HMS Belfast (C35) is a 6-inch gunned, 32-knot Edinburgh-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. The Navy's heaviest ever cruiser, she served in World War II and is now berthed on the River Thames near Tower Bridge in London serving as a museum ship. The ship is administered by the Imperial War Museum as the last of the nation's big-gun warships.
Launched in March 1938, Belfast struck a mine soon after the start of war in 1939 which broke her back and injured 21 members of the crew, a calamity that put the ship out of action for three years. Once returned to service, with her original displacement of 11,175 tons now increased to 11,553 tons, she served with distinction for the rest of the war. Amongst her best-known activities are her role in the sinking of the German battlecruiser (or light battleship) Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape in December 1943 and the bombardment of enemy positions at the beginning of the landing phase of the D-Day landings (Operation Neptune) in June 1944. She was later given a brief refit for Pacific service in the Far East, and joined Operation Zipper which was intended to eject the Japanese from Malaya but turned into a relief operation following the Japanese surrender. During the last days of the war in Europe she was spotted in the North Sea by a German submarine without being aware of it. The German captain decided not to fire, however, since the war was almost over.
She also served in the Korean War, in which her guns were used for shore bombardment in support of the United Nations forces. In July 1952 she was hit by a Communist battery, killing one and wounding four others.
HMS Belfast was decommissioned in 1963 but was purchased by the Imperial War Museum for £1 in 1971. She was towed to a new berth at Symon's Wharf in the Pool of London upstream of Tower Bridge and opened to the public on Trafalgar Day that same year. Her guns are reportedly trained on the London Gateway Service Area (formerly Scratchwood services) on the M1 motorway, 12.5 miles to the northwest.
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External links
- Belfast website
- Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society (RNARS) — operates the radio rooms and Amateur Radio station
- Aerial view of HMS Belfast from Google Local