HMS Belfast
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the British Home fleet was the mightiest of fleets and was the proud of the british armed forces. It was the fleet that held the British empire together and it consisted of several mighty ships. One of them was the light cruiser HMS Belfast commissioned as late as August 1939. Belfast is probably most known for her participation in the sinking of the german battleship Scharnhorst at the North Cap in the Arctic Sea in December 1943. HMS Belfast also participated in the Korean War and other places around the world with British interests before retiring and becoming a floating museum on the Thames at Tower Bridge in central London in 1971.
Current status: Preserved with museum (2008).
Location: 51°30' 21.90" N 0°04' 53.28" W
Get there: Metro to London Bridge station.
Follow up in books: Konstam, Angus: THE BATTLE OF NORTH CAPE: The Death Ride of the Scharnhorst, 1943 (2009).
Due to its central location in London, HMS Belfast is as much a tourist attraction as a museum with soaring prices for souvenirs. But it’s great having a surving WW2 war ship as a museum as it’s not many of them in Europe. In the US there are several WW2 war ships, including Air Carriers, that are museums today.