observation, her decks fore and aft bearing large black on white swastikas on a red field; her main gun turrets had red (in the Baltic) or yellow tops for air recognition. The battleship Bismarck set out to Norway in dazzle camouflage; this was painted out with gray for her final trip to the Atlantic. The cruiser Admiral Scheer wore a low contrast pattern of irregular dark gray marks on light gray for her superstructure, with a dark gray hull, black waterline and, away from air support while out raiding in 1941, dark gray turret tops. Larger ships often had false bows and sterns painted in a different shade from the rest of the hull to create the impression of the ship being at greater range from the observer. German decks were a very dark gray. Smaller ships operating in the North Sea or Baltic Sea were painted white or a very pale gray to blend in with daytime mist and nighttime phosphorescent organisms. As in the First World War, the Germans again employed disguised commerce raiders, Hilfskreuzer such as Atlantis, Thor and Kormoran. These ships were able to modify their appearance to throw off the searching Allied cruisers. Royal Canadian Navy In the diffused lighting camouflage project, the Royal Canadian Navy experimented with variable counter-illumination camouflage to match horizon light levels and minimize ships' silhouettes during prolonged arctic twilight. During the experiments, one side of the test ship was faintly illuminated by projectors mounted outboard. Results were improved with the use of blue-green filters, and then with a photocell to measure the brightness of the night sky. The ship's visibility was reduced, but the technology was inconvenient and never adopted in practice. Other navies Italian ships of Mussolini's navy retained its pre-war scheme of light gray overall for its smaller ships, but the larger units mostly had dazzle camouflage of dark gray, light sea blue, light sea green and light gray. Italian foredecks had a high-visibility pattern of red and white diagonal stripes so that their own aircraft would not attack them. Japanese ships were generally not camouflaged. In special tactical situations, camouflage could be improvised, as when the battleships Yamato and Musashi had their decks blackened with a mixture of soot to help them hide while passing through the San Bernardino Strait at night in the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf. Japanese ships largely retained their pre-war dark