Inside Britain's Last Surviving WW2 Cruiser | HMS Belfast

i am on a 12 000 ton light cruiser in central london it is the last of its kind to survive the second world war it was involved in d-day it was involved in the korean war it was involved in the sinking of the scharnhorst this is hms belfast i'm james rogers a war historian and host of the history hit warfare podcast and in this video exclusively for the history hit youtube channel i'm going to be diving into the story of one of the world's best known warships we're going to find out what made hms belfast one of the most impressive cruisers of the 20th century and why so many people still feel a connection to this vessel today in the early 1930s the british admiralty conceived of a new series of advanced warships to rival those in the japanese imperial navy they would need to be powerful and well armoured but also maneuverable construction soon began on what were known as town class light cruisers [Music] built in 1936 in belfast by harland and wolff it was launched in 1938 by anne chamberlin the then wife of prime minister sir neville chamberlain the date of that launch well it was saint patrick's day the 17th of march 1938 and when you put all of that together you can see the reason why hms belfast is said to have the luck of the irish belfast's luck would be tested when just four weeks after its launch the second world war broke out it wasn't the most auspicious start in november 1939 she was almost sunk off the coast of scotland by an air-dropped magnetic mine 46 personnel were injured the ship was out of action for now wow look at the size of these for the first three years of the war hms belfast was rendered useless by a magnetic mine but come 1942 it was put back into service and it was sent for an important role it was guarding the arctic convoys as they moved those vital supplies from the united states over to the soviet union but that meant that crew had to operate in some of the most austere severe conditions let me give you an example if you were out here on deck and it was raining it was snowing then you had to pickaxe through all of that ice if this top deck got too ice heavy then the ship had the risk of toppling over but there was another risk if you touch the side of the ship if you touch this metal in those conditions your hand would fuse to the metal and that would mean a call to the ship's surgeon it was while guarding one of these arctic convoys that belfast would face its first real challenge just off the norwegian north cape in december 1943 belfast and her squadron spotted the goliath german battleship scharnhorst in the ensuing confrontation scharnhorst was badly damaged by hms norfolk but she managed to slip away in 1943 captain parham and admiral bernard were sat on the bridge of the belfast they had a decision to make they were chasing down the scharnhorst but had gone off the radar now naval doctrine said that they should head north and chase it down but bernard took a different view he decided to stay with the convoy predicting that scharnhorst would return to attack from a new direction now that move would prove decisive scharnhorst was soon spotted again and was engaged by belfast and her squadron the germans tried to make a run for nazi occupied norway with belfast as the sole pursuer for several hours but the arrival of hms duke of york and other elements of the british home fleet ensured she was trapped this is the torpedo flat of hms belfast it was fitted during the second world war and it could fire up to six of these beasts but it was only ever used once in anger and that was against the scharnhorst the aim was to have that final blow to sink the ship but that moment in history was taken away from the belfast by hms duke of york after distinguishing herself at the battle of north cape the belfast would go on to make another vital contribution to victory in world war ii in june 1944 she was the flagship of bombardment force e supporting troops landing at gold and juno beaches in normandy these are hms belfast's gigantic six six-inch guns they were some of the first to open fire on d-day in fact they were vital to providing that support for landing troops if you calculate it they can shoot around 14 15 maybe up to 20 miles and that from here is as far as over the m25 and into hertfordshire if you're sitting at scratch wood services for example don't look up because that's exactly where they're honed in on now there are 12 guns in total on this ship and each individual gun can fire eight rounds a minute and if we do some quick maths and put the whole battery together then it's around 96 rounds a minute for all of those 12 guns put that into perspective during the entirety of the normandy campaign that the belfast was involved in it fired over 5 000 rounds and a full broadside from the belfast wasn't just a terrifying experience for the enemy it could make life pretty uncomfortable on board when the guns were fired in anger on this ship men were thrown from their beds from the force alone cups were thrown across the room whole dinners were thrown on the floor and there's one particular story on d-day that says the power of the guns shattered the toilets the normandy campaign would be the last time belfast fired her guns in the second world war she headed to the far east just in time to see the japanese surrender in 1945 but it's easy to forget that this ship wasn't simply a weapon it was home to hundreds of sailors often for months at a time if you were one of them space and privacy were non-existent [Music] so imagine it you've finished your shift it's been a hard slog you want some rest you've got to come to a room like this and then you've got to put up your hammock you reach in you take a beast like this and then you've got to strap it up to one of these metal bars around seven foot in the air you want to do it all by naval regulation of course and then once it's finally strapped up just like these are here you've got to try and get in how do you do that well you grab on and you hoist yourself up all without trying to wake the guy who's sleeping next to you this is your standard mess deck as well as sleeping in here you would eat in here you would drink in here you'd share your rum rations in here and overall there'd be about 20 people this would have been a hub of activity during service when you desperately needed some time to yourself there was really only one place you could go now we're going to take a look inside one of the places that you don't get to look as a member of the public it's usually locked but we've got a bit of special access and this is the chapel if you come inside you can really see just how tiny this is think of the hundreds of crew on board this ship and this is the one place you can get just that little bit of quiet that little bit of solitude you're not going to get it on your mess deck you're not going to get it anywhere else if something's happened if you've got a dear john letter i mean this is a place you come you make your peace with god or whatever your religion is and you sit and you gather your thoughts it wasn't too long before belfast was called into action again already on patrol in the pacific she was on the spot when the korean war broke out in 1950. supporting the united nations forces she would carry out critical coastal bombardment for the next two years i am here 48 steps down from the main deck in the belly of the beast of hms belfast it's here that all the action happened these are the shells it would have fired so you think about of its role during the korean war well it would have been shells like this that it sent in land over those 14 15 miles to try and hit the advancing north korean army it was these that were pivotal to halting their advance during the korean war this is the sick bay of the belfast you would have had hundreds of men treated in here through the second world war and the korean war everything from sdis through to bullet wounds [Music] i've been granted access to come behind a restricted area of the ship and the reason why is because a morbid bit of history happened down here it was it was around this area that in 1952 during the korean war a steward called lao so was in his bunk sleeping when a shell crashed into the side of the ship it ruptured a steam pipe and he died as a result of those injuries but the remarkable thing about that story is that he is the only person to have ever been killed in anger on this ship in the mid-1950s belfast underwent a major refit the world was changing and she had to keep up with the developing cold war naval doctrine between 1959 and 1962 she was back on patrol in the pacific but this would be her final mission hms belfast had a long career in the royal navy it spanned 25 years from the 1930s to the 1960s and a lot changed over that time a lot changed in geopolitics but a lot also changed in technology if you look all around me you've got these cold war radars all of this was about trying to hunt down communist submarines and to try and protect the west these are legacies of that stalemate of global politics left here today the ship was decommissioned in the 1960s and by the 1970s it was due to be scrapped the government was keen on this because they would have got five million pounds in today's money but what they didn't bargain with was that by that time one of the ship's former captains morgan morgan giles was now an mp and he used his political power his persuasion to save the ship from execution get it placed here in the center of london amongst some of its greatest landmarks preserved for the nation [Music] it's the largest surviving royal navy surface combatant of world war ii a priceless piece of britain's heritage and for those veterans who served on hms belfast there's a special way to stay connected with the ship this is the ship's bell it's made out of silver and it was gifted by the people of belfast for the ship of belfast but the secret remarkable thing about it is if you look inside you can see it's inscribed with names it goes from 2002 all the way back to 1949. why well if you've served on this ship you can get your children or grandchildren christened on this ship you take this you turn it upside down you fill it with holy water and that is what the priest uses to bless them hope you've enjoyed the video please don't forget to listen to the history hit warfare podcast and subscribe to this channel for more tours like this one welcome to the history hit youtube channel hope you enjoyed that video and if you'd like to see more videos where we attempt to try and bring history to life uh please don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell cheers guys see you [Music]