HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast (C35) is an Edinburgh-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. 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.

Launched in March 1938, Belfast was the largest light cruiser ever built for the Royal Navy, with a displacement of 13,175 tons. She struck a mine soon after the start of war in 1939 which put her out of action for three years of repair to her broken back. Once returned to action she served with distinction during which she participated in the sinking of the German battlecruiser (or light battleship) Scharnhorst (Operation Tungsten), the landing phase of the D-Day landings (Operation Neptune). She was 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.

HMS Belfast was decommissioned in 1963 but was saved for the nation 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.
Picture © 2006 onwards by Dr Himanshu Tyagi. All the photographs in this blog are copyright protected and can not be reproduced or stored in any medium without the written permission from Dr Himanshu Tyagi.