Painted fake waves on the ships bow

[GrzeM]

Hi,

Polish destroyers Grom and Błyskawica during the land battle of Narvik had on their bows painted fake waves, apparently aimed on misguiding the enemy observers in judging the ship's speed.

Photo of Grom below (Błyskawica had some white parts also on the stern).

Short film showing Grom in Narvik fjord:

https://youtu.be/RUW3frCFWuY?t=15

This feature for sure has been applied during service with Royal Navy, I suppose in early 1940. Was it Polish or British invention and were the British destroyers of that period painted similar way? I'm building HMS Glowworm and I want to finish it in Norway campaign camouflage. I know the excellent Jamie's reconstruction (colour profile) and photos of Glowworm made from German ships during the final fight, but... Still I'm not sure. What about Glowworm? And other ships - "H" class (famous photo of Hotspur returning from 1st Narvik battle is inconclusive - the real wave obscures the bow https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205050059 ), Tribals (Eskimo on the famous photo taken after the 2nd Narvik battle has no bow at all), Ardent, Acasta? Cruisers?

Thanks in advance!

Edited June 12, 2021 by GrzeM

[Our Ned]

There are examples of fake bow waves dating back to the First World War - for example  https://mobile.twitter.com/HMWarships/status/1277292430287650816/photo/1.  Hotspur did not wear one during the First Battle of Narvik (a photo of her anchored in Cripple Creek (Skjelfjord) afterwards is at http://www.bjerkvikhistorie.no/Jagere/Bilder/hotspur.jpg).  I've not seen a photo of any of the Tribal class at the Second Battle of Narvik wearing one - Bedouin certainly was not (http://www.historyofwar.org/Pictures/pictures_narvik9.html) and the other well-known photos of the destroyers, although indistinct, don't appear to show such markings.  Ardent and Acasta were wearing patterned camouflage during 1940, and probably went to their graves thus (photos at http://www.danyey.co.uk/ardent.html - scroll nearly to the end of the page).  As for the cruisers, there are photos of some of the "C" class wearing a fake bow wave, apparently during the Norway campaign (eg https://www.harwichanddovercourt.co.uk/warships/cruisers/ - scroll down for Coventry and https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/The_Norwegian_Campaign_1940-_Naval_Operations_N331.jpg which shows Cairo).  Glowworm's scheme in her final hours has been debated before - the consensus was dark grey hull (AP507B) and light grey upperworks (AP507C), with one dark funnel band (probably red) on the after funnel -https://mobile.twitter.com/hmwarships/status/1277292430287650816/photo/1. 

Edited June 18, 2021 by Our Ned
Typo

[GrzeM]

Thank you. I still wonder if these fake bow waves on Polish destroyers (operating from Britain and within the Royal Navy) were ordered by British or Poles. Apparently this feature was known, but by no means common in RN in April 1940. Polish destroyers did not sport it very long too.

[Hardcastle]

There are pictures of a fake bow wave on one or two of the Corvettes used in the Med during 41-43 as well.

[Chewbacca]

Whilst not a destroyer, there's a photo of the Town class cruiser GLASGOW on page 148 of McCart "Town class cruisers" sporting a painted bow wave "early in WW2".  As far as I can tell, that photo was taken in Scapa Flow in early 1940 and I would assume that she was still in the scheme when she rescued King Haakon and a significant percentage of Norway's gold reserves from the advancing Nazis in April 1940.

 

As to GLOWWORM, there is this very famous photo of her taken from Hipper during the engagement that would appear to corroborate the dark hull, light superstructure: 

[Our Ned]

Although McCart's caption to the photo referred to by Chewbacca says "early in WW2", he is demonstrably wrong!  In the photo, Glasgow has a comprehensive fit of RDF (radar), which she didn't have early in the war (those visible were fitted in mid-1942), and, in the background of the photo, there is a Type 4 Hunt class ship - which didn't enter service until late 1942/early 1943.  I tend to believe the date of 1943 quoted elsewhere for this photo.

[GrzeM]

 

On 6/18/2021 at 8:56 AM, Chewbacca said:

As to GLOWWORM, there is this very famous photo of her taken from Hipper during the engagement that would appear to corroborate the dark hull, light superstructure: 

True! I've overlooked this one. Here is no trace of fake bow wave. Thank you!

There are some more, but these below don't show the bow clearly enough.

And this (very moving one IMO):

Edited June 19, 2021 by GrzeM

[Chewbacca]

On 18/06/2021 at 11:30, Our Ned said:

Although McCart's caption to the photo referred to by Chewbacca says "early in WW2", he is demonstrably wrong!  In the photo, Glasgow has a comprehensive fit of RDF (radar), which she didn't have early in the war (those visible were fitted in mid-1942), and, in the background of the photo, there is a Type 4 Hunt class ship - which didn't enter service until late 1942/early 1943.  I tend to believe the date of 1943 quoted elsewhere for this photo.

You make a very good point; one which I wish I had spotted about 3/4 years ago before I finished a 1/600 conversion of BELFAST to GLASGOW to represent her as she was during the Norwegian campaign.  Aargh!  I'm not repainted her now.