How to deafeat Belfast : know your enemy(history article)

[howardxu_23]

 

 to do what good players do: learn your enemies’s boats weakness and strengths, I visited the Belfast navel museum in Thames, London.

Belfast moored at river Thames

 

Learnt many things about her service in the Royal Navy, and those who served on her during her lifetime. One of which is running into a magnetic mine on 21 November 1939, which injured 21 men, killing 1. The ship then served in the Arctic seas, escorting conveys to the Soviet Union, and on 26 December 1943, Scharnhorst was sunk by the combined efforts of CLs Belfast, Norfolk, Sheffield with BB Duke of York in the battle of the north cape.

 

She later on served to help bombard the German howitzers in the town of Ver-sur-mer in Normandy on D-day, 6 June 1944(the receiving end is like receiving end in here), to support the landing troops, and the fact that she was supposed to be the first ship to fire her guns on the said day, but another trigger happy ship stole that title by about a minute(no idea who, her log only said that another cruiser to the west fired first at 0523).

However, that was also the last time she fired her guns in WW2.

 

She later on participated in the war in Korea, and during it she fired more shells then she ever did in WW2, so much so that she needed to replace her barrels replaced part-way during the conflict. She left the frontlines on 27 September 1952, back to Britain.

 

When she returned, she was put in reserve, which left her only a step away from being scrapped. She remained in the reserve for 3 years, as debate rubbed over what her role should play in the future, as her less fortunate peers, were sent to be scrapped. Eventually, she was saved from the scrapper as they still decided she still has a role— as a cv escort and as an ambassador for Britain’s foreign waters.

 

from 1956 to 1959 she was refitted to fit her new role, gaining a fully enclosed bridge and a air conditioning system which allowed her to be sealed against atomic, biological and chemical attacks.

 

she then participated in a tour of the world’s great ports, an in 19 June 1962, she reached Portsmouth for the final time, after almost half a million miles of steaming. On April 1967, a team from the imperial war museum visited Portsmouth to look into acquiring one of Gambia’s turrets, and were served lunch on Belfast, which by that time had became a Harbour Accommodation Ship. By the end of the meal, the idea of preserving a entire ship was born, and Belfast was the perfect candidate.

 

Thanks to all those who served on her to protect our peace, and also to those who worked to preserve her as a museum ship, so that she can tell her story to future generations to come, instead of being turned into washing machines, more environmental, but soulless, like what happened to warspite, dreadnought and many others.

[Seiranko]

24 minutes ago, howardxu_23 said:

Got belfasted a couple times yesterday, 

Ok?

[howardxu_23]

2 hours ago, Riselotte said:

Ok?

Sorry WiFi completely died for some time, a fourm derped there.