The USS Intrepid (CV-11) - Color Schemes
COLOR SCHEMES: As completed Intrepid was painted in Measure 21 overall navy blue (actually blue-gray). During her refit of March - Jne 1944 she was provided with a dazzle pattern in Design 3A with the colours of Measure 32 (dull black, ocean grey and light grey) - again these latter two actually contained blue, which she carried until the end of the year. The same design was carried by Hornet, and with different colors by Hancock and Franklin. In her January - February 1945 refit she was repainted in Measure 12 - sea blue from the waterline to the main deck and ocean grey above, except for the masts which were haze grey.
Details of deck markings and colors are rather poorly documented. The flight deck was overall dark blue (deck blue) problably from completion and the ship numerals black. As built the deck stripes were light blue but these were probably changed to yellow before the end of 1943 and later to white. There were several possible variations in detail, two known to have been used in Intrepid being the outlining of the ship numeral in either white or yellow and the painting of false elevator markings to mislead kamikaze pilots - who were known to aim for these as they were weak spots in the flight deck.
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