However effective dazzle camouflage may have been in World War I, it became less useful as rangefinders and especially aircraft became more advanced, and, by the time it was put to use again in World War II, radar further reduced its effectiveness. However, it may still have confounded enemy submarines.

Does Dazzle camo work?

But now someone has actually tested it and the short answer is that it does work—but not in the way that Allied navies thought it did. Ships move too slowly. Dazzle camouflage might well, however, have a role in protecting faster-moving vehicles, such as military Land Rovers.

When was dazzle camouflage used and why?

When the British Wanted to Camouflage Their Warships, They Made Them Dazzle. In late October 1917, King George V spent an afternoon inspecting a new division of Britain's merchant naval service, the intriguingly named “Dazzle Section”.