Launched on St Patricks Day 1938, HMS Belfast was one of ten Town-class vessels and the first vessel of the Royal Navy to be named for a Northern Ireland town. She initially operated as part of the British Naval blockade against Germany in 1939. In November of that year, she struck a German mine and spent the next two years undergoing extensive repairs. In November 1942 she returned to action with greater firepower, armour and radar capability. She escorted Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union in 1943, and later that year was in the Battle of the North Cape, contributing to the destruction of German battleship Scharnhorst. She subsequently assisted in the Normandy landings as part of Operation Overlord and ended the war as part of the British Pacific Fleet. She would go on to see service in the Korean War. She is now moored as a museum ship on the River Thames in London, operated by the Imperial War Museum. —description from the publisher