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28 APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com

Woodroofe incident when

the BBC radio commentator

remarked that ‘The Fleet’s

Lit Up’.

The RN and British Empire

navies were represented

by 145 warships including,

for the RN, the refitted

battlecruiser HMS Repulse,

new cruisers HMSs

Southampton and Newcastle,

plus new destroyers of

the G, H and I classes and

submarines. Of the RN’s 12

battleships all five R class,

HMSs Nelson and Rodney

plus two Queen Elizabeth

class (name ship and HMS

Barham) were present.

HMS Queen Elizabeth went

to Portsmouth dockyard

in August for a 3½ year

reconstruction identical to

that completed on sistership

HMS Valiant between

1937 and 1939 down at

Devonport.

HMS Malaya was refitted

from October 1934 to

December 1936, again

at Devonport, and she

did not attend the review

in May. HMS Warspite’s

modernisation was

undertaken from 1934 to

March 1937 and she did

not attend the review in

May. Although ten years old

HMSs Nelson and Rodney

were notable in that they

were the only new battleship

construction since WW1.

The old Grand Fleet of that

era was represented by the

gunnery training ship HMS

Iron Duke, Admiral Jellicoe’s

flagship at Jutland. Of the

RN’s three battlecruisers

HMS Renown was under re-

construction in Portsmouth

leaving just HMSs Hood and

Repulse to attend.

All four aircraft carriers

(HMSs Furious, Courageous,

Glorious and Hermes) were present. The groundbreaking HMS Ark

Royal had been launched in April and was completed in November

1938. HMS Eagle was serving on the China Station where she had
      relieved HMS Hermes in February. HMS Argus was in dockyard
      hands in Devonport under conversion to a training carrier, this work
      being complete in July 1938.
      The sixteen RN cruisers included nine older types (eight from
      the C/D classes and HMS Frobisher), three Counties (HMSs
      Devonshire, Shropshire and London, all completed in 1929), HMS
      Leander (1933), HMS Galatea (1935) and the first two of the new
      Southampton class mentioned above which had been completed
      just in March. Three more of this class were to follow before
      year’s end and five more culminating in the Edinburgh class by the
      outbreak of war in September 1939.
      Some interesting and unusual ‘foreigners’ attended such as the

The ‘FleeT’s liT Up’: Kelvin

Travels bacK in Time To 1937 To

review The FleeT

waterlines

S

pithead has been the scene of over 40 fleet reviews,

the first of which was probably that held in 1415 in the

presence of Henry V. The last major review was arguably

for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the author can recall

walking down to Stokes Bay to ‘see the ships’. A Golden Jubilee

Review planned for 2002 was cancelled on cost grounds and

replaced by the International Fleet Review of 2005 celebrating

Trafalgar 200. The waterline scales of 1/1200 or 1/1250 are

ideal for creating a fleet review in miniature even if photographing

such an event is somewhat

problematic due to depth of

field (advice welcome). This

month we have confined

ourselves to pictures of real

ships.

Historically significant

reviews include those of

1842 when steam ships

first featured, 1887 which

saw the first submarine

and 1897 when the turbine

powered Turbinia hurtled

through the anchored

ships at high speed. The

mobilisation review of July

1914 witnessed the largest

ever number of battleships

(59) and ten years later

we had the first aircraft

carrier represented by HMS

Hermes. King George V’s

Silver Jubilee was celebrated

in 1935 followed just two

years later by the Coronation

Review of King George VI.

Our Queen’s Coronation

brought the 1953 review,

the last to feature a Royal

Navy (RN) battleship (HMS

Vanguard). The 1969 NATO

Review saw the first guided

missile armed ships on

display.

That held on Thursday 20th

May 1937, and featured

here, was the first with a

large number of foreign

warships (18), no less than

four RN aircraft carriers

and 24 merchant liners

(compared with 15 in 1935)

serving mainly as floating

grandstands. This was the

last review where the royal

yacht Victoria & Albert was

deployed; she was scrapped

in 1939. It was also the

occasion of the so-called

author: Kelvin Holmes GReAT BRiTAin

[email protected]

Former battleship HMS Iron Duke

has three turrets remaining in her

role as a training ship

Queen Elizabeth class battleship

HMS Barham

The Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert

surrounded by some attractive

steam yachts

HMSs Nelson and Rodney with

Royal Oak and Ramilles just about

visible in the distance

The mighty Hood came back from

the Mediterranean for the review

The sightseers in the foreground

seem unimpressed even by two

battlecruisers

HMS Rodney and behind her the

French battleship Dunkerque

This postcard of the 1935 review

gives an idea of the scale of these

events; HMS Enchantress is

beyond the Victoria & Albert

In the foreground HMS Glorious

with HMSs Courageous and

Furious astern

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