Aircraft Carrier Weser.
Proposed German Navy auxiliary aircraft carrier.

The loss of BISMARCK to British carrier-borne aircraft and surface salvos in May 1941 and aerial attacks on TIRPITZ in March 1942, emphasised to the German High Command the strategic importance of aircraft carriers.

Project WESER 1 was a planned carrier conversion of an unfinished Admiral Hipper Class heavy cruiser, SEYDLITZ, berthed at Bremen. But the reconstruction wasn’t completed; works had begun in 1942, only to be abandoned the following summer. The partially-stripped vessel was towed to Königsberg (Kaliningrad) on the Baltic Sea in March/April 1944 and scuttled in early 1945, prior to the Red Army’s arrival. Raised by the Russians in 1946, potentially as a source of parts for the partially constructed Admiral Hipper Class LÜTZOW (which the Soviets had purchased in 1941 under the treaty of non-aggression between Germany and the USSR signed in 1939). Damage was extensive and in 1947 the ship was scrapped, the hull having never seen operational service. The kit represents ‘what if’ the carrier had materialised. [NF].

• 29 sprues, single piece hull, decks, photo-etch parts
• Aircraft wing includes Ar 195, Bf 109, Ju 87, Fi 167
• L: 629.8mm, W: 106mm, total parts 560+
• 1:350 scale plastic model kit from Trumpeter, requires paint and glue