COBI Battleship Gneisenau Set 4835

COBI's Gneisenau is a 1:300 model built from 2,417 blocks, 81 cm long, as the ship appeared during Operation Berlin in 1941. The propellers and rudders turn, the turrets rotate and the barrels elevate. A black display stand with printed nameplates is included, and all markings are printed onto the blocks.

Operation Berlin

For two months in early 1941 the Gneisenau and her sister Scharnhorst were loose in the Atlantic with orders to attack convoys and avoid anything that could shoot back.

They sank or captured 22 merchant ships, around 115,000 tons, and returned to Brest without losing a man. But the tonnage was the smaller part of the result. Every convoy that might be attacked needed a capital ship escorting it, and Britain had a finite number of those. Twice the German ships found a convoy with a battleship in company and withdrew without firing — which was the correct decision and also proof that the escort system worked.

That is the logic of commerce raiding: the raider does not have to sink anything to cost the enemy dearly, only to exist somewhere it might.

The end

Gneisenau was badly damaged by RAF bombing at Kiel in 1942 and never fought again. On 28 March 1945 she was scuttled at Gdynia to block the harbour entrance, and was broken up there after the war by Poland.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:300 warship series. Set 4839 is the battleship Tirpitz at the same scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,417 · Scale: 1:300 · Display stand and nameplates included
Model dimensions: 81 × 12.5 × 21 cm (31.9 × 4.9 × 8.3 in)