When you think of submarine services during World War Two, there are probably
two that come to mind. One of course is the German U-Boat campaign in the North
Atlantic that ultimately was unsuccessful. The other is the USN submarine
campaign in the Pacific, which did savage the Japanese merchant fleet and
strangle the Japanese industry of raw materials. However, the submarines of the
Royal Navy also operated in a very dangerous environment. The Mediterranean is
shallow and constricted compared to the Atlantic or Pacific. Royal Navy
submarine losses were heavy in that area. If the British submarine is neglected,
how much more so is the auxiliary that kept those submarines operational? Martin
Brown of MB Models has produced a 1:1250 scale model of the last of the
World War Two submarine depot tenders, the HMS
Adamant.
HMS Adamant was built by that
great yard in Northern Ireland, Harland & Wolff, whose most famous creation
was the RMS Titanic. At 658 feet
(200.55m) in length, the Adamant was
no small ship. She displaced 12,700 tons standard, 16,500 tons deep load and was
armed with eight 4.5-inch/45 DP and four quadruple Pom-poms. She carried 117
21-inch torpedoes for resupply of His Majesty's submarines. Launched in 1940, HMS
Adamant was scrapped in 1970. The MB Models version of Adamant
comes with a resin hull and upper bridge. White metal parts provide the smaller
detail, such as masts, cranes and armament. Minor clean-up is required on the
parts, such as removing metal casting vents and straightening mast and yards.
The HMS Adamant, submarine depot
ship by MB Models, is available from Martin Brown's own web site, Waterline
Ships Co. Simply click on the Red Duster.
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