HMS Belfast (C35)
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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. H.M.S. Belfast's specifications are as follows:Class: Edinburgh, Modified Southampton class
Sister ship: HMS Edinburgh (sunk May 1942)
Built: Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Belfast. Keel laid 10 December 1936
Launched: 17 March 1938 - St. Patrick's Day
Commissioned: Commissioned into the Royal Navy 5 August 1939
Standard displacement: 11,553 tons
Overall length: 613 feet 6 inches (187metres)
Beam: 69 feet (21metres)
Draught: 19 feet 9 inches (6.1metres)
Armament (1959): Twelve (4x3) 6-inch; eight (4x2) 4-inch HA/LA; twelve (6x2) Bofors AA
Propulsive machinery: Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers; four steam powered Parsons single reduction geared turbines driving four shafts at 80,000 shaft horsepower
Maximum speed: 32 knots (36 miles / 58 km per hour)
Complement: 750 - 850 (as flagship)
Launched on,17 March 1938,After fitting out and builder's trails, HMS Belfast was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1939 under the command of Captain G A Scott DSO RN.
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 Gneisenau class battlecruiser 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. The huge armada was divided into two naval task forces and five assault forces, on for each of the main landing beaches. Each of the assault forces was in turn supported by its own naval bombardment force. As flagship of bombardment Force E, HMS Belfast was part of the Eastern Naval Task Force, with responsibility for supporting the British and Canadian assaults on 'Gold' and 'Juno' beaches and, at 5.30 am on 6 June 1944, was one of the very first ships to open fire on German positions in Normandy.Over the course of the next five weeks she was almost continuously in action, firing thousands of rounds from her main 6-inch and secondary 4-inch batteries in support of Allied troops fighting their way inland against skilful and determined German opposition. Her last shot took place in company with the battleship HMS Rodney and the monitor HMS Roberts on 8 July, during the course of heavy fighting for the city of Caen.
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 sailed for the Far East and spent the years 1959-62 performing the usual duties of HM ships abOne notable event occurred in December 1961 when HMS Belfast entered Dar-es-Salaam to take part in the granting of independence to Tanganyika. She had the honour of providing the guard for the final hauling-down of the Union Flag and the first hoisting of the Tanganyikan flag. Thousands thronged the foreshore as HMS Belfast steamed out of Dar-es-Salaam harbourroad in peacetime - carrying out exercises and generally "showing the flag".
HMS Belfast returned to the UK and made a final visit to the City of Belfast. Following one last exercise in the Mediterranean, she finally paid off in Devonport on 24 August 1963 and her Admiral's flag was hauled down for the last time. She had earned her rest, having steamed nearly half a million miles during her operational life. HMS Belfast leaft Singapore on 26 March 1962 at the end of her final foreign service commission. In the normal course of events, her next destination would very probably have been the scrapyard. However, behind the scenes, a determined group of men led by her former captain, now Rear Admiral, Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles DSO OBE GM, decided to save her. She was brought to London and opened to the public on 21 October 1971 - Trafalgar Day.
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External links
- [Belfast website]
- [Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society] (RNARS) — operates the radio rooms and amateur radio station onboard
- [Aerial view of HMS Belfast from Google Local]
| Town-class cruiser |
| Southampton sub class Birmingham | Glasgow | Newcastle | Sheffield | Southampton |
| Gloucester sub class Gloucester | Liverpool | Manchester |
| Edinburgh sub class Belfast | Edinburgh |
| List of cruisers of the Royal Navy |
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