¹⁄350

"Forlorn Hope"

"Spawned from our recent "WWI Warships Campaign" comes this fabulous diorama from Karl Zingheim, in this MSW Feature!"

The Event

This is my entry for the World War One campaign. It depicts the loss of the Royal Navy dreadnought HMS Audacious after striking a German mine north of Ireland on 27 October 1914.

The Audacious had recently moved to the west coast of Scotland with the rest of the British Grand Fleet while defenses were being improved at the new base at Scapa Flow to the north of Scotland. On that morning, the Audacious was maneuvering for gunnery practice when she struck a mine which had been laid by the converted German liner Berlin.

The flooding from the hit on the bottom of the hull caused progressive flooding which could not be isolated and over the course of several hours, the ship began to fill and settle. Strenuous efforts were made to rig a tow, including an attempt from the famed ocean liner Olympic, sister to the Titanic.

Ultimately, all attempts to tow the stricken dreadnought failed and the crew was taken off. The Audacious capsized that evening. An explosion occurred not long after and the ship disappeared beneath the waves.

Not long ago, an expedition surveyed the wreck and determined that the magazine group from turret two had detonated after the ship inverted , demolishing the forward half of the great ship.

The Scene

My 1/350 scale Diorama depicts a final attempt to tow the Audacious by the light cruiser Liverpool. Destroyers such as the Fury stand by as the crew is massed for evacuation. All the models are scratch-built.