Description
HMS Warspite was one of five Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships, and is the most decorated warship that has ever served in the Royal Navy, giving her the nickname of the Grand Old Lady. Launched in 1913, she was present at the battle of Jutland in 1916, and underwent extensive modernisation between the wars, which completely changed her appearance, to then serve with distinction during the second World War in particular Norway, the Far East and in the Mediterranean, and finally acting as a gun battery for the Normandy landings. Furthermore she earnt the distinction of achieving the furthest hit on an enemy capital ship, when in July 1940 she struck the Italian battleship Guilio Cesare at a distance of some 14 miles.
She was signed off by the Admiralty in 1946, though to the last, remaining defiant by cheating the breakers yard by slipping away from her tow ropes in a storm on her way from Spithead to Faslane on the Clyde and running aground in Prussia Cove, Mounts Bay, Cornwall, in April 1947 where a memorial marks the location. Due to damage sustained she was unable to be re-floated and was taken the short distance to Marazion, where she was broken up in-situ over a period of five years. A stone plaque, marks the location just west of St. Michaels Mount. Moreover there are various artifacts of salvaged materials to be found in the pubs and hotels in Marazion.
Her illustrious name will be resurrected in the new fleet of Dreadnought class nuclear ballistic submarines to be be constructed at BaE Systems facility at Barrow-in-Furness.
The kit itself is considered by many to be the best in 1/350 scale, and depicts the ship in 1943 serving in the Mediterranean, by which time, her anti-aircraft armament had increased significantly. The kit also features photo-etch parts for the crane assembly.
