Indeed, it's a crying shame we never preserved a battleship, especially Warspite. But at least we have Belfast. She may only be a cruiser but she's still quite an impressive ship in her own right and in her own way just as worthy to represent the WWII-era RN as a battleship would have been. And look on the bright side, we do still possess the only first-rate ship of the line still in existence anywhere in the world.

lol imagine getting a cup of coffee and seeing that in your office window in the morning

My Father Richard Albert Saunders served on the Belfast , and we are very proud, when I was very young he took us to see the ship but I dont remember hardly anything of it, what a shame, I must return to HMS Belfast with my children very soon,"

@YARROWS The thing was, most of the capital ships had been broken up shortly after the end of WW2. However some of the smaller ships including Belfast stayed in service after the war into the 1960s. It was laid up for scrap but later bought by the Imperial War Museum and turned into a museum ship. Also, even if a capital ship like KG5 had been preserved, it would have cost a phenomenal amount of money to maintain. But I agree, it would have been nice if they had preserved a capital ship.

True, but Warspite had a battle record that would have been hard to beat, Jutland and the Med, longest shot etc...Vanguard while a beautiful ship never fired in anger.

No one is underestimating the Belfast. It was still in service through 1970. I was actually searching for examples of rapid fire AAA guns and that YT vide came up, but it looked soo painfully slow in comparison. I can't imagine how these sailors would have had to make doo if they actually had to fight in the 50s-60s.

@dylanwhostones - this is the 4in armament used for engaging aerial targets up to 39,000ft at long range. Not used for close range, they had 2in pompoms, oerlikons and 40mm Bofors for that job.

On July 11th 1938 My father's cousin Wilfred a Royal Marine had a gunnery training and assessment on HMS Ajax’s twin 4” XVI No 2 right gun. His ability was rated at 82% (Superior).

With that speed she'd have sunk in a heart beat...

@YARROWS they should have preserved Warspite, it received the most battle honours of any ship that was in the RN. Warspite even made an 'escape attempt' on the way to the scrap yard by breaking off from the tugs and then being beached in cornwall.

It most certainly is a shame that we didn't preserve any of our battleships, but to an island nation with a long naval history, such vessels come and go. There will be others to take their places. This mindset, combined with dire economic needs resulted in the great dreadnaught battleships meeting their ultimate fates.

So basically what I’m getting at is that the men in blue are probably old veterans that are trained to used the guns for show or they are just people that are trained for the firing drill and to perform it

their 4" anti aircraft guns not 15" the main battery is only 6"

awsomes cant even begin to imagine what noise it would make with all the AA guns firing

So are they doing a drill for a show for the people or is it an actually a firing drill

@Myles0Harcourt I hope when the new QE class carriers are out of service they will be preserved

It is a shame you couldn't save a capital ship like Warspite, we have 7 here in the states.

This ship could fire a tonne of shells every 15 seconds... 14 miles... wouldn't underestimate it

The AA guns on here are 40mm and fire 115rpm, there's 16 lots of 2 of them in 1939 armament anyway, which adds up to about 61 shots every second if all of them can see one flying taget, each 40mm round flying up to 13,000 feet at 700 meters a second, pretty cool! :D

In the UK we do in fact have 2 capital ships Warrior of 1861 the first Ocean going iron clad battleship and more important Victory of 1765 the greatest preserved warship of them all!

i was there today and they did this drill

Those second world war british army helmets flattened like a pizza Hut make me laugh lol :-))

Nice 👍

The only recent comment you'll ever see

BLOW THAT BUILDING.

@Myles0Harcourt I would have put one in dry dock, anyway its ludicrous none were kept for the Korea war

Wow it looks like dozens of guys just to man a twin 4" gun. Is that normal? I notice the gun commander indicated the target was 1 0 distance away. I guess thats 10 miles or km or yards. Any one hazard a guess? Also this entire firing sequence seem to take for ever. Going by the YT counter I measured about 1 minute and 10 seconds between whistle to first shot. These days an enemy jet can cross 15-20 miles in that time???? I guess this is not for modern targets?

What a pitty for the building!

I bet the original sailers wold be horrified at the disorganised slow rabble of these actors who don’t have hours of actual practice...

Alright , alright , no need to laugh at my ignorance. As a matter of interest could they follow a shorter SOP, if they needed?

That is a 4 inch AA gun, not the main 6 inch main armament

I count 12 gun crew members. Ok the timing was more like 1minute & 20 seconds to first shot ; followed by 30 seconds of firing with 4 shots out of two barrels? Thats like 4-6 shots per minute per gun ; which doesn't sound fast either.

Sorry half everything, it had 8x2 40mm AA guns, still 30 shots a second :P

HMS Vanguard would have been the one to keep... Crying shame.

@SuperAlaa90 His/Her Majesties Ship

hms stands for her majisty she

Those are 4" rifles, not 15". 15" were on King George V battleships. Belfast was a cruiser and her main armament was 6".

does the cameraman have Parkinson's?

O:

USA stats on stopping Kamikaze attacks report that you need >1700 x 40mm shells to stop a single kamikaze attack. Such a ship has not the time or the number of shells to stop a simple attack. How is it going to stop a 1960s Soviet ASM?

It shows that the British navy is the best in the world. Always has and always will be .spice the mainbrace