¹⁄35

Italeri tweaks their 1/35 Vosper kit to represent a craft from one of the Second World War's great raids.

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a successful British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France. The operation was undertaken on 28 March 1942. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as the Tirpitz, to return to home waters rather than having a safe haven available on the Atlantic coast.

The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown was packed with explosives and had its superstructure altered to resemble a Kriegsmarine destroyer in order to get as close to St Nazaire as possible without being challenged. She was a seagoing Trojan horse bomb and was accompanied by 18 smaller craft -one of them the MTB-74.

The 74 had been specifically modified by Royal Navy shipyards to house torpedo tubes on its foredeck and to adopt specific engine silencers to reduce the noise. MTB 74 duty was to hit the anti-submarine nets and then to launch its torpedoes to block the lock gate. The kit (No. 5619 ) has new mouldings and photo etch parts to represent the specific craft.

Hannants website in the UK has the item listed for $133.73 (US) plus shipping but is not yet listed as in-stock