About HMS Belfast

Built by Messrs Harland & Wolff in 1936, HMS Belfast was launched on St Patrick's Day in 1938 by Anne Chamberlain, wife of the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

After fitting out and builder's trials, HMS Belfast was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1939 under the command of Captain G A Scott DSO RN.

Designed for the protection of trade and offensive action, it was immediately called into service patrolling the northern waters in efforts to impose a maritime blockade on Germany. However, disaster struck after only two months at sea when HMS Belfast hit a magnetic mine. There were few casualties but the damage to her hull was so severe the ship was out of action for three years.

Royal Marines and sailors of HMS Belfast pose for a photograph on the quarterdeck while escorting an Arctic convoy.

On rejoining the home fleet in 1942, the ship was still the largest and most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy and most importantly she was equipped with the most advanced radar systems.

HMS Belfast was immediately called into action and played a crucial role in protecting the arctic convoys, Russia’s supply route throughout the war.

HMS Belfast And The Battle Of North Cape

Blindfolded Scharnhorst survivors, in merchant seaman rescue kit, being landed on their way to internment.

The Battle of North Cape began when the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst and five destroyers left their base in Altenfjord, northern Norway on Christmas Day 1943.

HMS Belfast 's notable role during the Battle of North Cape saw the sinking of the Scharnhorst and the loss of all but 36 of her 1,963 crew.

HMS Belfast remained protecting the arctic convoys until 1944 when it spent five weeks supporting the D-Day landings and reportedly fired one of the first shots on D-Day itself.

After the Second World War, HMS Belfast played an active role in the Korean War from 1950-1952 working with other Allied Forces to support the retreating American and South Korean troops.

Its final years were spent performing peace-keeping duties until it was retired from service in 1963. As early as 1967 the Imperial War Museum had been investigating the possibility of preserving a Second World War cruiser. This led to the formation of a trust, headed up by one of HMS Belfast’s former captains Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles. After some years the trust was successful and HMS Belfast was brought to London opening to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971.

Today, it is the last remaining vessel of its type – one of the largest and most powerful light cruisers ever built.

Remembering HMS Belfast

Watch three veterans of HMS Belfast share their memories of serving on board.

'I'm very proud of the old girl'

©IWM

Transcript

John Harrison: “And there was this beautiful cruiser Belfast, not HMS, just Belfast. I introduced myself to the skipper that was there, and he said, “oh, you're Harrison.” I said, “that's right, Sir.” He said, “you’re the ordnance artificer, you are responsible only to the guns, sights, directors, nothing else, is that understood?” Listen. I mean, what else can you say? When I first joined the Belfast, it was like going into a house which had just been built, renovated, everything was sparkling new and you were just like, well heaven to a gunnery man, which I was. It was a responsible job because when you come to think of it, that's the only thing that, that, this, these ships are for carrying guns around and when they’re wanted, those guns had got to be perfect. It was our job to make them perfect. I was in charge of A-turret, that's the one right at the front. I thought, ‘that’s very nice, if anything happens, that's going to be terribly difficult to get out in the dark’. And it was. I was down in my working area suddenly my head went into my shoulders; I could feel it and the deck bounced about a foot. I thought ‘well, that’s not normal’. The bouncing gradually faded away and it all went very, very quiet and I came out in the top and I opened the hatch and water pouring on our head. I thought ‘oh my god, we’ve sunk’. Well, it turned out that there was a fire hose which had been distorted by the blast and was directed straight onto his hatch, which I was coming out of. We weren't sinking at all. But we realised that that, that, there had been an awful lot of damage. We were towed back to Rosyth and if we hadn't been an all welded ship, we would have sunk because the welding was torn apart, but it held. So, there's great credit to the Welders of Belfast. I’ve seen the Belfast when it was not commissioned, and I followed its history right the way through and I'm very proud of the old girl. There’s just something about some ships you love as soon as you go on. From the moment I went on it when it was just ordinary, an ordinary ship called the Belfast, there was something. I don't know what it is. But it was, it’s there, you can feel it. And I felt it, it was lovely.”

John Harrison was a Petty Officer Ordnance Artificer with the Royal Navy when he joined HMS Belfast in 1939. He served in the ship during the early months of her service off the coast of Britain and the Atlantic. He was on board when the ship hit a magnetic mine in the Firth of Forth.

The damage to the ship was so severe that she was out of action for three years. John remained in the navy but did not return to serve in HMS Belfast during the war.

'She was a comfortable ship to live in'

Transcript

Mike Matthews: “Ah, the mighty Belfast. When I go on board Belfast now, I still can't resist saluting the quarterdeck as I go on board. That's just a habit that doesn't die, I think.

Way back in 1961, when I passed out from Dartmouth, we had an adventure, four of us I think, flying out to the Far East to find her. It took us about four days. We got down to Sydney about 9 o’clock in the evening but there was no ship there and we were told to fly on up to Brisbane then so we flew up to Brisbane, got there about 1 o’clock in the morning, seemingly absolutely nobody there except one sleepy taxi man, he said, ‘ah, you're the ones I was supposed to be looking for are you?’

So eventually we ended up in HMAS Vampire, Australian ship, in the middle of a party and we spent two days in her but eventually sighted Belfast for the first time in the Coral Sea at the end of an exercise. So we four joined off the end of a Jackstay, much to the delight of the ship's company and one, one of the tricks they like to do with rookies like us is to try and get our feet wet on the way, actually, so we went on and along came our kit bags behind us and that's how we joined Belfast.

I was an engineer under training. It was a year on board, the first six months of which were going around all the departments in the ship, learning how they worked, getting to know them, and then for the second six months we put our engineers’ white overalls on and started to earn our keep down below in the machinery spaces.

She was a comfortable ship to live in Belfast on the whole, she'd had a major refit not all that many years before and so the day of the hammock was gone, air conditioning was quite good on board, so the, the, the, the nice civilities of, of shipborne life were, were with us. So a nice one of Belfast in Sydney as well. It's a source of endless recall.

Certainly over my engineering time we had a lot of watchkeeping down in the boiler room, in the engine room, and you really got to know the people around you then and you learnt the little tricks of the trade about how to bake a large potato on a steam stop in the middle of the middle watch, or how to make Kye, Kye is naval chocolate and it's made out of flaked hard chocolate and it's not worth itself unless you can stand the spoon up into it but my goodness it keeps the heat, and it's a wonderful thing to use for sustenance in the night watches.

That's a good read. When I go back on board the ship, I get a tingle which takes me back 50 odd years and I would just like to feel that casual visitors, probably without any awareness of what the ship did or what she represents when they go on board, get a little tingle too by the time they leave the ship and just a little feeling of the historical events that she was involved in.”

Mike Matthews served on board HMS Belfast as she neared the end of her active life at sea. He would go on to have a long career in the Royal Navy but back then, he was an engineer under training.

He remembers the adventure he had getting on board for the first time, life on the ship and how he learned how stay warm on long night shifts.

Learn more about HMS Belfast's life of service in our interactive content telling the story of the ship and the men who called her home.

'The Belfast was the first big event in my life'

Transcript

Ron Yardley: The Belfast was the first big event in my life. When we went on board, the Marine band marched us all away from the parade ground until the Belfast came in view. And of course, that is where our new life was gonna start. It was a complete and utter mystery because nobody but nobody knew where to go.

I think we might have gone up the same ladder ten times or down a ladder ten times trying to find out where your place of work was going to be. Being a wireless operator, we had two radio rooms, one was down below deck and, of course, you had the bridge wireless office. I started in the main radio room. And you would be put on a wireless receiver and maybe you would be taking down shipping forecasts and it was quite a challenging thing to be able to sit at the radio receiver and write down a message in longhand, which you had to do in pencil and so forth; without missing anything out, because if you miss something out, it could change the whole shape of that message. So you had to be on your mettle to be in that place.

One of the main functions of the Belfast during the Korean War was carrying out heavy bombardment of enemy targets, and when you have got six six-inch guns immediately above your mess deck which are firing literally every few minutes, getting sleep was almost like a thing of the past and that, you know. If you were in your hammock, the blast used to lift you up and drop you down again. When you experience that for the first time, it was very, very scary, very scary indeed. But after a time, you kept on thinking, ‘well, come on, you know, isn't it time you fired the guns?’ And so it went on and on.

Memories. Memories. I saw the Belfast when she was being towed into the Pool of London. I thought at that time a very big part of my life has come back again. My son just absent-mindedly said to me, ‘We've got to get Jake and Indy christened.” I thought, wouldn't it be absolutely lovely if I could get them christened in the ship's Chapel. It's a part of the Yardley family history that has got another connection to the Belfast and that's how it goes on when I go on board I never, ever, ever stop talking about it.”

[Laughter]

Ron Yardley joined HMS Belfast as she prepared to head to Korea. He recalls difficulties he experienced getting his bearings in those early days but remembers the ship fondly.

Years after service, Ron was there when HMS Belfast arrived in the Pool of London in 1971.

Visit HMS Belfast

Museum

HMS Belfast

Step on board this iconic London landmark. Navigate your way around the rooms of this floating city, climbing up and down ladders to visit all nine decks.

Tours

HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast and the Second World War: A Guided Tour

Selected dates

A volunteer conservator dismantles a 4 inch gun on board HMS Belfast.

@ IWM

Warship Conservation

HMS Belfast joined the Imperial War Museums collection in 1978, becoming a museum and also the largest item in our collection. As both a historical object and museum its needs are unique and it requires constant conservation work.

HMS Belfast and the Arctic Convoys

HMS Belfast And The Battle Of North Cape

8 Things you Didn't Know about HMS Belfast and D-Day

Remembering HMS Belfast

'I'm very proud of the old girl'

'She was a comfortable ship to live in'

'The Belfast was the first big event in my life'

Visit HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast and the Second World War: A Guided Tour

Warship Conservation