Children have commemorated their primary school’s historic links with a famous ship sunk in one of the great disasters of the Second World War by building a scale model of the vessel.
The Cobi model of the HMS Hood will take pride of place at Applegarth Primary School in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
The completion of the scale model was attended HMS Hood Association chairman Barry Roberts and Cobi UK manager Lee Crocker, along with Graeme Garnham, a former headteacher in Fife, who played a key role in the project.
Applegarth Primary School adopted the HMS Hood during the Second World War, with pupils becoming penpals with crew members, sending them food parcels and gifts. In return, the crew presented the school with two trophies.
On May 20, 1941, “Mighty Hood” engaged the German battleship Bismarck in the northern Atlantic and was sunk in the first exchange of gunfire. Only three crew members survived.
In those minutes, the school lost 1,415 of its “friends” – it knew some of the sailors personally, and many of them went down with a good luck prayer composed by the children inside their caps.
Primary school heritage lead Lynne Cross said the project had been conceived while she was teaching children about the history of toys, focusing on Lego and how it had evolved over time.
She said: “My brother Graeme Garnham, who was a head teacher in Scotland, said he had learned that Cobi (a Polish company) produced a model of the HMS Hood. Hegot really excited.
"This combines our our study of toys with the special links we have with HMS Hood. 
“The model is quite intricate and quite an adult version. My brother brought it to the school and some of the children helped him start it off.
“The Year One and Two children were incredible. They just seemed to know where things went and could read the diagrams."
Once started, Mr Garnham took the model away and built the tricky bits before bringing it back to complete with the pupils on Wednesday (March 13).
Mr Crocker of Cobi came up from London to speak to the children and presented them with a case to hold the model. Mr Roberts travelled from Portsmouth for the event."
The Applegarth was later allocated the new flagship, HMS King George V which, led the air and sea chase which resulted in the sinking of the Bismarck 400 miles off Brest, on the French coast, three days later.
HMS Hood remains part of the school logo, which the children wear on their jumpers.
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