Belfast at her London berth in 2004.

HMS Belfast (C35) is a Southampton-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She served in World War II and is now berthed on the River Thames near the Tower Bridge in London and serving as a museum ship. The ship is administered by the Imperial War Museum.

Launched in March 1938, Belfast was the largest light cruiser ever built for the Royal Navy, with a displacement of 13,175 tons. She served with distinction during World War II, in which she participated in the sinking of the German battlecruiser (or light battleship) Scharnhorst,Operation tungsten , the Operation Neptune, and the force of Operation Zipper (intended to eject the Japanese from Malaya but turned into a relief operation by the Japanese surrender). During the last days of the war in Europe, she was spotted in the North Sea by a German Type-XXI (?) submarine without being aware of it. The German captain decided not to fire however, since the war was almost over.

She also served in the Korean War, in which her guns were used for shore bombardment in support of United Nations forces.

She was decommissioned in 1963. She was saved for the nation in 1971 and towed to a new berth at Symon's Wharf in the Pool of London upstream of Tower Bridge and opened to the public on Trafalgar Day that same year.

External links

• http://www.iwm.org.uk/belfast/
• Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society (RNARS) - operates the radio rooms and Amateur Radio station