Scale: 1:9. The 'Welman’-type midget submarine (1943) was just over six metres in length, carried a 540-kilogram warhead, was powered by a single electric motor capable of 3 knots, and had a surfaced range of 36 nautical miles. With a crew of one, it was designed to be operated by anyone with ‘normal intelligence after the briefest possible period of training’. Crews were generally drawn from No.2 Commando Royal Marines (Special Boat Service).

Around a hundred were built, mainly at the Morris car plant in Oxford. Their main functions were to attack enemy shipping by placing explosive devices onto their hulls using magnetic clips, for transporting supplies, and for conducting reconnaissance missions. But the design was deemed a flop. Trials concluded that the Welman could best be used only against merchant shipping in harbours along the Norwegian coast. They were employed at least once operationally, though not successfully, in the Baltic.

The model demonstrates all the submarine’s key features, albeit in a very basic way, such as the armoured glass windows in the short ‘conning tower’ and the absence of a periscope. Both windows and propeller are made of silver-painted wood, no doubt a wartime economy. It looks as though the model was made as a design or discussion tool and for travelling with. It is mounted on a launch cradle and housed in a polished, hinged, portable case, with leather carrying handle.