USS “Somers” DD-381 – the American “Somers”-class destroyer

USS “Somers” was the lead of the “Somers”-class destroyers, built for the United States Navy from 1937 to 1945. The ship was named for Richard Somers, a United States Navy officer, who was killed in action during the First Barbary War in 1804. “Somers”' keel was laid down on 27 June 1935 at the “Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company” in Kearny, New Jersey, and launched on 13 March 1937. His main armament consisted of eight 5-inch/38-caliber length guns in four twin-barreled turrets, two forward and two aft. Anti-aircraft defenses consisted of eight 1.1-inch/75-caliber length guns in two 4-barreled turrets, one forward and one aft of the main superstructure. In addition, there were two .50-caliber machine guns, mounted near the forward turret, one on each side of the hull. Torpedo armament consisted of three quadruple 533 mm torpedo tubes amidships. On 6 November 1941, “Somers”, along with the “Omaha”-class cruiser USS “Omaha”, captured the German rubber cargo ship “Odenwald”, which was disguised as the American merchant ship “Willmoto”. In November 1942, “Somers” and two ‘Omaha”-class cruisers USS “Milwaukee” and USS “Cincinnati” captured the German blockade runner “Anneliese Essberger” near the coast of Brazil. From January 1943, “Somers” operated in the Mediterranean, performing convoy escort duties. In 1944, On 15 August, during the invasion of southern France, “Somers” sank the German corvette UJ6081 and the sloop SG21 at the Battle of Port Cross. She then shelled the coast of Toulon with his 5-inch shells. The ship was struck from the fleet lists on 28 October 1945 and later sold for scrap.

A rather large, complex, well-designed and very richly detailed model of a warship, painted in grey camouflage (1938) for only medium and experienced modelers. There is a very large color range for this publisher, the text assembly instructions are large and detailed in Polish and English, the graphic ones are simply huge, informative, easy to read and both of them will really help a lot in the process of gluing the model. Excellent print quality.