HMS Belfast is a WWII-era light cruiser permanently docked in London, England, and operated as a public museum. Visitors can explore nine decks, interactive displays, and experience the ship’s gun turret and operations room. The ship played a crucial role in protecting supply convoys and took part in the bombardment of the French coast during D-Day. It was decommissioned in 1963 and opened to the public in 1971.
HMS Belfast is a WWII-era light cruiser permanently docked in London, England and operated as a public museum. Built in the 1930s, the vessel served in the British Navy until 1963. The vessel was opened to the public in 1971 and has been part of the Imperial War Museum since 1978; a total of nine decks can be explored by visitors and there are many interactive displays. HMS Belfast is the last WWII battlecruiser in existence.
The vessel’s nine open decks allow visitors to view operating spaces as well as living and recreational quarters and storage. Visitors navigate the same narrow stairways as the sailors who manned the vessel, and a self-guided tour is available to explain the equipment and areas on display. An interactive gun turret experience offers visitors a taste of what those aboard ship experienced during service in WWII, while the operations room experience allows those viewing the exhibit to try to command a fleet of ships near Borneo. In the gift shop, visitors will find books, memorabilia, and models.
HMS Belfast was built in the shipyards of Belfast, Ireland. The hull was laid down by builders Harland & Wolff in 1936 and the vessel was finished and launched in the spring of 1938. After performance checks and initial problems repaired, the vessel was commissioned into the navy in August 1939. The vessel initially was put into operation in WWII as part of an effort to close northwestern European ports to Germany after the outbreak of hostilities; a collision with a floating mine caused enough damage to require nearly two years of repairs. After returning to service, HMS Belfast played a crucial role in protecting supply convoys across the Arctic Ocean carrying goods to the Soviet Union in the latter part of the war.
D-Day was another theater where the ship saw action. HMS Belfast took part in the bombardment of the French coast before and during the landing of ground troops; this took five weeks for the vessel. During the Korean War, the Royal Navy used HMS Belfast in active service from 1950 to 1952, while the ship’s final years of service were in various peacekeeping operations. HMS Belfast was decommissioned from the Royal Navy in 1963. A trust was formed in the late 1960s to pursue the purchase of the ship for a museum, after which the ship was anchored in the Thames and opened to the public.
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