Quote:
Originally Posted by kapuhy
Thanks for sharing this 
I was recently trying to find information on the same subject, namely when did painting schemes change from what's visible on pre-war photos to "gray is good for everyone" approach, but didn't find anything other than incidental data. Your post and links clear up a lot. |
Glad that you find my post useful. When I looked for the missing information I had exactly your beautifully painted ships in mind!
If you ask me, the bulk of British and Commonwealth vessels, especially deep-sea ships and ships expected to sail in convoys, should start painted in peacetime colours and turn grey within the first one or two weeks of war, at max.
Conversely, coastal vessels, especially the ones belonging to far British colonies and to other cobelligerents, could be made to follow a somewhat slower re-painting curve, some old and lesser exposed ships retaining their vivid company colours until mid to late 1940 - or even later for the USA and Latin American countries which entered the war at a later stage and were substantially umprepared to it. A few inshore vessels which only operated within the relatively safe waters of ports or in their immediate vicinity, e.g. lighters, barges, tugboats, and the likes, could even be let to retain their colors (mixed with a generous dose of rust) until the end of the conflict.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kapuhy
Makes sense though if these neutral ships joined convoy only occasionally / not for entire voyage. As soon as they dispersed from convoy for any reason (like, say, Spanish ship crossing from America in convoy then diverting to Spain), neutral colours would at least give Germans a pause, whereas if they were camouflaged they would likely be treated as combatant.
|
You make a good point here but you probably chose the wrong example: though a few Spanish ships and boats were torpedoed and sunk by the Kriegsmarine, I doubt that the vessels of a neutral but Axis-friendly nation would have been allowed to sail within Allied convoys. I think I have even read reports of Spanish ships seized by the RN due to the ambiguous stance of their owning companies
