HMS Rodney was one of two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. She was named after Admiral Lord Rodney. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only ships to carry a main armament of 16 inch (406 mm) guns, and the only ones to carry all the main armament forward of the superstructure. As her superstructure was located aft of midships like RN fleet oilers whose names carried the ...'ol' suffix, she was sometimes derisively referred to as "Rodnol". Commissioned in 1927, Rodney served extensively in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean during World War II.
Rodney was laid down on 28 December 1922, the same date as her sister ship Nelson. She was built at Birkenhead by Cammell-Laird shipyard, Launched on 17 December 1925 by HRH Princess Mary Viscountess Lascelles after three attempts at cracking the bottle of Imperial Burgundy. She began trials in August 1927 and was commissioned in November 1927, three months behind her sister. Her construction cost £7,617,799. Her Commanding Officer in 1930 was Captain (later Admiral) Andrew Cunningham and Chief Engineering Officer was Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral) George Campell Ross, son of Sir Archibald Ross, a marine engineer and pioneer of shipbuilding.
In May 1941, while commanded by Captain Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, Rodney was ordered to sail to Canada, along with the MV Britannic and four destroyers. It was during this run on 24 May that she was called by the Admiralty to join in the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck, leaving the destroyer HMS Eskimo to escort the Britannic and taking HMS Somali, HMS Mashona and HMS Tartar with her in the search. Despite Admiral Sir John Tovey in King George V heading north-west due to a misinterpreted signal from the Admiralty, Dalrymple-Hamilton and his own 'Operations Committee' consisting of Captain Coppinger (newly appointed captain of HMS Malaya), his Navigator, Lt.Cmdr. Galfrey George Gatacre RAN, USN Naval Attache', Lt.Cmdr. Joseph Wellings, and Executive Officer, Cmdr. John Grindle, decided that Bismarck was, most likely, headed to Brest, and so set course to the East to head Bismarck off, 'at some stages exceeding her designed speed by two knots', despite her engines being in need of an overhaul.
On 26 May, she joined up with King George V, as Admiral Tovey had realised his mistake and doubled back. Tovey then sent the three remaining destroyers home because they were low on fuel, and had Rodney fall in behind King George V for the battle against the Bismarck the next day. Early on the morning of 27 May 1941, along with the battleship King George V and the cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire, she engaged the Bismarck, which had damaged rudder machinery due to a torpedo launched by Ark Royal's Swordfish bombers the day before. Unable to manoeuvre and listing to port, Bismarck scored no hits before her forward guns were knocked out, after which Rodney closed with Bismarck until she was firing on a virtually flat trajectory, and spotters could actually follow the shells to the target. One 16 in (406.4mm) shell was tracked from the gun to where it hit the face of Bismarck 's #2 turret Bruno and exploded, blowing out the back of the turret, with the resulting splinters killing most of the crew on the bridge. Rodney fired 340 16" shells, some in 9-gun broadsides, and 716 6" shells during the battle, scoring many hits from a range of under 3,000 yards (2,700 m) and inflicting most of the damage suffered by Bismarck, whose stern was blown off. During the battle, Rodney also fired twelve 24.5" torpedoes at Bismarck whilst zig-zagging across her bow; most of the torpedoes missed, but one hit Bismarck and exploded amidships on the starboard side, making Rodney the only battleship in history to have torpedoed another battleship, although Bismarck survived the hit by Rodney 's torpedo. Rodney and King George V finally broke off the action; Dorsetshire was then ordered to finish Bismarck off with torpedoes. Rodney and King George V, running short on fuel, were ordered home, and were attacked by Luftwaffe bombers, who sank Mashona, but missed Tartar, with whom the battleships had rejoined.
During the entire war Rodney steamed over 156,000 nautical miles (289,000 km) with no engine overhaul after 1942. Because of her frequent machinery problems and the fact that she had not been upgraded to the extent of her sister Nelson, starting in December 1944 she became the flagship of Home Fleet in Scapa Flow and rarely left her mooring. She was finally scrapped at Inverkeithing, starting on 26 March 1948.[1]
Battleship, Rodney. I like the wind of Atlantic. What about you?
Modification
Eh? My sister has set out for battle already? I must keep up with her.
Engagement
I feel relieved when I fight together with you. What do you think of me, Admiral... Is it? I will do better than before!
Trivia
It is rumoured that Rodney launched a torpedo against the German dreadnought-level privateer ship (Bismarck). She might be the only one battleship that attacked another battleship with torpedo (however she still cannot equip torpedo in game, lol).
Her nature might not be as shown in the illustration. She became very horrible after hearing the loss of her friend (Hood). She tortured her enemy, destroyed all superstructures without sinking her, and then left.
Unlike Nelson, Rodney's illustration does not include many elements concerning Admiral Lord George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney.
She had a nickname "Rodnol" since her structure resembled a mailboat.
Walrus
