Laid down in May 1934, HMS Penelope was the third of the four
5,000-ton Arethusa-class cruisers. Mounting three twin 6"
gun turrets, she had a top speed of over 32 knots. Serving in
the Mediterranean when war broke out, she ran aground in the Norwegian
campaign and returned to service in July 1941. In October 1941
she joined Force K at Malta and, after sustaining further damage
from mines and bombs, she was sent to New York Navy Yard for repairs
in April 1942. She was back in the Mediterranean in early 1943,
joining Force Q at Bone. During that year, she took part in the
bombardment of the Italian islands of Pantellaria and Lampedusa
in June, the Sicily landings in August and the Salerno landings
in September. After spells in the Aegean and the Bay of Biscay,
she supported the landings at Anzio in January 1944 and, while
returning to Naples on 18th. February, she was torpedoed and sunk
by U-410. She was the last British cruiser lost in WW2. Nicknamed
"HMS Pepperpot" because of the considerable shrapnel
damage she sustained, HMS Penelope is thought to have been the
inspiration for C.S. Forester's novel, "The Ship".
The Model.
The building of the model follows the conventional pattern adopted
by JSC. An inner hull is first constructed of white card on which
are glued the decking and sides. I found the curvature of the
hull sides and cruiser stern quite tricky. Through my own fault,
the hull itself ended with a pronounced bow which I cured by mounting
on a piece of board. As the ship did not have a flush deck, platforms
must be built for the funnels, which are then put in place. After
mounting the aircraft catapult amidships, I next constructed the
forward superstructure. The main gun turrets were straightforward
and the kit included a simple mechanism to allow the turrets to
rotate. At this scale, templates were provided for the guns and
I used some styrene rod for these. The 4-inch secondary armament
is then constructed and located aft of the second funnel. Torpedo
tubes, searchlights, reels and range finders are glued in position.
I was especially interested in the ammunition lockers, several
of which were located around each 4-inch turret, to allow delivery
of ammunition at every position. Several motorboats and pinnaces
are provided and the card model is finished off with gangways
and anchors. Templates are then provided for constructing the
masts for which, again, I used styrene rod.
In keeping with their frequent practice, JSC has included in the
kit a model of another ship, the River-class frigate HMS Spey,
which had a very active war after which she was transferred to
Egypt, where she was still extant in 1995. In addition, on the
back cover are models of a Short Sunderland and two Supermarine
Walrus flying boats to the same scale. Overall, the computer-produced
kit makes up into several attractive models of subjects which
were heavily engaged during WW2 and should provide ample diversion
during the darkening autumn evenings.
Christopher Cooke