather than later because the Edinburgh/Belfast class cruiser at 3.46 and 4.20 didn't have a radar lantern abaft the main director on the fwd superstructure.       Regards, Jeff.

Belfast was mined on 21st Nov 1939 and didn’t return to service until Oct 1942. It was only on emerging from that rebuild that she gained any radar at all. So it wasn’t her.

 

Edinburgh gained the Type 273 in the radar lantern abaft the director during her refit on the Tyne between 17 Jan and 4 March 1942.

 

So those sequences probably date to 1941, which also fits with the aircraft markings. But NELSON was torpedoed in the Med on 27 Sept 1941 and was out of action until completing her repairs at Rosyth in April 1942. She had in fact left Scapa to join Force H at Gibraltar on 11 July 1941.

Edited March 12 by EwenS

[dickrd]

I think that there is something dodgy about the order of the clips in this colour film (IWM MGH 4574) and its caption referencing Op Pedestal. For example at the 0.44 mark we see HMS Nelson in her disruptive camouflage pattern first worn in April 1942 and with a pom pom on B turret. Yet later, at the 2.28 mark when she is doing gunnery practice, the turrets and gun barrels are all in overall Home Fleet Grey and there is a UP launcher on B turret ie how she was during 1941. Then at the 5.07 mark we see HMS Lightning in overall Home Fleet grey. Lightning wore this during 1941 but by the Spring of 1942 she was in a dark hull/light upperworks scheme and was that way during August 1942 (Pedestal). More likely is that the views of Lightning in the film are during Op Substance July 1941. This photo is said to date to 23 July 1941 and shows Lightning in company with Nelson then: