Coastlines 1/1250 CL-M529K Robert Ley, KdF cruise ship 1938-39

Robert Ley was the second of the new purpose-built, single class,German cruise ships to complete in 1936. She was shorter, wider and higher than Wilhelm Gustloff and had a slightly greater passenger capacity. She only completed a handful of holiday cruises and was used to bring the Condor Legion back from Spain in a convoy of cruise ships after the end of the Spanish Civil War. In August 1939, she was given a refit and converted to a hospital ship in Hamburg and sailed into the Baltic to support the invasion of Poland. By 1941, she had become a base and accommodation ship in Latvia and was employed in Operation Hannibal before being laid up in Hamburg where she was bombed and set ablaze shortly before the end of the war in Europe. She was refloated and moored in the Elbe for several months before being sold to Thomas Ward and Co. in 1946 and she was scrapped in Britain in 1947. See also the Hospital Ship model (CL-M529HS) and the Accommodation Ship model (CL-M529).