Welcome to Dazzle. The objects at GZ remind me of the dazzle camouflage used to disguise some Allied ships during World War I, and to a lesser extent, World War II. Dazzle is an interesting, but now largely obsolete, way to camouflage ships.
I can almost hear you asking, “How can a ship be camouflaged?” A good question. One could not disguise a ship so that it was invisible. That is impossible. However, the Allies could, and indeed did, confuse the commanders of U-boats who were hunting Allied ships. The Germans could tell there was a ship out there, but they couldn't tell the details of it.
The trick with Dazzle was to do the opposite of the conventional camouflage theory. Dazzle made the ships extremely visible with unconventional designs and colours, usually black and white stripes, but also included chaotic whorls, saw-teeth, triangles and diamond shapes of pink, purple, orange and green. This disrupted the lines of the ship. This confused the enemy so they would fire at a position they thought the ship would be at when the torpedo exploded, but in fact the ship would be somewhere else.
The success of the dazzle program was mixed, but in some cases it worked. One U-boat commander said,
“It was not until she was within half a mile that I could make out she was one ship [not several] steering a course at right angles, crossing from starboard to port. The dark painted stripes on her after part made her stern appear her bow, and a broad cut of green paint amidships looks like a patch of water. The weather was bright and visibility good; this was the best camouflage I have ever seen.” [Source: Wikipedia]
An example of the confusion caused by dazzle is the attached photo. How many ships are here? Where is the bow/s? What is the direction of travel? Could you answer these questions accurately if you were looking at the ship in the distance through a bouncing periscope view finder?
Advances in radar, torpedo engineering, aircraft weaponry, GPS, and other wartime devices eventually meant that dazzle became obsolete.
This cache is a simple park and grab. The road is unsealed and can be muddy in the colder parts of the year. There is sometimes long grass here too so one cannot ignore the possibility of snakes being in the vicinity when the weather is warm. Please dress appropriately.
The cache contains a log, a pen and a pencil, and some swag. Please remember the geocaching rule: Only take swag if you swap it for something of equal or greater value. Please return the cache to its hiding place as you found it. If there are problems contact me and I'll do maintenance.
With a volume of only 400 ml this cache is classified as a Small (S)* size.
There is safe, side of the road parking next to GZ.
Happy geocaching!
*Small (S) containers are 100 millilitres to 1 litre in volume.