251
251. A WELL-PRESENTED AND FINELY DETAILED 1:192 SCALE WATERLINE MODEL OF H.M.S. EURYALUS AS FITTED IN 1941/2 DURING HER EPIC MALTA CONVOY SERVICE
modelled by John R. Haynes, with bespoke preformed hull, lined decks complete with highly detailed fittings and armament including studded chain, deck rails, superstructure with carley floats, bridge complete with telegraph, binnacles etc., search lamps, rangefinder, fitted ship’s boats and assorted launches and other much fine detailing, set on a moulded and painted seascape within metal-bound glazed case, overall measurements -- 9 x 37 x 7in. (23 x 94 x 18cm.)
Launched at Chatham and commissioned in 1941, Euryalus instantly proved herself to be a highly valued addition to the fleet. In a brilliant Wartime career, she was perhaps most famously associated with her service on the Malta convoys. In January and February 1942, Euryalus and other warships escorted no less than four fast small convoys to Malta and back. In mid-March, Euryalus, with three other light cruisers and eleven destroyers, escorted another convoy to Malta. This was intercepted by a strong Italian force - the battleship Littorio, two heavy and three light cruisers and seven destroyers. There followed the brilliant action of the second Battle of Sirte on 22 March 1942, led by Rear-Admiral Vian and fictionalised by C S Forester in ‘The Ship’. The enemy force was driven off without damaging the convoy. Further convoys followed; these escort duties (known ironically as ‘Club Runs’ were highly stressful work as the convoys and escorts were under near continuous daylight air attack and frequent submarine attack, as well as facing the surface threat; sadly nearly all the merchant ships and their vital cargoes were lost, mainly to air attack in Malta. Between convoys, Euryalus and her sisters bombarded enemy coastal positions in North Africa and Rhodes. Meanwhile the 8th Army had been driven back into Egypt by the German Afrika Korps, leading to even heavier air attacks against Malta convoys. Euryalus had commissioned with some of the first naval radars which provided welcome early warning of air attack, but little more. With the fitting of improved voice radios in 1942 however, Euryalus was able to control supporting fighters and join in co-ordinated fleet air defence. When the 8th Army began their great advance from El Alamein in October 1942, the situation in the Mediterranean improved. In November, a large convoy reached Malta on 19 November 1942; Euryalus led the convoy in to raise the siege. The cruisers Euryalus, Cleopatra and Dido and four destroyers then formed Force K, based in Malta, attacking enemy shipping bound for Libya and bombarding Pantellaria prior to its surrender. In June 1943, Euryalus joined the 12th Cruiser Squadron and participated in the invasion of Sicily. On 27 August 1943, Euryalus hoisted the flag of Rear-Admiral Vian, in command of Force V, consisting of five escort carriers and three cruisers. Force V provided co-ordinated air cover for the assault on Salerno on 9 September 1943. By 12 September 1943, an airfield had been established ashore and the force withdrew. A powerful German counter-offensive was mounted on 14 September 1943 and Euryalus, Cleopatra and Dido were ordered to Tripoli, to embark troops and transport them at high speed to Salerno, arriving on the afternoon of 16 September 1943. Italy having now dropped out of the war, Euryalus took Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, to Taranto on 23 September 1943 for a meeting onboard with the Italian Minister of Marine to settle the surrender of the Italian Fleet.
Her peacetime career proved nearly as busy as that of her War career and, arriving at Rosyth on 22 March 1947 to decommission, having steamed 136,767 miles her longest period at sea was in July and August 1945, when the ship was operating off Japan and steamed 16,850 miles non-stop for 44 days, then a RN record, using the new technique of refuelling at sea. She was scrapped in 1958.
£4000-6000 251 (detail) 83
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