A salute to the Pamphlet Convoy February 10th 1943. The Monsters laboured far from the fighting, like cartographic beasts wrestle on a map's edge. Its possible that U-boat captains exchanged stories about mermaids and kelpies cavorting in the cross-hairs. But the Queen Mary? Nah, Mate, you're dreaming. The Monsters were amongst the fastest ships afloat, too fast for convoys. But once four of the big requisitioned liners; Aquitania, Ile de France, Nieuw Amsterdam and of course the Queen Mary gathered for one remarkable operation. Churchill baulked at the idea at first -he said that Nazis were still loose in North Africa. Actual Nazis! He lost the argument. Australia and General Macarthur's South-West Pacific HQ wanted Australia's 9th Division in New Guinea, like, immediately! Winston came around though and spared the four big troopships for an audacious push across the Indian Ocean. The Royal Navy even compromised their defense of vital Madagascar to release three battleships as a covering force for the fast convoy to distant Australia. Here the task force reveals its presence on the horizon, to assure the men of Australia's battle-hardened 9th that their transports aren't the only valuable Allied surface assets in the Indian Ocean sailing toward Australia Its been a while since I started this one. The crowds of soldiers on the upper decks are super lo-res objects modeled in Shade 10 (to our untrained modern eye of course these men appear to be sun-baking and gambling, but what do we know of the harsh rigors of jungle warfare training). This one has had a long gestation, the wake being the most troublesome. Modelled in Vue 2014, creaking and groaning, as it no longer functions correctly. other assets from elswhere. RMS Lusitania by Ivous HMS Queen Elizabeth by C5Reklam