Scale: 1:1200. Waterline model of HMS 'Newcastle' (1936), a cruiser. Model is decked, equipped and scenic. Set in sea with HMS 'King George V' (1939). Two plaques read "HMS Newcastle" and "HMS King George V". Mr H Fitterer's name and address are inscribed on the base.

A pair of very finely executed models marred only by their being set in an unrealistic sea, which does not appear to have been modelled to the same scale as the ships themselves. The modelmaker specialized in this type of scenic tableau, depicting miniature worlds in shallow tabletop glass cases.

Early in the Second World War, HMS ‘Newcastle’ (1936) inconclusively engaged four German destroyers off Ushant (17 October 1940) and set a record for remaining at sea for 126 days. Later she saw service in the south Atlantic and Mediterranean. In June 1942, fours days out of Alexandria, she was torpedoed by an E-boat which blew a hole right through the bow. The crew saved the ship which managed to limp back to the port. A temporary bulkhead, made of wood and concrete, was erected behind the damaged section until proper repairs could be effected in New York. She then joined the Eastern fleet, and served in that part of the world again during the Korean War in 1952. ‘Newcastle’ was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1959.

The ‘King George V’-class battleships were designed by the Admiralty in 1936 under the restrictions of the Washington Treaty. The first of the class was laid down at the Walker Navy Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. Originally, she was to have been named HMS ‘King George VI’ following the tradition of naming the first capital ship of a new reign after the monarch. The King requested that the ship be named in honour of his late father, King George V, after whom an earlier class of battleships had been named in 1911. Another member of this latter class was named HMS ‘Duke of York’ in honour of the King instead; the other ships of this class were ‘Prince of Wales’, ‘Howe’ and ‘Anson.’

The ‘King George V’ was launched on 21 February 1939. She was assigned to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, in 1940. From here, as flagship of the Home Fleet, she participated in several North Atlantic operations protecting the Arctic convoys. In May 1941 she led the fleet in the attack and sinking of the ‘Bismarck’ in the North Atlantic. Following the end of the Second World War, the battleships of the ‘King George V’-class had become obsolete and expensive to maintain. Refitted in 1946-47, ‘KGV’ was reduced to a training role in Portland. In 1950 the entire class was laid up in reserve in Gareloch. After the scrapping of the class was approved in 1957, she was broken up at Dalmuir and Troon the following year.