HMS Belfast steams forth to battle-leaving Scapa Flow to support the Allied landings in Normandy, June 1944. Rebuilt and re-armored extensively followin g damage by magnetic mine, she is now the most formidable British cruiser afloat, and destined to become the sole survivor ofher breed. Her only sistership, HMS Edinburgh , was sunk on the Murmansk convoy run, where Belfastfought her famous action with the German Scharnhorst. All photographs courtesy Imperial War Museum .
HMS BELFAST: AFighting Ship Preserved by Peter Simkins, Historian
Imperial War Museum The 11 ,550-ton cruiser HMS Belfast, moored in the River Thames opposite the Tower of London, is a permanent reminder of the Royal Navy's big ships from the age of gunnery . Designed as a modified Southampton class cruiser and built by Harland and Wolff in the city from which she took her name HMS Belfast was launched on 17 March 1938 by Mrs . Neville Chamberlain, wife of the Prime Minister . Completed in August 1939, the Belfast carried a main armament of twelve 6-inch guns in four triple turrets . She also had twelve 4-inch guns as well as close-range anti-aircraft weapons and six 21-inch torpedo tubes . Her maximum speed was 32.98 knots. At the outbreak of the Second World War , HMS Belfast began blockade duties between Iceland and the Faroes , intercepting and capturing the 13 ,615-ton German liner Cap Norte on 9 October 1939 . However , on 21 November , the Belfast was severely damaged by a German magnetic mine in the Firth of Forth. Her back was broken, the explosion having bent the midships part of her hull three inches upwards beneath her forward boiler room. Because of the desperate need for cruisers it was decided to rebuild her, but some over two years elapsed before she was ready to rejoin the Home Fleet. In one of the longest and most comprehensive refits undergone by any ship in the Second World War , her armor belt was extended and faired-in to a point forward of B turret, thus increasing her topweight. To prevent her becoming unstable , bulges were added to her under8
water shape. These bulges improved her stability to such an extent that , unlike most of her contemporaries, she retained her full main armament throughout her life , even though she was now fitted with radar and additional anti-aircraft guns , all adding to topside weight. On rejoining the Home Fleet in December 1942 as flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, HMS Belfast entered the most active phase of her fighting career. Operating from Scapa Flow and from Hvalfiord in Iceland , she was employed almost continuously over the next twelve months in providing cover for the convoys to Russia and on patrols, blockade duties and offensive sweeps in northern waters. Then , on 26 December 1943 the Belfast played a key role in the last major surface action in European waters-and the last occasion on which a British battleship fought an enemy capital ship.
The Battle of the North Cape Six days earlier Convoy JW 55B had left Loch Ewe for Russia , and on 22 December Convoy RA 55A sailed from Kola Inlet in the reverse direction . This double movement was to be covered off Norway ' s North Cape by Force One , comprising the cruisers Belfast, Sheffield and Norfolk , under Vice-Admiral R.L. Burnett, who flew his flag in the Belfast . Distant cover was provided by Force Two under Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser , the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, with the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica. As anticipated, the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst came out from Altenfiord to attack JW 55B and was picked up by the Belfast 's radar at 0840
on 26 December. In the ensuing gunnery duel , the Norfolk destroyed the Scharnhorst 's forward radar , forcing the battlecruiser to break away . Although radar contact was lost for two hours, Burnett kept his cruisers between the Scharnhorst and her quarry . His decision to protect the convoy rather than shadow the enemy proved correct for the Scharnhorst made a second run at JW 55B, the Belfast regaining radar contact at 1205. Another gunnery action followed , in which the Norfolk was damaged , but by 1300 the Scharnhorst had abandoned the attack on the convoy and was making for Altenfiord. This time Burnett pursued her, knowing that if she maintained her course , she would be cut off by Force Two . The Belfast tracked the battlecruiser for more than three hours , sending frequent reports of her course and speed to Admiral Fraser. At 164 7 the trap was sprung , with the Scharnhorst virtually sandwiched between Force Two and Burnett's cruisers. Pounded by the guns of the Duke of York and the cruisers, and struck by eleven torpedoes, the Scharnhorst sank two hours later. The Belfast herself fired nearly 400 rounds from her main and secondary armament during the action. Her protection of the convoy and her shadowing of the Scharnhorst had been in the finest traditions of cruiser warfare .
From Normandy to Korea After taking part in Operation Tungsten , the carrier-borne air strike against the battleship Tirpitz in April 1944, HMS Belfast joined the naval bombardment SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983