Paul's Britains 2 Man Submarine

Hi Woodsy,

I dug out my childhood collection of toy soldiers, which is fairly small, but it does contain a couple of diver-related models.

Here is the Britains human torpedo, which seems to be based on the Royal Navy Chariot Mk.I used in the latter part of WW2, which was based on a type used successfully by the Italian Navy.

Length is 185 mm. The main body is bluish-green plastic, with a red nose, and tail. Oddly, there is no propeller at the rear. The two divers are black plastic, with orange painted stripes on their wet suits, and orange face masks. 

The twin air tanks are yellow plastic, the mouth piece plugs in to a hole in the face. This is totally different to the diving suits worn in WW2, and has a more modern look, in keeping with a toy from the 1970s. 

There is a paper sticker at the rear, on both sides, with a British flag, and RN S2 in white. To ensure the model stands upright, and is less likely to tip over, the base is unpainted metal. This feature was also seen on other Britains figures in the 1970s. 

The underside of the foot boards have a fair amount of information moulded in: BRITAINS LTD - ENGLAND - COPYRIGHT 1976 at the top; 2 MAN - SUBMARINE at the bottom; and REG.DSGNNO.977778 at the front.

Another British firm, Timpo Toys, had a similar model in silver-grey plastic, again with two frogmen, but I never had one of these. The Italian kit maker Italeri do a 1:35 scale kit of the original WW2 Italian version.

Take care everyone.

Paul Adams

New Zealand