On the third day, in the morning, I had to separate from our group and go to solve financial problems with the exchange of old 20-pound notes, carefully handed to me in a Moscow exchange office near the Krasnoselskaya metro station.
But the morning was not in vain. Instead of the planned Whitechapel Gallery, I visited the wonderful HMS Belfast Naval Museum.
This is the long-promised upgrade of reporting. In the meantime, the view from Tower Bridge to the cruiser Belfast. The ill-fated bridge that leads to the ship is clearly visible. About the accident with him seven months after my visit, I will tell at the end of the report.

The British World War II light cruiser Belfast is permanently moored off the right bank of the Thames opposite the Tower. The Cruiser Museum is a branch of the Imperial War Museum. From my point of view, this is the most illustrative example of the methodology and techniques of museumification of such complex objects as a warship.
The cruiser is so famous that I don't want to bore the reader by retelling its history and technical parameters in detail, however, I will dwell on some pages of its history.

HMS Belfast is a light cruiser built for the Royal Navy. Currently a museum ship permanently moored on the River Thames in London and managed by the Imperial War Museum.
In December 1936, construction began on the Belfast, the first ship in the Royal Navy to be named after the capital of Northern Ireland and one of ten light cruisers. It is a sistership of another famous cruiser "Edinburgh", sunk by a German submarine in 1942 in the Barents Sea with a cargo of Soviet gold.
In August 1939, the cruiser entered service and initially took part in the British naval blockade of Germany.
In November 1939, the ship hit a German mine and spent more than two years in a major overhaul and modernization.
In November 1942, Belfast returned to action with improved firepower, radar equipment installed and increased armor protection.
In 1943, the cruiser was engaged in escorting Arctic convoys in Soviet Union, and in December 1943 played an important role in the Battle of the North Cap, helping to destroy the German battleship Scharnhorst.
In June 1944, he took part in Operation Overlord, supporting the Normandy landings.
In June 1945 - relocated to Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet, arriving there shortly before the end of World War II.
The cruiser Belfast took part in the fighting in 1950-52 during the Korean War. In the period from 1956 to 1959, it underwent a radical modernization.

Since 1967, efforts have been made to prevent the cruiser from being scrapped and to preserve it as a museum. A joint committee of the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the Department of Defense was established. In June 1968, a decision was made on the advisability of preserving the cruiser. In 1971, the government decided to drop the idea, prompting the formation of a private trust fund, the HMS Belfast Trust. The Trust's efforts were successful and the government placed the ship under the control of the Trust in July 1971. The ship was moved to London and moored for eternal parking on the River Thames near Tower Bridge. In October 1971, the cruiser opened to the public, and in 1978 became a branch of the Imperial War Museum.
Being a popular tourist attraction in London, the cruiser has over a quarter of a million visitors a year. As an affiliate of the National Museum and part of the National Historic Fleet, Belfast is supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sports, box office revenue and museum commercial activities. The ship was closed to visitors after an accident in November 2011 and reopened on May 18, 2012.

View from the bow, with Tower Bridge in the background

Light cruisers of the Belfast class were the most heavily armed in their class:
4x3 6"/50 (152mm) Mk-XXIII guns in MK-XXIII turrets
6x2 4"/45 (102mm) Mk-XIX twin guns
8 × 2 2-lb 40-mm pom-pom cannons
2 triple tube torpedo tubes TR-4 21" (533 mm)
3 aircraft with powder catapult

The number of small-caliber artillery was constantly changing during the upgrades, and aircraft, due to the development of echolocation, were soon abandoned. The torpedo tubes were also dismantled.
In terms of its armament, it is in no way inferior to another museum ship - the post-war artillery cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov, moored in Novorossiysk.
Displacement 10 thousand gross register tons, speed 32.5 knots, length 190 meters.

View of the cruiser Belfst from London Bridge

Isn't he handsome?
The cruiser was painted in camouflage during the Second World War, which led to an extensive discussion among specialists, because the appearance of the ship has seriously changed since that time and a contradiction has arisen between it and its coloring.

HMS Belfast serves as the headquarters of the London Marine cadet corps and, located in a prestigious location in the center of London, often serves as a mooring for other ships.

View of the cruiser from the port side from the pier leading to the ship. To lay up the ship, extensive dredging work was carried out and two structures were installed to ensure the movement of the ship in a vertical plane during high and low tides.

View of the stern of the ship with the gun turrets of the main caliber

Two towers of twin 4 "/45 (102-mm) Mk-XIX guns in the central part. Fire control devices are under the covers on top. Interestingly, a garbage container sticks out of the side and more air conditioners on the same deck

6-pounder 6-pdr (2.244 "/40 57 mm) QF Mk I Hotchkiss naval gun or, more familiar to the Russian ear, the 57-mm Hotchkiss rapid-fire gun. The gun was put into service in 1884. The gun could be used for firing in air targets. Aiming in the vertical and horizontal planes was carried out only manually by the gunner's shoulder. In later versions of the Mk IV, a sector-type mechanism for vertical aiming appeared.
About 1,700 of these guns survived until the Second World War and were used to arm small ships, in coastal defense and air defense.
What makes this obviously outdated gun on a cruiser is not entirely clear. If this is a salute cannon, then why is it not in the bow of the ship? In regular armament, it seems to be absent. I shot these guns in detail a little later.

On November 29, 2011, two workers suffered minor injuries after part of the bridge access to the ship collapsed during maintenance work. The ship was closed to visitors after the accident. The investigation later determined that the collapse of the bridge was caused by the work of a subcontractor who cut through the load-bearing beams of the walkway during the repair work. Cruiser Belfast reopened on 18 May 2012.

I visited the cruiser seven months before the collapse. After walking from the embankment to about the middle of the bridge, the tourist gets to the ticket office and the traditional information center with a souvenir shop.
The entrance ticket costs 12.5 British pounds, which is three times more expensive than it was in 2009. Crisis however...
Exit from the museum is organized only through the souvenir shop, which is very competent, but you can visit it in front of the museum.

Naval Literature. The average cost of a book is 10-20 pounds.

I buy a ticket, a book about the cruiser and go closer to the stern along the ladder.
An accident with it delayed the construction of a new two-story pavilion. The new pavilion includes a cafe on the ground floor, a shop, a reception area and a rooftop bar. The pavilion was previously expected to be completed in the summer of 2012, but it did not actually open until April 2013.

The turn has come to continue the story about the London military museums. After a series of articles about, I want to talk about another worthy object - the Belfast cruiser, installed in a conditionally eternal parking lot near Tower Bridge in the city of runaway oligarchs and journalists, the capital of Great Britain, London.

This cruiser is a veteran of the Second World War, she participated, among other things, in the battle in which the German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk, in operations to cover the Allied landings in Normandy, as well as in the protection of Arctic convoys from the ports of Iceland and the British Isles to USSR. It is worth noting that these convoys delivered about half of all Lend-Lease aid to the USSR.

1. The cruiser "Belfast" in the eternal parking lot in front of the Tower Bridge in London:

Of course, I was "lucky" with the weather that day. Habitual for the local population, the rain charged from the very morning. I had to take pictures with a number of tricks - so as not to soak the camera and lens. But I think I still managed to get some decent shots of this museum ship.

The entrance to the museum ship is carried out by a special gangway, at the beginning of which there is a ticket office and, in combination, a souvenir shop with a small restaurant.

2. The difference between high and low tides on the Thames is clearly visible. The water in the river is extremely muddy. Barrels of beer are chilled outside the museum pavilion:

3. I buy a ticket at the box office and go up the ladder to board the cruiser. I show the ticket to a specially trained controller. If you wish, you can take an audio guide, including in Russian:

4. In case of bad weather (which, as we know, happens quite often in London), on the poop - this is the aft part of the upper deck - an awning will be stretched. Right next to the entrance there is a screen on which newsreels are scrolling, which depict the cruiser "Belfast":

5. Looking around on deck:

6. On the other side of the Thames, you can see the famous Tower of London, which has been a fortress, a palace, a treasure trove, an arsenal, a mint and even a prison:

7. A ladder is visible leading up to the last aft tower of the main caliber:

8. Coat of arms of the ship and the main stages of its combat activities:

It is noticeable that in these stages (wiring of the Arctic convoys and the battle with the Scharnhorst in 1943, shelling of the German coastal fortifications in Normandy in 1944 and participation in the Korean War on the side of the UN forces in 1950-1952) is not included a rather offensive explosion on a bottom mine in November 1939.

On November 21, 1939, the Belfast cruiser was leaving its anchorage in the Firth of Forth (East Coast of Scotland) for firing practice, when a German aircraft bottom mine went off under its keel. It should be noted that the cruiser was still lucky, because as a result of a mine explosion, the underwater part of the hull was severely deformed, but not destroyed. In fact, most of the shock wave fell on the keel, which eventually bent noticeably and burst. Repair of the ship in the end turned out to be quite a difficult task, and took almost three years.

In addition to the repair of the lining and the keel itself, the radar equipment was updated. So, after the repair, all the artillery of the cruiser was equipped with radar targeting.
In the battle with the Scharnhorst, the ability of British ships to "see" the enemy and fire in the absence of visual contact played decisive role in the destruction of the German battleship on the evening of December 26, 1943 (the own radar installation on the Scharnhorst was destroyed by a direct hit at the very beginning of the first phase of the battle, in the morning).
As a result of a long battle with the superior forces of the British fleet (one battleship, 4 cruisers and 8 destroyers), the Scharnhorst, which had lost its course, was finished off by torpedoes. In the last attack, four destroyers fired 19 torpedoes at her. But at the beginning of this day, Scharnhorst seriously counted on profiting from the ships of the allied convoy passing near the North Cape ...
As I have already said, the Belfast cruiser played an important role in this battle, maintaining contact with the Scharnhorst and periodically firing at her, controlled by radar indications.

10. Ship's Bell:

11. Sign "Last Witness". What does it mean?

12. This means that our "native" oligarchs chipped in to repair this definitely worthy, but, nevertheless, foreign museum ship:

I think that a lot of military museums in Russia would need such help.

13. An information stand, a museum employee stands nearby, trying to explain something to his colleague:

Let's get acquainted with the cruiser "Belfast" closer. HMS Belfast (C35) is a pre-war British Town-class (Edinburgh subclass) light cruiser, one of 10 ships of this class. Four of them were sunk by the enemy during World War II, but the remaining six more or less successfully passed it and served until the end of the 1950s, after which they were slowly dismantled for metal.

The cruiser "Belfast" was lucky again - museum workers became interested in its preservation, who managed to prevent the dismantling of the ship and create a special fund for its repair. Since 1971, the cruiser "Belfast" has become a museum ship, and since 1978 - a branch of the Imperial War Museum.

14. 152-mm guns of the main caliber are installed in four three-gun turret mounts, two in the bow and in the stern:

According to the English maritime tradition, bow towers are designated by the letters A (first), B (second), etc., and stern - X (penultimate), Y (last).

15. Towers of the main caliber are open for free access:

16. We approach the gangway leading to the aft 152-mm "Y" turret. A special scoreboard counts down the time until the next visitors start. They allocate five minutes to inspect the tower, but no one, of course, will drive away a slightly delayed visitor:

17. We go into the tower, pushing the cloth canopy:

18. A "working atmosphere" has been created inside the tower - everything is as if in a haze from powder gases, secretly located speakers transmit the clanging sounds of shutters and rammers:

19. Special lamps illuminate individual elements of internal equipment:

20. At some point, a “shot” is heard, the tower really twitches, everything around rumbles, a well-camouflaged disco fog generator launches another batch of steam into the tower:

21. In general, visiting the aft tower of the main caliber is a real show, people are really scared when they are "shot", some visitors fly out of the tower as if scalded:

Anti-aircraft artillery of the cruiser before the second modernization in the second half of the 1950s. was represented by eight twin 40-mm automatic guns QF 2-pounder Mark VIII (because of the characteristic sound of the shots, they were nicknamed "pom-pom"). It is worth noting that the British pom-poms were noticeably inferior in their effectiveness to the similar 40-mm anti-aircraft guns of the Swedish company Bofors, which, for example, were actively installed on American warships of that time (their licensed production was established in the USA).

22. After the second upgrade, anti-aircraft guns began to look like this:

23. 8 twin "pom-poms" were replaced by 6 twin "Bofors" (Mk V 40mm Bofors):

24. At the same time, anti-aircraft fire control after repairs and the first modernization in 1939-42. already carried out according to the radar:

25. Twin anti-aircraft 40-mm machine "Bofors" (Mk V 40mm Bofors):

26. The cruiser's universal artillery was initially represented by six, and after the second modernization in the 1950s. - four twin 102-mm art. settings (QF 4 inch Mk XVI):

Depending on the situation, universal guns could act as anti-aircraft artillery, be used to combat lightly armored naval targets, or to suppress enemy coastal defense units. For example, supporting the Allied landings in Normandy in the first weeks after the start of the operation, the cruiser's 102-mm guns managed to suppress several German strongholds - until the front line in Normandy moved away from the coast at a distance exceeding the firing range of its artillery.

27.

A curious story connected the cruiser with the name of the British Prime Minister Churchill. A few days before the start of the landings in Normandy, Churchill wanted to personally observe what was happening, for which he asked to prepare a cabin for him on the cruiser Belfast. Upon learning of this intention, Admiral Cunningham (First Sea Lord) and General Eisenhower (leader of the Anglo-American forces during the landing of troops in Normandy) tried to dissuade him, but were sent ... to go about their business further. Fortunately for the captain of the Belfast and his crew, the situation was saved by the intervention English king, whose opinion Churchill decided to take into account. As a result, nothing prevented the cruiser from calmly and without regard to the highest ranks of the empire to fulfill its tasks of suppressing enemy batteries.

28.

29. Veterans:

Let's see what else is interesting on the deck of the cruiser.

30. Main add-on:

31. Viewfinder:

32. View from the navigation bridge to the bow of the ship:

33. Antenna economy:

As I already mentioned, the Belfast cruiser managed to take part in the Korean War on the side of the UN forces. At school, in history lessons (and other political information), they told me that in that war the "bad" attacked the "good". Then it turned out that no, it's still the "good" (according to the previous classification) themselves attacked the "bad". But, in the end, no one could win.

35. Artillery fire control station:

36. Here the signalmen kept their signal flags.

On the Thames, right next to the Tower Bridge, there is a naval museum. It is located on board the cruiser HMS Belfast, which was built in 1939 and went through the entire war. There will be a story about this cruiser.

The post turned out to be hefty, I immediately warn those who climb under the cut :)

"The main task Royal Navy —

protecting the interests of the British Empire

and maritime trade routes

It is with these words that the story of the creation of the light cruiser Belfast begins. According to the then strategy of the naval forces, cruisers were supposed to serve around the world. In the event of a war with Germany or Japan, the cruisers were supposed to be used to support battleships and aircraft carriers. Light and fast ships, equipped with powerful weapons and modern (by those standards) radars, they had to play the role of an escort in the event naval battle detect the enemy and aim heavily armed colleagues at him. Belfast fully complied with these principles: a displacement of 10 thousand tons, 32 knots, guns, anti-aircraft weapons, torpedo tubes ... I will not dwell too much on technical details, they can also be viewed on Wikipedia. Built from 1936 to 1939, Belfast was the last in a series of Town-class cruisers.

On August 5, 1939, Belfast became part of the fleet and its difficult history began. On the stern of the cruiser you can see in which battles he took part:

True, this service began, frankly, unsuccessfully. The cruiser made several combat exits to the North Sea, but already on November 21, 1939, leaving Edinburgh, she ran into a magnetic mine, set shortly before by the U-21 boat. Drown - did not drown, but barely dragged with tugs back to the port and was put on a long repair. He entered service again in 1942. By the way, while Belfast was being repaired, part of his crew was transferred to the cruiser Hood (HMS Hood), which a year later died during an artillery duel with the German battleship Bismarck (only three sailors were saved).

So. Where did I stop? Oh yes, in 1942 Belfast was back in action, in the midst of the battle for the Arctic. I think everyone knows the history of the polar convoys that supplied weapons, machine tools, fuel and much more to the USSR. Belfast spent all of 1943 escorting these convoys to Murmansk.

Even as a child, I read Alistair MacLean's novel The Cruiser Ulysses, which just told about one such convoy. Cold, ice, attacks by submarines and bombers, you had to be an iron man to go through this. Here is an archival photo of Belfast from one of these convoys:

Despite everything, battered convoys still broke through to the USSR. This picture is called "Allied convoy approaches Murmansk":

Another archival photo. Allied squadron on the roads of Murmansk. Belfast is on the right in this photo.

The next milestone in the history of the cruiser is the battle at the North Cape. On December 21, 1943, the German battleship Scharnhorst fell into a Royal Navy trap off the coast of Norway. The battleship went out to intercept the next convoy, but the German reconnaissance did not detect a squadron going near it, consisting of one battleship, one heavy, three light cruisers and several destroyers. It was Belfast that spotted the battleship on the radar around 09:00, and soon the light cruisers approached the range of a volley and opened fire.

The very first volleys of the cruiser damaged the Scharnhorst radar installation. The battleship went blind; in the Arctic snow whirlwind, it was possible to aim guns only at the flashes of enemy guns. Scharnhorst at full speed rushed to retreat south, but it was too late: the trap slammed shut. Belfast, with the help of his radar, directed a strike group at the Germans, led by the battleship Duke of York, which was more powerful than Scharnhorst. By the way, the radar picture in Belfast was so-so :)

The pursuit continued throughout the day. Scharnhorst, snarling, left, despite numerous hits. However, the forces were not equal. At 1945, after another torpedo attack by destroyers, Scharnhorst capsized and sank, taking two thousand crew members to the bottom. The British raised only 36 surviving sailors from the icy water. In this diagram, the red line shows how Scharnhorst tried to leave:

In March 1944, Belfast participated in an operation during which the largest German battleship Tirpitz, based in Norway, was badly damaged by an air raid - the cruiser escorted the aircraft carriers from which this raid was organized.

By this time naval war in the Arctic has almost ended, but in Europe it was still just beginning. In June 1944, the Allied landings in Normandy began. The cruiser managed to participate here:

He supported the landing with his fire, crushed coastal batteries, in general, helped the course of this operation in every possible way:

In total, during the operation, the cruiser fired about 2000 volleys of the main caliber. Here is this one:

Speaking of the main caliber. In total, Belfast has 4 towers with 3 six-inch guns in each. Projectile weight - 50 kilograms, firing range - 20 kilometers. This is what the tower looks like from the inside:

Under each tower there is a gun cellar for 200 shells:

In July 1944 Belfast was sent for rearmament and in the spring of 1945 advanced to the Far East. However, while the essence and the matter, Japan capitulates and the cruiser does not have to make war with the kamikaze. Although for the sake of such a case, special anti-aircraft guns were installed. True, in the 50s there was another modernization and they were all replaced with more advanced ones.

After the war, the cruiser continues to serve in the east. In 1950, he was part of the American squadron and participated in the Korean War. Until 1963, he remains in the ranks of the Royal Navy, after which he is put into reserve. In 1971, he was finally decommissioned.

But then the history of the museum itself begins, which is quite revealing. The government was not going to make a museum out of the ship, the cruiser was heading for pins and needles, but a private fund and donations were organized. The fleet, private individuals and commercial companies participated in the creation of the museum. As a result, already at the end of 1971, the museum was opened and received visitors. This is worth learning from: in our LiveJournal, the topics “oh, the lunar rover is in a landfill”, “oh, Buran was sold” constantly pop up, and all this falls on the authorities: “why don’t they preserve the heritage”, probably because it’s easier this way - you don’t have to do anything yourself necessary.

Well, about the museum itself. I can say that this is the most interesting maritime museum that I have ever visited. What can we say - a real legendary battle cruiser with a long track record. And almost all of it is open for review. You can climb the bridge

You can get in the car:

Gyrocompasses:

Survival post:

And even a pantry :)

Of course, there are still a lot of photos, but I still think it's time to finish, and so the post turned out to be unbearable. However, I warned :) As I said, the cruiser is right next to the Tower Bridge. A ticket to the museum costs 12 pounds, which is expensive by our standards, but not very much by English standards. In addition, they provide an audio guide. That's all, with this I end with the final photo from the Thames embankment.

PS For the sake of order: the sources of information are the museum itself and some English-language Wikipedia. Free translation, as usual, mine.

Cruiser « Belfast"is the only artillery ship in Europe - a participant in the Second World War, which has survived to this day. In 1971, she was installed in perpetual parking, like the cruiser "", almost in the very center of London.

cruiser Belfast

English cruiser « Belfast is interesting in many respects. Firstly, this is the most powerful light cruiser in the history of the British Navy. Secondly, he happened to take an active part in the famous battles of the Second World War. One of the most striking stories is the fiery voyages in the Arctic Ocean. The ship participated in operations to escort military cargo to the Soviet Union - they were considered the most difficult operations in the history of world wars.

the legendary British cruiser Belfast

Cruiser "Belfast"At the beginning of the war, he was blown up by a mine and went out of order for a long time. But then he avenged himself in full. His finest hour was the battle with the German « Scharnhorst» in December 1943, culminating in the destruction of the fascist military ship.

The British Admiralty considered important tool in the implementation of its maritime policy. Previously, confusion and vacillation reigned in this class. With the advent of dreadnoughts, cruisers were stratified into classes. battlecruisers, which became the successors of armored cruisers, very quickly turned into a type of high-speed battleships. During the First World War, such buildings were most actively built in England and Germany.

cruiser "Belfast" in the roadstead

Cruiser « Belfast"was built on March 17, 1938 at the shipyard of the company" Harland & Wolff» . He entered the British Navy on August 3, 1939. The starting point in the design of the Belfast was the requirement to increase the number of barrels of 152 mm guns to at least 15. It can be considered one of the most powerful light cruisers in the class. The thickness of the armor belt reached 114 mm.

cruiser "Belfast" lord of the seas

Aviation armament in the 30s was considered a very important element of the combat power of a large ship. On the cruiser Belfast”, like its predecessors, three Walrus seaplanes were constantly based. Two of them were stored with folded wings in individual hangars in the bow superstructure, the third was openly on a catapult. The catapult was powder. The lifting of the aircraft on board was carried out by two 7-ton electric cranes installed behind the catapult. The development of radar quickly nullified the importance of seaplanes as the main means of reconnaissance. Therefore, during the repair in 1944 - 1945, seaplanes with all equipment were removed.

the cruiser Belfast fired a salvo

Among the numerous family of British lungs cruisers, « Belfast» differed from his brothers in fighting qualities. In terms of the power of weapons and armor protection, he was undoubtedly the leader in his class - "lords of the seas."

cruiser "Belfast" - art

Ship « Belfast"was part of the 18 squadron of the Metropolitan Fleet, and from the first days carried patrol and intelligence service in the Atlantic. In 1942, he actively took part in the escort of JW-54A and B, RA-54A and B caravans to the USSR. After the glorious battles, the ship needed a major overhaul. He went to one of the docks in England, where he stayed until May 1945. Under renovation ship received new radar equipment, anti-aircraft weapons, and seaplanes were removed as unnecessary. But it never had to be applied - the Second World War ended. In January 1946, while off the coast of China, Belfast" was appointed flagship ship 2nd Cruiser Squadron, British Pacific Fleet. In this capacity, she was in eastern waters for almost two years, cruising between India, New Zealand and Japan, and thus "providing the interests" of the weakened British Empire in this region. On October 15, 1947, the cruiser was put into reserve and returned to Portsmouth. After a long break, from May 12, 1955, he served on campaigns and visited Hong Kong, Ceylon, India, Australia and Singapore. These were friendly visits. In 1962 " Belfast"I visited Pearl Harbor, the cities of the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada, and returned to England in June.

". The most advanced light cruisers of the British Navy.

Belfast-class light cruisers
Belfast class light cruisers
Light cruiser "Belfast" at the eternal parking lot in London
Project
Country
Previous type	"Manchester"
Main characteristics
Displacement	Standard - 10 302 long. t, full - 13 175 dl. t
Length	176.47/187 m
Width	19.3 m
Draft	6.5 m
Booking	Belt - 114 mm; traverses - 63 mm; deck - 51 ... 76 mm; towers - 102 ... 51 mm; barbettes - 51 ... 25 mm
Engines	4 TZA Parsons
Power	82 500 l. With. (60.7 MW)
mover	4 screws ∅ 3.43 m
travel speed	32.3 knots (60 km/h)
cruising range	8000 nautical miles at 14 knots
Crew	781 people
Armament
Navigation armament	two Admiralty-type gyrocompasses echo sounder type 758N
Artillery	4 × 3 - 152mm/50, 6 × 2 - 102mm/45
Flak	2 × 8 - 40mm/40, 3 × 4 - 12.7 mm machine guns
Anti-submarine weapons	"Asdik" type 132, 6 Mk-VH depth charges on upper deck rails, 15 spare bombs
Mine and torpedo armament	2 triple-tube 533 mm torpedo tubes
Aviation group	1 catapult, 2 seaplanes

History of creation

It all started with the fact that the fleet of the Land of the Rising Sun ordered four Mogami-class cruisers, which, with a standard displacement of 9500 dl. tons carried 15 155-mm guns, 100 mm side belt and protection of artillery cellars 140 mm thick. At the same time, they declared that the standard displacement of cruisers is 8500 dl. tons. Formally, these cruisers were considered light, but in terms of strength they turned out to be comparable to heavy ones.

Design

The cruiser hull had a classic semi-tank design with a sloping stem and a cruising stern. Contours - characteristic of the British school of shipbuilding: round-shaped with a characteristic kink. The forecastle occupied about 45%. The set of the body was carried out according to the longitudinal scheme.

The design of the cruisers basically follows that of the Southampton, however, the engine and boiler rooms are shifted aft and the hull is 7 m longer than the 180-meter (592 ft) hull of the Southampton. The contours of the hull are round-cheeked, with a pronounced zygomatic break in the bow. The hull is divided into 15 compartments by transverse watertight bulkheads, there was no constructive anti-torpedo protection. A double bottom runs along the entire length of the hull, and a triple bottom near the cellars. The freeboard height at normal displacement was 9.45 m in the bow (against 9.33 m of the Gloucester cruiser) and only 4.95 m amidships and 5.56 m in the stern.

The Belfast type was originally designed for sixteen 152 mm guns in four four-gun turrets. This idea was soon abandoned and they returned to four three-gun turrets, although of an improved design, which made it possible to reduce the calculation of the turret and increase the rate of supply of ammunition. The saved tons were spent on placing four additional 102-mm anti-aircraft guns, while lightly armored shelters for servants, an eight-barreled "Pom-Pom" and additional armor protection were placed between them. The deck flooring is made of hardwood brought from the island of Borneo. The standard displacement was 10,069 dl. tons, full - 12 672 dl. tons. Rescue equipment consisted of three motor boats 11 m long, one motor boat 8 m long, one motor 11-meter semi-barge, two sailing and rowing 10-meter boats, two 8-meter whaleboats, one 5-meter motor dinghy and two 4- meter dinghy. In addition, the cruisers were carried by Carley's life rafts.

Light cruisers of the Belfast type were equipped with three Byers rodless anchors weighing 5588 kg (two main and one spare), one Admiralty-type stern stop anchor weighing 711 kg and one Admiralty-type anchor weighing 508 kg.

Power plant

home power plant It consisted of four Parsons turbo gear units and four Admiralty-type three-collector steam boilers. All boilers had superheaters, fuel and air heaters. Scheme - echelon; boilers are located in pairs in two boiler rooms, TZA - in two engine rooms. The working steam pressure in the boilers is 24.61 kg / cm² (24.29 atm.), The temperature is 343 ° C, the normal preparation time for the trip is about 4 hours. The design range was 10,000 nautical miles at 16 knots and 12,200 miles at twelve knots. Each boiler room was equipped with four turbofans, which created an overpressure of 241.3 mm of water column. Compared with the Linder and Aretheusa cruisers, the Towns had more economical, albeit heavier, "cruising-type" units. Three turbines (high, low pressure with a reverse stage and a cruising turbine) and a gearbox made up a turbo gear unit. The cruising turbine was located in front of the theater and was connected to its shaft through a gearbox with a hydraulic clutch; it was turned off at full speed. Power and speed were as follows:

• TVD - 9400 l. With. at 3350 rpm.
• HPD - 10 600 l. With. at 2400 rpm.
• TKH - 5000 l. With. at 6400 rpm.

The design capacity was 80,000 liters. With. at a propeller speed of 300 rpm, which was supposed to provide a travel speed (at full load) of 31 knots, the maximum speed at a standard displacement was to be 32.25 knots. The turbines were driven by four three-blade propellers ∅ 3.43 m and a pitch of 4.19 m. The maximum speed with a clean bottom under one cruising turbines was 23 knots, with a fuel consumption of 7.5 t / h, which corresponded to a cruising range of 6141 miles. On sea trials in May 1939, the Edinburgh with a displacement of 10,550 dl. t (close to standard) reached a speed of 32.73 knots with a power of 81,630 liters. With. "Belfast" with a displacement of 10 420 dl. t showed 32.98 knots and 81,140 liters, respectively. With.

The cruisers had two independent electrical systems - AC and DC. The main power system with a voltage of 220 DC was used for lighting, driving fans, power motors, and heating. The AC network fed the gyrocompass, fire control system, radio equipment and ASDIK.

Electricity was generated by two turbogenerators with a capacity of 350 kW each and one with 400 kW. The DC network was fed by two diesel generators with a capacity of 300 kW each; the third (50 kW) was used as an emergency. Emergency lighting was powered by batteries.

Armament

Artillery armament

The artillery armament of the Belfast-class cruisers included twelve 152-mm and the same number of 102-mm guns.

The 152 mm Mk-XXIII guns with a barrel length of 50 calibers were the main battery guns on all pre-war British light cruisers, starting with the Linder. Initially, they were installed in two-gun turrets Mk-XXI ("Linder", "Sydney", "Aretyuza"), then in three-gun Mk-XXII (Southampton type) and Mk-XXIII ("Belfast", "Fiji"), with the minimum distance between the axes of the guns at a zero elevation angle of 1.98 m. A feature of the British three-gun turrets was the displacement of the middle barrel back by 0.76 m in order to prevent the dispersion of shells due to mutual influence muzzle gases at full salvos. For 152 mm guns, two types of shells were used - semi-armor-piercing with a ballistic cap and high-explosive. The mass of both was 50.8 kg, the weight of the explosive in the first was 1.7 kg (3.35%), in the second - 3.6 kg (7.1%). There were two types of charges - normal (13.62 kg) and flameless (14.5 kg). When using any, the initial velocity of the projectile was 841 m / s, which ensured a maximum firing range of 23,300 m (125 kbt) at a gun elevation angle of 45 °. Cellar capacity - 200 shells per gun. The survivability of the barrel was 1100 shots when firing with a normal charge and 2200 with a flameless one. The maximum firing range at an elevation angle of 45 ° is 23,300 m. The range of angles at which loading was carried out was from −5 to 12.5 °. The rate of fire was up to eight rounds per minute, but they depended more on the feed rate, which was higher at Belfast and Fiji than at Southampton and Manchester. As a legacy from the four-gun turret, Belfast received three lifts each with a capacity of twelve rounds per minute and three supply pipes each with a capacity of twelve charges per minute, supplying ammunition directly from the cellars directly to the towers.

Large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery consisted of twelve 102-mm Mk-XVI guns in twin deck mounts Mk-XIX. The length of the gun barrel was 4572 mm (45 klb.), The weight together with the bolt was 2042 kg. In the Mk-XIX installation, both barrels were in the same cradle, the distance between the axes of the guns was 53.3 cm, the maximum elevation angle was 85 °. Projectile weight - 15.88 kg; the firing range at an elevation angle of 45 ° was 18,150 m, the height reach was 11,890 m, the technical rate of fire was 20 rounds per minute, although the practical one was lower: about 12-15 rounds. Initially, the characteristics of the guns, which were higher than those of their predecessors, reduced the survivability to 600 shots, but after the start of the use of new flameless powders, it increased to 1800 shots.

Anti-aircraft armament consisted of a pair of quadruple 12.7 mm machine guns, Vickers .50 and two eight-barreled Pom-poms. The two-pounder Vickers Mk.VII was a development of the Mk. I, created back in the First world war, both models were called "pom-pom" for the characteristic sound made when fired, had the same barrel length of 40.5 calibers and provided the new 764-gram HV projectile with an initial speed of 732 m / s (the old "Pom-pom" used 907 gram LV projectiles with a muzzle velocity of 585 m/s). It had an effective reach in height of 1700 yards (1550 m) instead of the not very large 1200 yards (1100 m) of the old one, although this was not very much, it was partly offset by a high rate of fire - 100 rounds / min per barrel, which allowed developing high density fire. Fire control was carried out with the help of anti-aircraft directors with 1.22-m rangefinders. In addition, there were two 7.69 mm Vikkes machine guns.

The landing parties were armed with 16 light machine guns (six Bren and ten Lewis).

And, finally, in peacetime, the armament of the cruisers included three-pound (47-mm) Hotchkiss salute guns, created in France in the 80s of the XIX century and installed on large ships exclusively for representative purposes.

Aviation armament

Air armament in the 30s was considered an important part of the combat power of a large surface ship. On the Belfast type, like on their predecessors, there were three Supermarine Walrus seaplanes. Two of them were stored with folded wings in separate hangars in the bow superstructure, the third was on a catapult. Catapult D-1H - powder, 28 m long. The lifting of aircraft on board was carried out by two 7-ton electric cranes installed on the side behind the catapult. With the advent of radar on the cruisers, the need for airborne reconnaissance has disappeared, and from the middle of the war, aviation equipment has been dismantled from cruisers.

Torpedo armament

The cruisers were armed with two 533 mm TR-IV triple-tube torpedo tubes, mounted on the upper deck along the sides, in the middle part of the ship. Ammunition consisted of 12 533-mm torpedoes. Spare torpedoes (steam-gas Mk-IX) were stored in a room between the devices, protected by 16-mm steel plates. The cruisers used a single setting of 9.6 km at 36 knots. Belfast was one of the few capital ships of the Second World War period who used their torpedo weapons in battle (in December 1943 against the Scharnhorst). The torpedo tubes were dismantled during the major modernization of 1955-1959.

Booking

Armor weight, without turret armor, was 18.6% of the standard displacement. Compared to the Southampton, the protection scheme has changed: the 114-mm armor belt has become much longer, which made it possible to abandon the box-shaped armor of the cellars. The belt descended below the waterline by 0.91 m, reaching the main deck in height (in the area of ​​​​engine and boiler rooms - up to the upper deck). The transverse traverses were of the same thickness - 63 mm, the armored deck - 50 mm and 76 mm in the area of ​​​​the ammunition magazines of the bow and stern towers. The steering gear was protected from above by a 50 mm main deck, and from the sides by a 25 mm box. The armor of the barbettes was strengthened - now above the deck their thickness from the sides was 102 mm (51 + 51), and to the bow and stern - 51 mm (25 + 25), overboard, to the armored deck, their thickness from the sides was 51 mm, and in the bow and stern - 25 mm. The towers had a thickness of 102/51/51 mm - forehead / side / roof.