pucciManuli - A Remarkable Collection

USS HORNET
The seventh Hornet (CV-8) was launched December 14, 1940 by the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., in Newport News, VA.  During the uneasy period before Pearl Harbor, Hornet trained out of Norfolk. A hint of a future mission occurred in February 1942, when Hornet departed Norfolk with two Army B-25 medium bombers on deck.  Once at sea, the planes were launched to the surprise and amazement of Hornet's crew.  However, her men were unaware of the meaning of this experiment. Hornet returned to Norfolk, prepared to leave for combat, and on March 4th, set sail for San Francisco.  With her own planes on the hangar deck, she loaded 16 Army B-25 bombers on the flight deck.  Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, 70 officers and 64 enlisted men reported aboard.  In company of escort ships, Hornet departed San Francisco April 2nd and embarked on her mission under sealed orders.  That afternoon Captain Mitscher informed his men of their mission: a bombing raid on Japan.

Eleven days later Hornet joined USS Enterprise off Midway and Task Force 16 turned toward Japan.  With Enterprise providing air combat cover, Hornet was to steam deep into enemy waters where Colonel Doolittle would lead the B-25s in a daring strike on Tokyo and other important Japanese cities. Originally, the task force intended to proceed to within 400 miles of the Japanese coast; however, on the morning of April 18, 1942, a Japanese patrol boat sighted Hornet.  While the cruiser USS Nashville sank the craft, they had already informed the Japanese of the American task force.  Though still some 600 miles from the Japanese coast, Admiral William F. Halsey ordered the immediate launch of the "Tokyo Raiders."  By 09:20 all 16 of the bombers were airborne, heading for the first American air strike against the heart of Japan.  Hornet brought her planes back on deck and steamed at full speed for Pearl Harbor.  Intercepted broadcasts, in both Japanese and English, confirmed the success of the raids.  Hornet's mission was kept an official secret for a year; until President Roosevelt referred to the origin of the Tokyo raid only as "Shangri-La."

Hornet departed Pearl Harbor May 26 and headed to the Midway, where it was reported that Japanese carrier-based planes were heading.  Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise launched strikes as the Japanese carriers struck their planes below to prepare for a second strike on Midway.  Hornet dive-bombers missed contact, but 15 planes comprising her Torpedo Squadron 8 found the enemy and pressed home their attacks. They were met by overwhelming fighter opposition and shot down one by one. Ens. George H. Gay, USNR, the only surviving pilot, reached the surface as his plane sunk. He hid under a rubber seat cushion to avoid strafing and witnessed the greatest carrier battle in history.

Of 41 torpedo planes launched by the American carriers, only six returned. Their sacrifices drew enemy fighters away from dive-bombers of Enterprise and Yorktown who sank three Japanese carriers with an assist from submarine USS Nautilus.  The fourth Japanese carrier, Hiryu, was sunk the following day, while the gallant Yorktown was lost to combined aerial and submarine attacks.  Hornet planes attacked the fleeing Japanese fleet to assist in sinking cruiser Mikuma, damaging a destroyer, and left cruiser Mogami aflame and heavily damaged.  Hits were also made on other ships.  Hornet's attack on Mogami wrote the finish to one of the decisive battles of history that had far reaching and enduring results on the Pacific War.

Following the Battle of Midway, Hornet had new radar installed and trained out of Pearl Harbor. She sailed August 17, 1942 to guard the sea approach to bitterly contested Guadalcanal in the Solomons. Bomb damage to Enterprise, torpedo damage to USS Saratoga, and loss of USS Wasp reduced carriers in the South Pacific to one, Hornet. She bore the brunt of air cover in the Solomons until October 24, 1942 when she joined Enterprise northwest of the New Hebrides Islands and steamed to intercept a Japanese carrier-battleship force bearing down on Guadalcanal.  The Battle of Santa Cruz Island took place October 26, 1942 without contact between surface ships of the opposing forces. That morning Enterprise planes bombed carrier Zuiho. Planes from Hornet severely damaged carrier Shokaku, and cruiser Chikuma, as well as two other cruisers. Meanwhile, Hornet was fighting off a coordinated dive-bombing and torpedo plane attack, which left her so severely damaged that she had to be abandoned. Commented one sailor, awaiting rescue, when asked if he planned to re-enlist, "Dammit, yes — on the new Hornet!"

The abandoned Hornet, ablaze from stem to stern, refused to accept her intended fate from friends. She was still afloat after receiving nine torpedoes and more than 400 rounds of 5-inch shellfire from destroyers Mustin and Anderson. Japanese destroyers hastened the inevitable by firing four 24-inch torpedoes at her blazing hull. On October 27, 1942, she finally sank off the Santa Cruz Islands. Her proud name was struck from the Navy List January 13, 1943.

About the Model…
Fine Art Models’ has built this limited edition USS Hornet, Doolittle Raid ship model in a scale of 1:192 with exacting detail, complete with sixteen (16) B-25 Bombers, each with its own number and five (5) Wildcat airplanes.  This most impressive model features a center forward flight deck working elevator that can be placed in any up/down position, and open hanger deck doors that allow the Wildcats to be placed, and seen, in their hanger – just as they were prior to the launch of the B25’s.

Each Hornet is built by a team of eight (8) of the most skilled craftsmen in the world, with more than 700 man-hours just to assemble.  Computers were used to generate exact scale drawings from the original plans.  All of the materials used to construct the ship meet and/or exceed museum quality standards including a space-age, high definition hull, photo-etched metal decks, a completely fabricated brass superstructure, and one of the most complex American paint schemes ever carried on a ship faithfully reproduced.  In addition, all of the paint used is custom-made and impervious to ultra-violet light.  And, as with all Fine Art Models, the USS Hornet, Doolittle Raid scale model comes complete with a Black Walnut base and leaded glass display case.

Models, or rather miniatures, have been made by man since he learned to stand upright – in the very beginning as objects of religion, and then as presents or for decoration.  In those early days, materials used were bone, stone, or rock and wood – materials readily available.  Tools were crude in the extreme, so the results were crude. 

Accuracy of representation developed as man’s skill to invent and use tools and new materials grew, and this trend continues to the present day.
 By the 14th and 15th centuries, these skills had developed to an extraordinary degree as can be seen in full size artifacts and miniatures made by armorers and instrument makers.  The majority of models, however, were still rather crude – mostly ships, the “votif” models made to hang in churches by way of thanksgiving for journey’s end and a safe return.  As they were intended to be hung and, therefore, seen only from underneath, guns are exaggerated, hull shapes simple, deck fittings almost nonexistent and rigging inaccurate.


By the 17th and 18th centuries, standards and faithfulness to prototype had changed dramatically as, for example, the model ships built for the Navy Board.  These were built by the finest craftsmen, mostly of box and fruitwood as three-dimensional pictures of proposals for future ships so that My Lords of the Admiralty were better able to judge design.  These models were incredibly accurate in shape and detail, and many have survived, located in museums and private collections around the world.  They are important, not only as a record of ship design of the period, but as the first truly accurate models.


During the 19th century, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, three-dimensional miniatures were made for different reasons.  Steam, the motif power at that time is very powerful and, logically, a small machine, if it is going to explode, will make less of a bang than the full size machine.  Many development models were made, mainly by instrument makers and then by that rapidly developing genre – the engineer.  As the 19th century progressed, on the one hand the making of a model became part of an apprentice engineer’s life – his test piece had to be of a very high standard to pass.  On the other hand the salesman needed a model for the same practical reason as did my Lords of Admiralty, all those years before. 


About this time, miniatures began to be made, originally by those same self-same apprentices, now full-fledged engineers, for fun, in their leisure hours – and thus was born amateur model-making as we know it today.  In parallel, there were commercial organizations making models, kits and toys, as for example, Stevens Model Dockyard, Bassett-Lowke and many others, all trying to satisfy an insatiable desire by man to own miniatures of things he wished to remember for one reason or another.
 Models have, however, been made for entirely different and particular purposes; e.g. the bone model ships made by French prisoners of war in England between about 1775 and 1815 (they were made to supplement their rations), or Patent Models made as part of the inventive process.  These fall outside the mainstream of model making, but are historically important in their own right.



Now, at the end of the 20th Century, a different problem has arisen.  The commercially trained skills of apprenticed engineers are gradually dying out as man’s quest toward computerization develops, and discerning collectors, who understand and seek quality, generally have neither the time nor the skill to make aesthetically pleasing and ever more accurate miniatures themselves. 

Long may serious and discerning collectors exist who demand the best; satisfying their demands will preserve and continue the necessary skills, which will otherwise, gradually, be lost forever.