HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast, a historic World War II warship permanently moored on the River Thames in London, is the second Royal Navy ship ever preserved for the public after HMS Victory. Built in Belfast at the Harland and Wolff shipyard and launched in 1938, she accommodated 950 crew members. HMS Belfast survived a magnetic mine explosion, protected Arctic convoys, helped sink the Scharnhorst in 1943, and fired on Normandy during D-Day in 1944.

London · from the walk “London's Big Kid Adventure” · Generated

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HMS Belfast, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2JH

Which shipyard built HMS Belfast?

Look at that enormous grey warship floating on the Thames right in front of you. That's Hms Belfast... and she's SO big you could almost lay Big Ben across her deck Twice! Can you guess how many people lived on this ship? Go on, take a guess... Nine Hundred And Fifty people called this floating city home!......... Now here's something cool. This ship was built at the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast... the Same shipyard that built the Titanic! And she was launched on Saint Patrick's Day, nineteen thirty eight. Talk about an Irish connection!......... But the real adventure began during World War Two. Just two months after joining the navy, Hms Belfast hit a German magnetic mine. Boom! The explosion was so powerful that the ship's keel was bent inward, turbines were ripped from their foundations... and yet, she survived. The welders had done such a brilliant job building her that the hull held together. She spent three years being patched up, and came back Stronger than ever.......... And here's my favourite bit. On D-Day... June sixth, nineteen forty four... Hms Belfast anchored off Normandy and opened fire at five twenty seven in the morning. Her shells cut the telephone line to a German gun battery, and since those guns couldn't see the sea directly, without orders they couldn't fire accurately. The German gunners were so stunned they never fired again! And get this... the vibration from her Own guns firing was so intense that it cracked all the toilets on board! Imagine That situation for the crew!......... But did she fire the first shots of D-Day? Many people think so, but actually... Hms Belfast is sometimes mis-reported to have fired the first shots. In fact, another ship stole her thunder by about a minute.......... Before D-Day, this ship had another incredible mission. Belfast spent a tough eighteen months escorting convoys across the freezing Arctic, where daylight hours were short and the crew endured brutal cold for the entire voyage. Then on Boxing Day nineteen forty three... Hms Belfast and other Allied ships destroyed the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst. Over nineteen hundred German sailors were killed. Only thirty six were rescued from the icy waters.......... One last secret. When this ship was launched, the people of Belfast gave her a beautiful solid silver bell as a gift... but it was never used on the ship, because they were afraid she'd be sunk and that precious silver would be lost forever. She wasn't sunk, of course. And when she was finally saved as a museum, she became only the Second Royal Navy warship preserved for the public... after Lord Nelson's Hms Victory. Not bad for a ship that nearly got sent to the scrapyard!

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