Model comes on wood base with solid brass pedestals

(image of model not yet available)

 

King George V class
Ship	Launched	Fate
HMS King George V	Feb 1939	Helped sink Bismarck; Sicily landings; Japan surrender; Home Fleet Flagship 1946; decomm 1949; scrapped 1957
HMS Prince of Wales	May 1939	With HMS Hood engaged the Bismarck and then retreated; sunk by Japanese bombers near Singapore December 10, 1941
HMS Duke of York	Feb 1940	Sank the Scharnhorst; Okinawa invasion; scrapped 1957
HMS Anson	Feb 1940	Scrapped 1957
HMS Howe	Apr 1940	Scrapped 1957

"HMS King George V" was the first of a five-ship class of battleships commissioned during WWII. It is a different class of ships than the earlier "King George V class"  which was commissioned before WWI.

The second class of WWII "King George V" battleships were  designed within the limits established by the 1936 London Naval Limitation Treaty and, as such, had relatively weak primary armament comprised of 14-inch guns rather than the 16-inch guns mounted by the earlier British built Lord Nelson class, or the 15-inch guns of the contemporary German Bismarck class. However, the "King George V" battleships were armored to withstand 16 inch shells, and gave excellent service during WWII. Their main armament disposition of a quadruple turret of 14-inch guns fore and aft and a twin 14-inch gun super-firing over the forward quad turret gave these vessels a distinctive appearance - as did also the tower bridge structure and the deletion of the armored conning tower, both Royal Navy innovations.

"HMS King George V" was commissioned in December 1940 and served in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. She took part in the destruction of Bismarck with "HMS Rodney" in May 1941, covered the invasion of Sicily, then served with the British Pacific Fleet from 1944 and was present at the surrender of Japan in September 1945. Recommissioned as flagship of the Home Fleet in 1946, "HMS King George V"  was decommissioned three years later and scrapped at Dalmuir in 1958.