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The Town class of light cruisers was a series of 10 6'-gunned light cruisers of the Royal Navy. These ships were built in three sub-classes, with the final subclass being Edinburgh and Belfast. These two vessels were slightly larger than the proceeding eight ships, as there was a brief intention of arming them with a quadruple 6' gun, instead of the triple mounts of the other ships.

Belfast was laid down in 1936 in a Belfast, Northern Ireland shipyard, and was commissioned three years later in August of 1939. Three months into her commission, she struck a magnetic mine which inflicts serious damage. Belfast limped back for repairs, which took until 1942 to complete. The Belfast that emerged from those repairs also underwent refit and modernization, including having a stability bulge added. Belfast went on to take part in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst in December of 1943 and the D-Day bombardment force. After D-Day, Belfast underwent another refit to prepare her for tropical service in the Pacific Theatre, but the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war before she arrived in the theatre. Belfast did later serve in the repatriation of survivors from Japanese prisoners of war. Post-war, she served in foreign service on the Far East station, so she was in place to provide fire support to the UN forces during the Korean War. After this conflict ended in 1952, she was briefly paid off before entering an extensive modernization from 1956-1959. She went into permanent reserve in 1963 and was later saved from the breakers in 1971. She still exists today as part of the Imperial War Museum and opens to visitors in the Pool of London.

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