An 11,000 ton, 6-inch gun cruiser is an impressive ship; in this case HMS Belfast is made even more impressive by her being anchored in the Pool of London, close to Tower Bridge. Now cared for by the Imperial War Museum, this veteran of both World War Two and the Korean War, serves as a living reminder of the ‘big gun navy’, when the art of naval gunnery was practised aboard battleships and cruisers by the direct ‘descendents’ of admirals such as Nelson and Frobisher, and is the largest preserved warship in Europe. Built by Harland & Wolff - who built the 'Titanic' - in Belfast as one of the pre-war 'Town' class of cruisers, this class of warship was designed to protect the merchant shipping of the British Empire as it circled the globe.
Launched on St Patrick's Day, 1938, 'HMS Belfast' (pennant number, 'C35') was capable of 32 knots, and carried 12 x 6-inch guns in four triple mounts a secondary armament of 4 -inch and 40mm guns (although the original anti-aircraft armament of Vickers .5" machineguns and short-barrelled 2 pounder 'pom-pom' guns were soon found to be completely inadequate and removed). Commissioned just prior to the outbreak of WW2 (5th August 1939), the ship was almost lost when she hit a magnetic mine in November of that year, and repairs took nearly three years. Here you can see her wearing a particularly fetching ‘dazzle camouflage’ – Admiralty Disruptive Camouflage Type 25 – from the middle of the Second World War; this is anachronistic, given the current technical state of her radar and armament, and the removal of her two Walrus aircraft and the crane used to recover them, all which reflect her post-war rebuild.
In April 1943, HMS Belfast took part in a raid on occupied Norway - 'Operation Tungsten' – an aerial attack on the German battleship ‘Tirpitz’ , by Fairey Barracuda, Grumman Hellcat and Chance-Vought Corsair aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm; Belfast's role was to provide cover for the Royal Navy aircraft carriers stationed off the Norwegian coast. This was just a prelude to a much bigger action. On Boxing Day (26th December), 1943, HMS Belfast played a significant part in the Battle of the North Cape, which saw the battleship HMS Duke of York and units of the Home Fleet intercept and destroy the German battlecruiser 'Scharnhorst', which had been attempting to attack not one by two convoys sailing between Scotland and Russia. Belfast illuminated the German warship at night and the midst of a heavy snow squall using a volley of starshell, as well as joining in the general bombardment which followed.
Perhaps her most notable action, however, was bombarding targets in France during the D-Day landings in Normandy, on 6th June, 1944, when she used both her 6 inch and 4 inch guns to great effect (she could reach targets more than 11 miles inland); her main role was supporting the British and Canadian landings on Gold and Juno beaches.
After post-war modernization and a period of 'peacetime' cruising, HMS Belfast’ s last taste of action came during the Korean War when she regularly bombarded Communist targets ashore on both sides of the 38th parallel. She was in almost continuous action from July 1950 to September 1952, when she finally sailed for her home port.
HMS Belfast was de-commissioned following a final visit to her 'home port' and placed 'in reserve' in 1963. She came every close to being scrapped, but was saved for the nation at the eleventh hour by a vigorous campaign lead by ex-officers of the ship. She then entered retirement, and was moored in the Thames as a floating museum. Eventually taken over by the Imperial War Museum, she is, technically, a branch of that institution. I have visited HMS Belfast on a number of occasions, and, like the 250,000 other people who visit each year, I am always struck by a sense of history. Truly, as the ship’s motto says, Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamas (For so much, how shall we repay?)
http://peoplesmosquito.org.uk
http://shortfinals.wordpress.com