HMS Belfast (Image heavy)

[Kapitan]

HMS Belfast is a town class light cruiser moored in London opposite the tower of London, she was built in 1939 and survived a mine hit which put her out of action for two years.

DSCN0249 by Blair shaw, on Flickr


During her time with the Royal Navy she saw service in the home fleet, artic convoys where she famously engaged the German Battleship Scharnhorst she was present at the D Day landings on the 6th of June 1944 where she became the last ship to fire a shell at enemy positions at the beach head a month later, after her action at D Day she was sent to the far east arriving just after the end of the second world war.
HMS Belfast also saw service in the Korean war between 1950 and 1953, By 1963 She was showing her age and she entered the reserve fleet

DSCN0265 by Blair shaw, on Flickr

The big gun navy was being replaced by cheaper more effective missile carrying vessels and a tender was put forward for her scrapping, she was only saved when the imperial war museum and national maritime museum joined forces to save her and in 1967 the proposal was rejected instead a private trust was set up and she was successfully saved
HMS Belfast was opened to the public in 1971 she receives around 250,000 visitors per year and has become such an iconic land mark she is now on the national historic ships register

Today HMS Belfast sits quietly along side the tower of London and tower bridge her forward guns trained on the London gate way motorway service area some 12.5 miles away she enjoys special dispensation allowing her to continue to fly the white ensign and retain her prefix HMS something only enjoyed by two other vessels In the UK HMS Victory and HMS Cavalier
HMS Belfast is a must visit attraction in London and is part of the imperial war museum please don't forget to gift aid tickets as that money goes directly to her.

DSCN0208 by Blair shaw, on Flickr


Pictures were taken the same day this post was made

DSCN0246 by Blair shaw, on Flickr

Please click the link on the photo there is 103 in total

[Commander Wallace]

Awesome Thanks Kapitan not only for taking the time to give everyone a brief History on HMS Belfast but also uploading the great pictures. She is a battle hardened veteran deserving of all the honor's bestowed upon her. Belfast appears to be in great shape and I'm wondering if it's still functional, i.e, engines and such.

Is the Belfast maintained by the government , volunteers or perhaps both ?

Salute to the HMS Belfast

[Kapitan]

HMS Belfast like HMS Cavalier has all her main and secondary weapons active, yes her main guns can fire if required and in fact they still do on certain occasions the last was I do believe the Queens diamond jubilee as part of the 128 gun salute from the tower of London.

Her engines could be put back to use but her boilers couldn't so it would most likely be a total re engine job I was told by one of the tour guides she could be put back into service after a major refit it would take around 6 months to put her into the seaworthy fighting state, however there is a few problems with that one is cost the second is no one in the RN would know how to man her properly, she would have to have new screws as currently she has none the tie taken to train over haul and work her up to maximum fighting strength would probably be too long and too costly and with a man power requirement of between 750 to 900 men to man her she would be incredibly expensive.