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Mr Monkey visits HMS Belfast, 16th March


"They're doing quite a bit of shouting, you know"

Mr Monkey in the Operations Room Mr Monkey watching a reconstruction of the hunting of the Scharnhorst

Mr Monkey trotted downstairs into the Operations Room. This was the nerve centre of the ship. All information - radar plots, sonar soundings, lookout's warnings, intelligence reports, everything - received by the ship was collated and displayed here, so that the Captain could choose the best course of action. The layout was changed after the war, but they've arranged it to look as close as possible to how it did during the Battle of North Cape on December 26th, 1943. Mr Monkey listened to an audio recreation of the part the Belfast played in sinking the Scharnhorst. He suspected they'd condensed time a little, though.

You can read about the sinking of the Scharnhorst at the BBC History website and see a painting commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee at the National Maritime Museum Collections Online website.


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Copyright Rik Shepherd and Mr Monkey. This page last modified 30 March 2007