HMS Belfast
Contents
Description
The Town-class, HMS Belfast (C35), 1959 is a premium rank IV British cruiser
with a battle rating of 5.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.93 "Shark Attack".
General info
Survivability and armour
Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.
| Specification | Information |
|---|---|
| Complement: | 781–881 (as flagship, 1939) |
| Displacement: | 11,550 tons |
| Length: | 613 ft 6 in (186.99 m) overall |
| Beam: | 63 ft 4 in (19.3 m) |
| Draught: |
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| Armour: |
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| Installed power: | 80,000 shp (60,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) |
Mobility
The HMS Belfast has 80,000 shaft horsepower on its screws. This power is provided by four Admiralty oil-fired 3-drum boilers. The four propellers are driven by four Parsons single reduction geared steam turbines. This gives the Belfast a maximum forward speed of 32 knots (59 km/h).
Armament
Primary armament
The HMS Belfast comes with 12 x Ordnance BL 6 inch (152 mm) gun Mk XXIII naval guns. These guns are housed in a turret with 3 guns each and Belfast has 4 of those turrets. Two are facing forward and two are facing backwards. The guns have a rate of fire of eight round per minute and fire three types of shells. One of them being the S.A.P. Shell. This shell is an effective shell to fight other cruisers. The other one is the HE shell, use this shell to fight Destroyers and small patrol boats. HE can really shred a destroyer apart in 3 salvos. The last shell is the timed HE shell witch can be used to fight airplanes. However, this is not an effective method so I recommend not taking this shell for the main armament. Take around 600 shell's HE and 1800 shell's AP. You will never be out of ammo because the Belfast can carrier around 2,200 shells. So another option is to take less shell's to minimize the chance to get ammo wrecked. 400 HE and 800 AP shell's should be more than enough.
Secondary armament
Belfast has 4 secondary turrets (2 at each side) containing two Ordnance QF 4 inch (102 mm) gun Mk XVI which are dual purpose. They can fire 3 types of shells, an AP shell, HE shell and a timed (fuzed) HE-shell. I recommend taking AP shell's (to fight destroyers and smaller patrol boats) and timed HE-shells to fight aviation. The ratio AP:timed-HE should be 40-60
Anti-aircraft armament
When fighting aviation in the Belfast, you have the Ordnance QF 4 inch gun Mk XVI turrets and you do get the British Bofors 40 mm L/60 on Mk VII in dual turrets. In total, you have six of those turrets. There is no ammunition you can select between, you will only get the default HE belt, but don't dismay, this belt is very effective when shooting down planes.
Usage in battles
HMS Belfast is a very strong cruiser and gives you the ability to fight other cruisers very effectively. However, there are very dangerous cruisers which should be your main priority to kill. These cruisers are the USS Brooklyn (CL-40) and USS Helena (CL-50). These cruisers can fire 15 shell's and do significant damage to your ship. So when starting a match, make sure you try and disable or destroy these cruisers as soon as possible.
A typical cruiser game starts very slow. You and your teammates are spawning in the back and far away from the light fleet. As a cruiser, you need your light fleet because they can cap and win the game. As a cruiser, a lot of places on the map are not accessible. Your ship has a draught of 17 feet 3 inches (5.3 m) so you can't go anywhere you want. Your main goal is to achieve supremacy over the other team in terms of cruiser and destroyer power. Destroyers are very vulnerable against other cruisers so your main goal is to fight these cruisers. Destroyers should help the patrol boats with capping and getting an advantage. When destroying other cruisers, make sure your destroyer can fulfil this role. This also means that when the majority of the enemy cruisers are destroyed, you should be focusing on shooting down enemy destroyers. This increases the chance of the survivability of a small fleet to capture the points. Don't be that cruiser captain that is desperate to kill another cruiser that is far away from your fleet and far away from a capture point. The fleet needs you because you can tank a lot of shots. Stick with your team, make sure that they don't need to worry about big guns so you achieve a victory.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful main armament
- Strong armour (citadel is very well protected)
- Effective AA protection
- Doesn't flood very easily
- Decent manoeuvrability
Cons:
- Doesn't have any torpedo armament
- Mediocre turret protection
- Weak bridge protection
- Mediocre barbettes
History
The light cruiser ‘Belfast’ was the next big step in shipbuilding design, following the Manchester cruisers, and, according to experts, this vessel (tied together with her sister ship, the cruiser Edinburgh) was the most advanced light cruiser in the Royal Navy of Great Britain during WWII. Belfast was laid down in 1938, and a year later, the cruiser came into service. The ship initially played a part in the British naval blockade against the German forces during WWII, however, in November 1939, the Belfast struck a mine and spent three years undergoing repairs, during which she also received a number of upgrades.
The modernised light cruiser was then deployed to escort Arctic convoys heading to the USSR, where she fought the German fleet for the first time. In June 1944, the Belfast provided cover for the US landing troops on the well-known D-Day, which took place in Normandy. At the end of World War II, Belfast was sent to the Pacific Ocean, where she joined the British Pacific Fleet. The next combat action the light cruiser saw was the Korean War, in which she participated from 1950 to 1952.
After taking part in a number of military operations and missions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, the old war dog finally retired from the battlefield in 1963. The era of those ships was over and it seemed that the Belfast was essentially doomed to become scrap metal. However, fortune favoured the cruiser, as a group of enthusiastic war historians, among whom was a former Belfast commander, persuaded the British government to use the ship as a museum of war history. Since 1978, light cruiser Belfast has served as a branch of the Imperial War Museum and is permanently moored on the Thames in London.
From Dev Blog on the War Thunder forum: Belfast - The Guardian of the Thames
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the ship;
- other literature.
| Britain light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Emerald-class | HMS Enterprise |
| Dido-class | HMS Dido |
| Leander-class | HMNZS Leander |
| Arethusa-class | HMS Arethusa |
| Town-class | HMS Belfast · HMS Liverpool · HMS Southampton |
| Tiger-class | HMS Tiger |
| Abdiel-class* | HMS Abdiel |
| Britain premium ships | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | MTB-1(2) · MTB-422 · Fairmile D (5001) · HMS Gay Archer |
| Motor gun boats | MGB-75 · SGB Grey Goose |
| Gunboats | HMS Spey |
| Sub-chasers | LÉ Orla |
| Frigates | HMS Whitby |
| Destroyers | HMS Montgomery · HMS Valhalla · HMS Verdun · ORP Garland · HMS Jervis · HMCS Haida · HMS Mohawk · HMS Cadiz · HMS Diamond |
| Light cruisers | HMS Belfast |
| Battleships | HMS Iron Duke |
