55 Facts About HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Belfast's is permanently moored as a museum ship on the River Thames in London and is operated by the Imperial War Museum.

In November 1939, HMS Belfast struck a German mine and, in spite of fears that she would be scrapped, spent more than two years undergoing extensive repairs.

HMS Belfast returned to action in November 1942 with improved firepower, radar equipment, and armour.

HMS Belfast saw action escorting Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union during 1943 and in December 1943 played an important role in the Battle of North Cape, assisting in the destruction of the German warship Scharnhorst.

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In June 1944, HMS Belfast took part in Operation Overlord supporting the Normandy landings.

HMS Belfast saw further combat action in during the Korean War and underwent an extensive modernisation between 1956 and 1959.

In 1967, efforts were initiated to avert HMS Belfast expected scrapping and to preserve her as a museum ship.

HMS Belfast was ordered from Harland and Wolff on 21 September 1936, and her keel laid on 10 December 1936.

HMS Belfast's was launched on Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March 1938, by Anne Chamberlain, the wife of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

HMS Belfast's was propelled by four three-drum oil-fired Admiralty water-tube boilers, turning Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts.

HMS Belfast's mounted six Mk IV 21-inch torpedo tubes in two triple mounts, and fifteen Mk VII depth charges.

HMS Belfast departed for Portsmouth on 3 August 1939, and was commissioned on 5 August 1939, less than a month before the outbreak of the Second World War.

At 11:40 that morning, HMS Belfast received the message 'Commence hostilities at st Germany'.

On 4 January 1940 HMS Belfast was decommissioned to Care and Maintenance status, becoming the responsibility of Rosyth Dockyard, and her crew dispersed to other vessels.

HMS Belfast received new fire control radars for her main, secondary and anti-aircraft guns.

HMS Belfast's received a Type 273 general surface warning radar, Type 251 and 252 sets for identification friend or foe purposes, and a Type 281 and Type 242 for air warning.

HMS Belfast was recommissioned at Devonport on 3 November 1942, under the command of Captain Frederick Parham.

On her return to the Home Fleet HMS Belfast was made flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Robert Burnett, who had previously commanded the Home Fleet's destroyer flotillas.

HMS Belfast played an important role in the battle; as flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, she was among the first to encounter Scharnhorst, and coordinated the squadron's defence of the convoy.

February 1944 saw HMS Belfast resume her Arctic convoy duties, and on 30 March 1944 HMS Belfast sailed with the covering force of Operation Tungsten, a large carrier-launched Fleet Air Arm airstrike against the German battleship Tirpitz.

Invasion of Normandy HMS Belfast was made headquarters ship of Bombardment Force E flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, and was to support landings by British and Canadian forces in the Gold and Juno Beach sectors.

HMS Belfast's evaded them by weighing anchor and moving to the concealment of a smoke screen.

On 17 June 1945, with the war in Europe at an end, HMS Belfast sailed for the Far East via Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Port Said, Aden, Colombo and Sydney.

HMS Belfast had been expected to join in Operation Downfall, but this was forestalled by the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945.

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HMS Belfast's received two more single Bofors guns, in place of two of her single 2-pounder mountings.

HMS Belfast's was recommissioned on 22 September 1948 and, before returning to the Far East, visited her home city of Belfast, arriving on 20 October.

The next day HMS Belfast took charge of a silver ship's bell, a gift of the people of HMS Belfast.

HMS Belfast remained in Hong Kong during 1949, sailing for Singapore on 18 January 1950.

On 25 June 1950, while HMS Belfast was visiting Hakodate in Japan, North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel, starting the Korean War.

Originally part of the US Navy's Task Force 77, HMS Belfast was detached in order to operate independently on 5 July 1950.

That day HMS Belfast fired an accurate 350-round bombardment from her 6-inch guns, and was praised by an American admiral as a "straight-shooting ship".

In September 1951 HMS Belfast provided anti-aircraft cover for a salvage operation to recover a crashed enemy MiG-15 jet fighter.

On 29 July 1952 HMS Belfast was hit by enemy fire while engaging an artillery battery on Wolsa-ri island.

HMS Belfast's paid off in Chatham on 4 November 1952 and entered reserve at Devonport on 1 December.

HMS Belfast arrived in Singapore on 16 December 1959, and spent most of 1960 at sea on exercise, calling at ports in Hong Kong, Borneo, India, Ceylon, Australia, the Philippines and Japan.

On 31 January 1961, HMS Belfast recommissioned, under the command of Captain Morgan Morgan-Giles.

On her final foreign commission HMS Belfast joined a number of exercises in the Far East, and in December 1961 she provided the British guard of honour at Tanganyika's independence ceremony in Dar-es-Salaam.

In July 1963 HMS Belfast was recommissioned for the last time, with a crew of the Royal Naval Reserve and a number of Sea Cadets flying the flag of the Admiral Commanding Reserves, Rear Admiral Hugh Martell.

HMS Belfast returned to Devonport on 24 August 1963 and underwent a short refit to prepare her for paying off into reserve, which occurred in December 1963.

The HMS Belfast Trust was established; its chairman was Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles, captain of HMS Belfast from January 1961 to July 1962.

HMS Belfast described Belfast as being in "a really wonderful state of preservation" and that saving her for the nation represented a "case of grasping the last opportunity".

HMS Belfast did agree to postpone any decision on the scrapping of Belfast to allow the Trust to put together a formal proposal.

HMS Belfast's was towed from Portsmouth to London via Tilbury, where she was fitted out as a museum.

HMS Belfast's was towed to her berth above Tower Bridge on 15 October 1971 and settled in a huge hole that had been dredged in the river bed; then she was attached to two dolphins which guide her during the rise and fall of the tide.

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HMS Belfast's was opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971.

Now a museum, the ship's opening was well received: in 1972 the HMS Belfast Trust won the British Tourist Authority's "Come to Britain" trophy.

In 1976 HMS Belfast was reaffiliated with the successors to the British Army's Royal Ulster Rifles, the Royal Irish Rangers, and in the same year the Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society restored the ship's Bridge Wireless Office to working order.

On 19 January 1978 the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Shirley Williams, accepted the proposal stating that HMS Belfast "is a unique demonstration of an important phase of our history and technology".

In October 1998, the HMS Belfast Association was formed to reunite former members of the ship's company.

Since being brought to London HMS Belfast has twice been drydocked as part of the ship's long-term preservation.

HMS Belfast's was not expected to require further drydocking until 2020.

When HMS Belfast was first opened to the public, visitors were limited to the upper decks and forward superstructure.

Since 2002, school and youth groups have been able to stay onboard HMS Belfast overnight, sleeping in bunks on a restored 1950s mess deck.

HMS Belfast serves as the headquarters of the City of London Sea Cadet Corps, and her prestigious location in central London as a result means she frequently has other vessels berthed alongside.