Navis Neptun 1/1250 1407 Bretagne, French battleship,1940

A 1/1250 scale metal model of the French super-dreadnought battleship, Bretagne, in 1940. Bretagne was a key element of the French fleet at the start of WW2 and was in Mers el Kebir on the north African coast when France was overun by the German army. A Royal Navy squadron under orders from Winston Churchill demand the surrender or internment of all the French ships in harbour and opened fire on them when the ultimatum expired. Bretagne was hit by a salvo of 15" shells which triggered a magazine explosion which destroyed the ship.