HMS Belfast. World War II Cruiser symbolising Britannia’s sea power a memorial to the dead.
Written: Oct 23 '06 (Updated Oct 27 '06)
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Pros: Fantastic Historical ship. Central London, value for money. Great for kids.
Cons: You need to be able bodied to get round most of the ship
The Bottom Line: Probably one of the best museums of London. History you can walk through. Good value in handy part of town. A fantastic memorial to those who perished.
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| travelgall's Full Review: HMS Belfast, London |
Open 10:00 – 17:00 Daily except 24,25,26 December
Cost of entry £8.50 Adults. Free Children under 16. £5.25 People old enough to have been at HMS Belfast’s Commissioning. HMS Belfast is part of the Imperial War Museum collection, and if you want to do a Military History day is great when combined with the main museum at Lambeth North and/or the Cabinet War Rooms if not completely catatonic with names, dates and guns. I would budget 2/3 hours to visit the ship as HMS Belfast is a very popular museum and can get very busy during peak times due to the difficulty in moving through her narrow gangways.
HMS Belfast is one of the few remaining Heavy Cruisers that fought the Second World War and acts as a floating memorial to the men who fought the Axis powers over the world’s seas. Like the USS Intrepid in New York it acts as a floating museum, fun day out, very large toy to play with and symbol of the war dead all in one. In my opinion HMS Belfast just beats the USS Intrepid as an exhibit because they let you see more of Belfast and it doesn’t have the massive hangar space which the Intrepid hasn’t quite filled with enough exhibits yet, but they’re both fantastic museum ships. It’s a definite Father and Son thing to do next time you’re in London and I dragged my Dad round the place; he absolutely loved it. It is located next to London Bridge which is the nearest Underground tube stop; and is rather hard not to spot from the famous London Bridge that got sold to a rather dumb American – Robert P MuCulloch - who thought he was buying Tower Bridge, naturally he denied that he mixed the two bridges up. The 1831 Bridge currently resides by Lake Havasu in Arizona, and is a major tourist attraction. The British are also capable of stupidity too, and more than one ship has managed to collide with this rather large structure, including the professional sailors of a Royal Navy ship. A bridge has been on this site for the last 2000 years, the Romans being the first to choose this point as a river crossing across the Thames, so it’s not like people don’t know it’s there.
HMS Belfast was commissioned in 1938 just prior to the outbreak of World War II where she got a bottle of booze smashed against her hull by the wife of a Prime Minister whose name is synonymous with weakness and vacillation – Neville Chamberlain. You find him next to Jimmy Carter and Marshall Mobuto Sese Seko under the how not to run a country section of the encyclopaedia. Unfortunately she was walloped by something a bit stronger than a bottle of Moet when she hit a Magnetic Mine one year later. Even more bad luck was to follow most of the Ships Company, they were transferred to HMS Hood which was sunk by the Bismarck with only 3 men of the complement of 1418 survived. Returning to service in 1942 she encountered the Scharnhorst in the Battle of the North Cape, and along with the Battleship HMS Duke of York, Norfolk, Sheffield, Jamaica and the destroyers HMS Musketeer, Matchless, Opportune, Virago, Scorpion and HNoMS Stord zunk her. Whilst this sounds like the British and Norwegian ships rather unfairly ganging up to B**** slap the poor Scharnhorst, she was more powerful in guns save everything but the Duke of York. Besides when the odds were on her side she showed no mercy herself sinking gallant little ships like the armed passenger liner Rawalpindi. A lucky 1st shot similar to the Bismark’s shot that blew HMS Hood out of the water fired by HMS Norfolk destroyed her gunnery radar, and after that the result was a foregone conclusion in the poor visibility of the Arctic. Out of 1968 men on the Scharnhorst, only 36 lucky souls were pulled out of the freezing Arctic seas alive. Admiral Bruce Frasier commented after the battle “I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today”.
HMS Belfast was then part of Operation Tungsten which was a carrier attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz, the most powerful ship still remaining in the German fleet, which was moored in the Norwegian Altenfjord. Although the attack did not succeed in putting her out of action it caused flooding and the damage to radio aerials and anti aircraft guns. The Tirpitz was eventually put out of action by Lancaster Bombers dropping 5 tonne Tallboy bombs on 15th September 1944. The British were unaware that the Tirpitz was no longer a threat carried out further bombings until on the 12th November she was struck by 3 Tallboys and sunk west of Tromsø. HMS Belfast then moved down to the Normandy beaches to provide fire support for the D-Day invasion on June 6th 1944, where she was in constant action supporting the British and Canadian forces who had been given the tough nut of Caen to crack. Caen was the transport hub for the whole Normandy area and was guarded by 5 out of the 6 Panzer divisions. Her final action in World War II was to bombard German positions. She then returned to Devonport for a short refit ready for battle in the Far East against the Japanese, but by the time her refit was over the Japanese had surrendered . HMS Belfast was used in the relief operations necessary once Japanese troops had surrendered to the brave but forgotten British, Indian, African and Nepalese Armies under Viscount Slim. She returned to battle 7 years later when HMS Belfast was involved with the Allied Bombardment of North Korea in support of United Nations forces where she was hit by a Communist Battery. During the Korean War she earned the nickname “That straight shooting ship”. She saw out her final days showing the flag as the days of the Heavy Cruiser were really over in the age of jets. The old girl deserved her twilight years in the sun, and finished her Military career in 1962. Immediately afterwards a campaign got underway to save her from being turned into razor blades. Thankfully she survived and today sits as a museum ship.
The British Town Class cruisers were designed to have heavier Armament and Armour after both the UK and US had ended the fiction of the Washington Naval treaty which was being roundly ignored by both Germany and Japan. They were called “Light” Cruisers but were this in name only as the class was supposed to have an armament no greater than 6.1 Inch (155 mm) guns. It is of a similar class to the US Brooklyn class destroyers which in turn were an answer to the Japanese Mogami Class that were re-fitted with 8 Inch guns just before Japan entered the war. One of the Brooklin Class Cruisers was named the USS Phoenix. The Phoenix was one of the few large ships in harbour at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour to survive. The US Navy sold this rather famous ship - the USS Phoenix - to the Argentineans. Irony of ironies it was renamed the General Belgrano and then sunk by the British submarine HMS Conqueror during the Falklands War. This event probably created one of the most famous newspaper headlines of all time “Gotcha” which was how the Sun newspaper chose to celebrate the demise of this once lucky ship. The history of this class of ship is covered in great detail in Video and exhibits found in the centre of the ship as is probably the slickest part of the exhibits on HMS Belfast. The different types of Cruiser on the Allied and Axis sides are found in some good video screens in the middle of the ship next to the kitchen.
Cruisers fought several famous actions during the Second World War, the most famous of which was when 3 Cruisers tracked down and forced the scuttling of the German Pocket Battleship – the Graph Spee. Although of a different class (HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles were Leadner Class; HMS Exeter a York Class and HMS Cumberland a County Class which replaced HMS Exeter on station after the battle whilst she returned to the Falkland Islands for emergency repairs) HMS Belfast still stands in memorial for those ships whose went from fighting Germans and Japanese ships to keeping Tuna and Beans fresh. Although they are only pieces of machinery, I can see how one would get sentimental at their loss (although if I were a Captain I’d be legging it to the nearest life raft like everybody else, choosing to go down with it is the height of stupidity).
The ship was crawling with Boy Scouts whom we discovered were sleeping on board the Cruiser. I can hardly underplay the attraction to young kids of sleeping on a battleship in the same racks the naval sailors slept in 60 years ago, especially the climb down the ships ladders and crawling past the machinery that propelled this huge warship. HMS Belfast can stack 52 screaming brats with their accompanying 6 Adult supervisors, and all for a very reasonable £25.00 per person per night including Breakfast. I can’t think of any accommodation in London that offers such good value for money. Unsurprisingly this accommodation is in heavy demand, and you will need to book way, way in advance to stand a chance of staying in this unique housing. They don’t let adults stay on it unless they’re responsible for looking after the kids that they cater for. We had a quick word with one of the scout leaders and she said they set up loads of activities for the kids to do on board ship. As I mentioned previously she is also used for corporate drinks events in the evenings as the poor girl still needs to earn her upkeep, she costs £2000 per day to run.
The Guns and Bridge
HMS Belfast was equipped with 4 turrets which maintained 3 powerful 6 Inch Guns per turret. The 6 Inch is the same size as the 155mm shell that is used as a heavy shell in the NATO forces at the present time. The ships gunnery hoists were nearly all automatic and as a result the ship could generate an extreme rate of fire which was used to good effect numerous times throughout the Ships history. She also had numerous smaller guns that were used in an anti-aircraft role including 12 Bofors AA guns. You visit the turrets of the ship on deck first, and then descend below to look at the machinery and ammunition that fed these monsters. What amazed me was the amount of dead space under the turrets, I assumed that every inch of the ship was used, but the cavernous halls underneath the turrets were quite a surprise. The shells were stored in a circular arrangement and sent to the guns through mechanical hoists. In peace her guns are trained on Scotchwood services on the outskirts of London which gives you an idea of the range of the 6” Gun, and the contempt this ghastly piece of 60's architecture is held. The bridge is also available to look at along with Radio Rooms, the Compass Bridge and various other parts of the ship used to command the vessel. Not all of the ship is accessible by any means but the Imperial War museum has made a great effort to open up as much of the ship as possible. They encourage you not to flick switches and buttons but there is no barrier between you and many parts of the ship which makes a visit all the more fun.
Workshops and Laundry
On the ship there are several workshops that specialised in carrying out running repairs on the ship until she returned safely to shore. The most obvious one was the metal working shop which has all the necessary tools and machinery a good foundry would need. This was situated by the engine room for incredibly obvious reasons. There is also a woodworking shop to provide the plugs that were used when fixable holes were blown into the ship, and a sail makers workshop that seemed to have absolutely no use whatsoever. I’m pretty sure all the sails in the world won’t move an 11,000 ton warship so I guess his main job must have been to replace the rope. I’m still at a loss of why they call this chap the sail maker. The passion all militaries have for ultra clean and pressed clothes is evident on Belfast too. The laundry rooms are huge and probably drank as much fuel as the ship itself. Again you get models of the Chinese guys who the Royal Navy ships hired as laundrymen. They were not members of the Royal Navy themselves but were taken on the ship and paid directly by the crew for doing all the washing, starching and ironing. During a battle they simply shut the door to stop the debris created from the guns recoil and carried on ironing. For the simple reason that the posts were civilians and there were lots of Hong Kong Chinese guys willing to take the jobs throughout history until relatively recently they have been Chinese. The handover of Hong Kong to the China has meant that they no longer fill this role in the same numbers.
Accommodation and Ablutions
With a ships complement of between 750 to 850 men, depending on whether HMS Belfast was being used as a Flagship for an Admiral or not, they had to cram people wherever they could. As a result large parts of the ship are filled with Hammocks all over the place, especially in the bow. These hammocks were rolled away when not in use. What I did notice was that the ships cat got a little hammock of his own too, which is kind of sweet. The “Orficers” tended to get cabins but even these were on the small side. The Admiral got a bed and a chest of drawers; the captain got pretty much the same but with a smaller amount of floor space. I didn’t see the rest of the officer cabins but I would imagine they were several to a room. Other accommodation wasn’t quite as salubrious as even the hammocks, there are two punishment cells where the wayward sailors were taught the error of their ways by being locked in and made to make ropes. I would imagine that being locked in here was more than just the normal punishment as this was the only part of the ship where the doors were locked and you could not get out. And the thought of being locked in a room when the ship was sinking would probably drive me out of my mind. On the side of the door is the list of Queens Regulations describing when, where and what the prisoner was to do when held in confinement. The wash facilities were fairly comprehensive, but you would have to be a dwarf to shower comfortably under the incredibly low shower head. Basically the higher up in the pecking order you were, the better the facilities were. Rank hath its privilege.
Engine Rooms
One of the best parts of my wanderings round the ship concerns the Engine Rooms of HMS Belfast. I have not visited them before as I assume they were closed off. They are incredibly cramped but are a fascinating part of the ship, and you can imagine the heat and noise the Royal Navy stokers endured powering this ship across the seas at 32 Knots. There are numerous plaques explaining what each part of the machinery did. The gangways are over several levels and are not really designed for the claustrophobic. It is worth noting that whilst small parts of the ship are wheelchair accessible, the majority of the ship is not, and anybody with difficulty moving should not really consider this a good day out. I have to admit I really loved the sliding down stairs, and squeezing through small passageways and doing that grab the bar and swing through the hole stuff you see in War films like Das Boot.
Food
Another vital part of the ship was the feeding areas for the men and the various areas designated for the preparation of food. These parts of the ships rely on dummies of sailors carrying out their various activities, but the good thing is that you can actually walk through the kitchens with the dummies rather than being stuck on the outside looking in that you have do with parts of the ship. There is also a mock up of the NAAFI store that was run on the ship by a civilian and this was where sailors could buy their little treats and goodies like chocolate and cigarettes which makes life more bearable on board ship. There were the huge machines that were designed to make bread and other foods, something that really stuck out in my mind was the dough mixer that looked like it was designed to stir concrete, and probably produced bread that tasted like concrete too. Another fun model is the ships cat killing a mouse in the granary store along with the Tom and Jerry style sound track being played, and the butcher with his tattoo “Mum” chopping meat. It has to be pointed out that these dummies are a bit on the simple side, and in this day of touch screen museums the exhibits seem a bit old fashioned. It doesn’t bother me, but I don’t watch MTV or reality TV shows and thus have an attention span, it may bore others who haven’t the imagination to stand looking into a room and picturing in their mind the daily activities or what would be happening in a battle.
You can buy food yourself in the Walrus Café (named after the Supermarine Walrus flying boat that would have flown off the ship to act as an artillery spotter when attacking the enemy, rather than the blubbery animal that you’ll look like after the pie and chips). I didn’t eat there, but I’ve had canapés on the back deck of the ship during some corporate drinkie do and they were pretty good so I’m sure the food won’t suck. On the other hand you are 5 minutes walk from Borough market which sells some of the finest food known to man so why bother if you’re visiting the ship on Friday and Saturday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Walrus
There are numerous special events all the time. One of them is the reading of a Commodore’s love letters to his wife before the battle of Jutland in the First World War. There’s a demonstration on seamstress where you get to make your own Sailor’s Collar and naturally they have loads of Naval and Military events when the Veterans get a few well earned drinks, especially on Remembrance Sunday. The Empire is not forgotten either and Australia day is celebrated on board the ship to commemorate the Royal Australian Navy. Foreign warships visiting London usually moor against HMS Belfast and on more than one occasion I’ve seen modern military vessels dwarfed by this large ship.
The gift shop is fairly limited but they have some fun books like “Instructions for American servicemen visiting Britain” and “Instructions for British Servicemen in France”. I’ve read the American one and its very well written and quite humourous, haven’t bothered with the French one as it’s somewhere I know I have no interest in ever visiting again. You can also buy Airfix kits of various ships and planes. On a sad note this company that used to make plastic model kits has been killed off by the Playstation and blasted Pokemon or whatever instant product placement gratification passes for children’s entertainment this day. This means generations of fathers won’t be able to build a Spitfire, Hurricane or Lancaster with their son, which is a crying shame. They sell those funny Bosuns whistles that you welcome Admirals on board with. Buy one and pipe your mother-in-law into the house next time she invites herself over.
The ship has a great website which allows you to look at the ship through a virtual tour.
http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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travelgall
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Location: London, Great Britain
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Ex Army Stockbroker who spend all his cash on traveling.
Corruptissima Republica, Plurimae Leges.
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