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HMS Curlew - sunk 26 May 1940, Narvik by Ju-88s of KG30


Iain

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I've been busy for the last few weeks working on a bit of a personal gift to give to my uncle, who's currently visiting the UK from Australia...
 
Subject is HMS Curlew, a 'C' Typer cruiser that was converted for anti-aircraft use just prior to the outbreak of the war.
 
She was sunk on the 26th of May 1940, after she came under attack from German Ju-88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30 whilst in Lavangsfjord, near Narvik, Norway.

 

Reason for this being personal?

 

My grandfather was one of the ships' crew that survived the sinking (from Curlew he then went onto HMS Renown - but that's another story).

 

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Received wisdom from my grandmother was that after the (partial?) sinking he'd taken a group of Royal Marines back to Curlew to further damage the ship and prevent anything being salvaged by German forces. In recent years that has started to make sense as the ship was one of only three ships in the Royal Navy to be fitted with the then highly secret Type 79Z radar - which might explain the story my grandmother told me!

 

I believe no campaign medals were awarded for the Norwegian campaign as it was judged a failure from the British standpoint. However, he was later awarded the OBE; something my grandmother believed was in recognition of his actions aboard Curlew.

 

Nobody makes a kit of HMS Curlew - but, a few years ago, White Ensign released a resin kit of her sister ship, HMS Coventry, in 1:700 scale and I had to have it!

 

I'm no ship modeller, so this sat for a few years until my uncle contacted me to say they were coming over to the UK again. I thought a small model of Curlew in a case would fit nicely into hand luggage for the trip back to Australia far better than me putting something in the post!

 

Anyway - was able to present it yesterday  :)

 

Quite a few changes to turn Coventry into Curlew, and in some respects some guesses have been made - but overall she looks like the ship she's meant to represent. Some of the photo-etch in 1:700 almost made my eyes bleed - and that was with lots of light and a powerful magnifier - but hopefully good practice for the mighty Hood!

 

Case is a preparatory one from Trumpeter - nice and cheap and fitted the bill perfectly!

 

Model is sat on a 4mm thick piece of clear acrylic, with an info panel I drew up in CorelDRAW and printed off on our inkjet. It appears my rivet gun has a use outside of the garage!

 

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A lot smaller than my usual projects and a nice change of pace!

 

Iain

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Cheers Jerry - nice to be able to do something personal for my uncle - and has been good to have a strong driver to finish time-wise...

 

Do you have any details of your father's ships?

 

Iain

He was on the heavy cruiser New Orleans in Pearl Harbor during th attack and in all major fleet actions after that as they had to fill in for the now missing battleships. They were OK till the night at Tassaforanga when NO had her bow blown off by a Long Lance torpedo up to the second turret. After hasty repairs they had to BACK  at low speed,un escorted all the way back to Australia,and hence to Bremerton Wa. He then transferred to the brand new heavy cruiser Quincy. They took FDR on the initial phase of his trip to Yalta and then were at Normandy for the big one,down to Cape Horn and back to join the fleet off Japan getting ramped up for the invasion of the mainland. Told to steam off the coast and wait. Truman dropped the two big ones and it was all over. He joined up 1Sept 1939 and mustered out in late 45.

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He was on the heavy cruiser New Orleans in Pearl Harbor during th attack and in all major fleet actions after that as they had to fill in for the now missing battleships. They were OK till the night at Tassaforanga when NO had her bow blown off by a Long Lance torpedo up to the second turret. After hasty repairs they had to BACK  at low speed,un escorted all the way back to Australia,and hence to Bremerton Wa. He then transferred to the brand new heavy cruiser Quincy. They took FDR on the initial phase of his trip to Yalta and then were at Normandy for the big one,down to Cape Horn and back to join the fleet off Japan getting ramped up for the invasion of the mainland. Told to steam off the coast and wait. Truman dropped the two big ones and it was all over. He joined up 1Sept 1939 and mustered out in late 45.

 

Did I see somewhere that Trumpeter do the New Orleans in 1:350?

 

And San Francisco can be converted to Quincy: Model Warships

 

I find ships fascinating - not just a machine like a tank, or aeroplane, but living communities. Must be devastating to lose a ship and shipmates...

 

Iain

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Did I see somewhere that Trumpeter do the New Orleans in 1:350?

 

And San Francisco can be converted to Quincy: Model Warships

 

I find ships fascinating - not just a machine like a tank, or aeroplane, but living communities. Must be devastating to lose a ship and shipmates...

 

Iain

I made a model for him back in the 90s but it was in 1/700 scale. He really liked it . It was all that was available at that time. Living community yes,certainly.  The pre-war Navy was a much different animal that what it later became. All the capital ships had baseball teams,for instance. The "big leagues" were the battleship teams of course. My Dad was a good pitcher that tried out for major league baseball at home and was just selected to move up to the team for the USS Arizona. The transfer was awaiting orders when the attack on Pearl happened. That would have changed everything!

  But the community thing was very real. My mind is now fuzzy on details but Dads' ship was in the fleet at Wake or Coral when we lost a fleet carrier early in the war. He remembers a lot of guys from the old bunch weeping as they watched it slowly sink. Part of the family was dying.

J

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Iain,

   What a great family story. Thanks for sharing it with us as a prelude to what certainly is an excellent build. I can't imagine working on anything that small.

 

   And Jerry, thanks for sharing your family story as well. It's stories like those that make being a member of the LSP family even more special then just a modeling site.

 

Joel 

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Nicely done. I too have a ship model project with a personal connection going on in the background. In the 70's, my Dad was an engineering consultant for the FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Guided Missile Frigates shipbuilding  for the  US Navy in the 70's (in Bath, Maine). He's passed away now but am enjoying building Academy's 1/350 scale model of the ship and remembering him. 

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:wow:

I wish I could see more folks do things like this with their family stories. Nothing is more interesting to me than true stories of courageous life stories and how important it is to remember, document, and pass onto the generations if possible.

 

Thank you for sharing and showing us your beautiful tribute! :clap2:

What a great job you did!

 

Teresa 

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