Most of us have heard of the USS Enterprise. Seems there have actually been 8 ships with this name in the US Navy. And there's a few that have been running around in space of course. The COBI Enterprise is CV-6, the most decorated ship in WWII. What's amazing is the number of battles this ship was involved in, including Pearl Harbour, and that even after being bombed, kamikazed and declared sunk three times by the Japanese - she kept fighting and served until 1947. This is a special ship, and COBI has made a wonderful model of 2510 pieces, with 6 airplanes. The Grey Ghost - the US Navy's Mighty E!
read more at USS Enterprise (CV-6) - Wikipedia
The German Scharnhorst equipped with nine 11inch guns tangled with HMS Renown and in one of the longest range engagements, sunk the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. Three years later, she succumbed to an attack by HMS Duke of York and torpedoes from numerous other ships and was sent to the bottom. 36 survivors from a crew of 1968. The loss of life is huge. This COBI set is another complex and detailed creation, definitely not for a 6 year old.
This brings me to the book Dreadnought, by Robert K Massie, a page turner of tense competition between the world's dominant naval power Britain and the rise of Germany. Dreadnought was the world's first battleship and set off an arms race that lasted until the dominance of aircraft carriers was established in WWII. Britain's dominance of the seas had created Pax Britannia, a stability due to their unchallenged might, however hollow that may have been. Wooden hulled ships still made up a large portion of the fleet. Gunnery may not have been their strong suit as many Captains didn't want any practice done for the amount of filthy soot it deposited on the ships. With WWI approaching things got much more serious about actual warfighting ability. I highly recommend this book.
Okay, I'll round out with the two British ships that we carry from COBI, HMS Warspite and HMS Belfast.
Warspite was laid down in 1912 and entered service in 1915, fitted with four 15in twin guns. She fought at the Battle of Jutland as well as other engagements. During the interwar period an extensive upgrade created an almost new ship. During the second world war, Warspite served as flagship and fought from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Her Fairey Swordfish float-plane sank the German U-boat U-64 with 250 lb bombs, becoming the first aircraft to sink a U-boat in the war. She was known as "The Grand Old Lady". The COBI set comes with a fantastic camouflage, it's beautiful.
HMS Belfast was a Town class light cruiser commissioned in 1939, serving extensively in the North Sea, escorting supply ships to Russia. She was part of the group that sunk Scharnhorst and provided bombardment during the invasion of Normandy. After surviving the war, she was turned into a memorial and is today floating in the Thames River, as a museum ship. Have your own 1:300 museum on your shelf with this COBI set.
Wikipedia has great summaries of the history of these ships, they will probably inspire you to read more about the naval battles of WWII. Have you got any recommends? Maybe a movie recommend?
BrickArmy.ca is trying to get as wide a selection as we can as they become available. In the past COBI has produced such classes as the Iowas, Yamato and Tirpitz. Soon we'll be getting the Bismark and the U-boat U-47!
Craig