I can’t understand why HMS Belfast’s shell rooms are above the water, considering we have a similar ship in Southampton. You can clearly find that Southampton’s shell room is totally different from Belfast’s, which is much safer, and even Belfast is heavier than Sothampton… Is that a mistake?
Never noticed. What is HMS Liverpool like? Being a post WW2 refit like Belfast, she would be the closest equivalent Town-Class
Checking all 3. Liverpool and Southampton have a lot less shells than Belfast, which is why its higher, but I dont understand why
Oh I think I see whats going on.
In Liverpool and Southampton, the shell room and magazine are side by side, below the water line. In Belfast they are stacked ontop of one another. I have no idea if this is historically correct or not, specifically, I dont know if the shells moved location between 1952 and 1959 on the Town-Class
It’s wired because all of British cruisers have never been such an issue, except HMS Tiger and Belfast. I have checked Belfast ship plan during WWII, it should be same with Southampton, but unfortunately I can’t find any blueprint for free to prove the shell rooms has been changed
meanwhile the Livepool’s
Yeah, so unless there was a 1959/1960 era change to shell room location in British Cruisers. it is a wierd thing to do.
(though in Tiger’s case, Id blame the auto-loader)
I want to make an issue report for this because this makes Belfast becomes one of the worst CLs at 5.7. Any heavy cruiser could easily penetrate its side armor and make an ammunition explosion, but I am not sure if they can accept it due to the similar cruisers don’t have such an issue
You could try it, but would probably need a source for the ammo stowage not changing between refits.
I’d wait 24 hours and see if anyone has sources/information on this.
I rather like Belfast actaully and rarely have an issue with ammo racking as most dont know how to fight her, but yeah, matching the southampton and Liverpool locations would make her more survivable
I am not sure if this video could prove that there is no change in the shell room places. I can find any information for shell room change from each time refit
Last time I just used Southampton 1V1 vs. Belfast and I was surprised to shot each of its shell room and make explosions, which Southampton never happens before
No they have entirely different armour layout as well as turret and ammo arrangements. The belt protecting waterline on Southampton class only covers slightly fore and aft of the machinery, while the waterline at magazines is unprotected. The magazine and shell rooms were therefore placed at the bottom of the ship under the protection of internal armour boxes. On Belfast, the armour belt length was extended to protect the waterline at magazines, and the shell rooms and magazines were rearranged. This arrangement (shell room over magazine) was applied on Fiji class too.
There was nothing relevant to refits or change of shell room location. They were entirely different design from the very beginning of being built.
There’s a drachinifel video about Belfast where he goes into the shell rooms etc, might be useful
