FAMOUS

SHIPS

The H.M.S. BELFAST is currently moored on the River Thames and is within easy walking distance of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  She is a modified Southampton class 6-inch cruiser built by Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.  Her keel was laid on December 10, 1936 and she was launched on March 17, 1938, being commissioned into the Royal Navy on August 5, 1939. 

Her vital statistics were:  Standard displacement; 11,553 tons, overall length; 613 feet 6 inches, beam; 69 feet, draught; 19 feet 9 inches, armament; twelve (4x3) 6-inch; eight (4x2) 4-inch; twelve (6x2) Bofors AA, propulsion; 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, complement; 750 to 850 men.

Her first skipper was Captain G. A. Scott DSO RN.  She was launched and commissioned just in time for WWII, which started in September 1939.  She started the war by patrolling the Northern waters as part of the Royal Navy’s attempt to impose a maritime blockade on Germany. 

On October 9, H.M.S. BELFAST successfully intercepted the German liner SS CAP NORTE while she was trying to return to Germany under disguise.  Her people received prize money in the form of a cash gratuity for her capture, but success did not last long.  On November 21 she hit a magnetic mine while leaving the Firth of Forth.  Her casualty list was light, but she was so heavily damaged that it took three years to repair the damage.

H.M.S. BELFAST finally rejoined the home fleet in November, 1942  under the command of Captain Sir Frederick Parham.  She was now the largest and most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy, now being equipped with the most up-to-date radar and fire control systems.  She was now engaged in escorting the Artic convoys taking supplies to Russia as the flagship of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron.  On February 21, 1943, wearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Burnett, she left Iceland for the Russian port of Murmansk in support of Convoy JW53.  The convoy reached its destination.  H.M.S. BELFAST spent most of 1943 doing the same tedious, very dangerous duty. 

Her next action came about in December, 1943.  This was known as the Battle of North Cape.  The Germans realized that too many convoys were getting through without loss and something had to be done.  They decided to send the SCHARNHORST, one of the last battle cruisers the Germans had, after Convoys JW55B and RA55A with five destroyers.  Unknown to the Germans, the British had deciphered their signals and new what was coming, so they deployed Rear-Admiral Burnett in H.M.S. BELFAST, with the cruisers NORFOLK and SHEFFIELD, to screen the convoys and keep SCHARNHORST in play, while Admiral Fraser, in the battleship H.M.S. DUKE OF YORK, accompanied by the large light cruiser H.M.S. JAMAICA and four destroyers, would cut her off from the south.  

The SCHARNHORST lost contact with her destroyers and was alone when, on December 16, she encountered Burnett and his cruisers while trying to reach the convoys.  She was driven off by the cruisers, having been hit by one of H.M.S. NORFOLK’s 8-inch shells.  She again tried to break through to the convoys, but was again unsuccessful.  She then retreated at high speed with the BELFAST and SHEFFIELD in hot pursuit, driving her towards Admiral Fraser and the 14-inch buns of H.M.S. DUKE OF YORK.  Shortly after gaining radar contact, the DUKE OF YORK succeeded in hitting the German battle cruiser with her first salvo.  It was the end for the SCHARNHORST – only 36 of her complement of 1,963 men survived.

On March 30, 1944, H.M.S. BELFAST sailed from Scapa Flow in company with a powerful force of battleships and aircraft carriers as part of Operation Tungsten.  The object was to destroy or at least seriously damage the German battleship TIRPITZ.  The operation was successful to the extent that the TIRPITZ was hit by 15 bombs and put out of commission for several months.  She was later destroyed by heavy bombers in November of 1944, the last capital ship Germany had.

H.M.S. BELFAST was next involved in the D-Day bombardment – she being one of the very first ships to open fire on 6 June, 1944.  She was responsible for assisting the British and Canadian forces on beaches Gold and Juno.  She was then continually in action for the next five weeks, firing thousands of rounds from her main 6-inch and secondary 4-inch batteries in support of the Allied troops.  When she finished this duty she had fired her guns in anger for the last time in European waters.

She then went to the Far East to assist in evacuation of the survivors of the Japanese prisoner of war camps, as the war ended for Japan before the BELFAST got there.  She performed this duty as well as peace-keeping tasks through the autumn of 1947.  She was then flagship of the Far East in Hong Kong after a brief re-fit.  The Korean War involved H.M.S. BELFAST to the extent that she fired salvo’s at shore targets in support of the U.N. troops.  She fired so many that she wore out her 6-inch guns!  She left on September 27, 1952, having fired her guns in anger for the last time.  She went back to the Far East between 1959 – 1962 to show the flag and carry out peacetime duties.  She was paid off on August 24, 1963.  She would have normally went to the scrap yard, but a determined group, led by Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles DSO OBE GM saved her.  She was brought to London and opened to the public on October 21, 1971, were she is today.