Nelson Class Battleship - HMS Rodney (Part 2)

From SN Guides

1940

In early march 1940 the fleet returned to Scapa Flow after the anti submarine defences had been improved, on the night of the 16th there was an air raid on Scapa Flow, Rodney was near missed but the cruiser Norfolk was not so lucky and two of her men were killed, the fleet put up a very heavy AA blind barrage cover and brought down one attacking plane, during this time her rudder was to give almost constant cause for concern.

On the 07th April Rodney along with the other capital ships Valiant and Repulse, with cruisers Sheffield, Penelope and the French Emil Bertin, destroyers Codrington, Brazen, Bedouin, Electra, Escapade, Eskimo, Griffin, Jupiter, Kimberly and Punjabi as escorts put to sea to intercept enemy heavy units, Glowworm detached on her own to escort some minelayers had made contact with the heavy cruiser Hipper, hipper had sunk the brave little destroyer in a very uneven battle but not before she had rammed the far larger cruiser, on receipt of her signals Rodney’s battle fleet attempted, unsuccessfully, to intercept the German ship. On the 09th April 1940 a further contact between British and German naval forces was made, the German light battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau made contact with the elderly battle-cruiser Renown and her ten escorting destroyers, in atrocious weather the destroyers could make no more than 20 knots so the principal contact was between Renown and the two German ships, in an exchange of long range gunnery Renown was lightly damaged but Gneisenau was hit rather hard with a main gun turret placed out of action, although outnumbering the elderly battle-cruiser and certainly being better armoured and having eighteen 11” and 24 5.9” guns versus just six 15” and twenty 4.5” guns the German ships did not push their advantage and allowed the British ship to drive them off. Rodney and her fleet were also unsuccessful in contacting this pair of ships due to being too far away and two slow, the Luftwaffe now attacked the British ships and succeeded in hitting Rodney with a 500 kg armour piercing bomb, luck was with the battleship, it hit the corner of a ready use ammunition locker for the port forward (P1) 4.7” AA gun, thankfully this was an armoured locker and it deflected the bomb , this initial contact was to save the battleship serious damage and many lives for it split the head and it’s fuse from the bomb, the bomb body then passed through the boat deck passing through a wooden table at which two first trip midshipman sat – being of no real use they were sent below for safety although injured and buried in debris they survived. The bomb then passed down into an engineering store where it then punched a hole in but did not penetrate a 4” thick armoured deck, it then ricocheted off an armoured bulkhead before landing once again on the armoured deck. Apart from the structural damage then bomb caused a small fire and injured 18 men. Had the bomb exploded Rodney may well have been destroyed for a nearby hatch to the forward 6” magazine had been left open, sympathetic detonation would surely have followed. The holes in the armoured deck and others were covered over with welded patches and Rodney remained with the fleet which provided distant cover during the Narvik battles on the 11th and 13th April, on the 15th Rodney set sail for Scapa arriving on the 17th.

On the 09th June Rodney, valiant and Renown provided the heavy cover for the evacuation of British troops from Narvik. In July Nelson returned to service assuming the role of fleet flagship from Rodney on the 24th, Rodney then desperately in need of a refit returned to Rosyth where she spent all of august and early September in dry-dock where her boilers were retubed and her early experimental 79Y type radar was replaced with the 79Z. On completion of repairs Rodney remained at Rosyth, Britain was in fear of invasion and Rodney was kept in ready reserve to go out and attack any invasion fleet in the channel, she remained her until the winter weather and gales gave a respite from the fears of invasion when she rejoined her sister-ship Nelson at Scapa Flow. In November the pair sailed in failed attempt to intercept the German armoured cruiser Admiral Scheer after she had sunk the Jervis Bay, yet another converted liner trying to defend her convoy (HX84) from a far superior adversary, the pair missed the Scheer as it was though she would try to return to Germany via the North Sea, instead she commenced a raiding cruise in the South Atlantic. In early December in very heavy weather the earlier temporary repairs to heavy weather damage failed causing serious flooding forcing Rodney to return to Rosyth for further repairs, this time these were carried out properly with additional stiffening added, on completion of these repairs in January 1942 she rejoined the home fleet

1941

On the 28th January Rodney along with the Repulse, eight cruisers and 11 destroyers put to see to search for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the German ships were fortunate in sighting one of the British cruisers, the Naiad, giving them Warning that British warships were in the area, they then used their superior speed to withdraw. In February a group of Rodney’s men were special volunteers on a raid to the Lofoten Islands , travelling in the converted ferry Queen Beatrix they formed a demolition squad to destroy German shipping if any where found during the raid to destroy the fish oil tanks and processing works – glycerine can be made from fish oil, glycerine being a principle component of explosives the Nazi occupied Islands were thus seen as an important target, during the raid the naval party took seven ships out to sea and sank them with fused depth charges.

In early March Rodney was providing heavy cover for convoys to and from Canada in the Northwest approaches , on the 15th March on receipt of distress messages from ships under attack Rodney left the convoy she was with in the care of the Malaya , a small merchant ship the Chilean reefer had been attacked by the Gneisenau, this plucky little ship of just 1,831 tons had made smoke and dodged the shells of the much larger warship, the Gneisenau closed from 12 miles to just 1,000 yards using both her main 11” battery and 5.9” secondary guns but the little ship still evaded being sunk and even returned fire with their single 4” gun, the German ships officers Admiral Lutjens ( later to command the Bismarck) and Captain Otto Fein thought she was either armed with torpedoes and was trying to lure them into range or a trap for larger British warships so they opened the range again and continue to pound the little ship, as night fell the Chilean Reefer was ablaze end to end and was abandoning ship, at this moment Rodney arrived on the scene , poor light prevented Rodney from seeing the German ship but the Gneisenau could see the Rodney and realised flight was the only answer , nine 11” would be of no use against a ship with Rodney’s armour and nine 16”, Rodney got a dim view of the German ship and challenged her by signal lamp to which the German ship replied she was the British Cruiser Emerald, and set off at 32 knots for the horizon, by the time all was sorted out she was out of sight and thus escaped certain sinking., all the Rodney could now was rescue the survivors, following this attack the German sister-ships returned to Brest on the 22nd March, this incident brought home to the crew of Rodney how harsh was the war for merchant ships.

Throughout March and April Rodney maintained her role as heavy escort for Northern Atlantic convoys , in May now in very poor condition she was assigned for repair in the United States and not to waste a journey she was to provide the heavy escort for the troopship Liner Britannic to Halifax Nova Scotia, with light escort courtesy of the Tribal class destroyers Eskimo, Mashona, Somali and Tartar, the convoy sailed from the Clyde on 22nd March , on board of Rodney was a large number of packing cases containing spares for her refit, 400 tubes for her boilers were on the upper-deck, three eight-barrelled pompoms were stowed on top of B gun In addition to all this clutter she was carry a total of 561 passengers on their way to varying overseas postings. On the 23rd May punching into heavy seas with speed down to 13 knots it was reported that the German battleship Bismarck and her heavy cruiser escort Prinz Eugen were at sea being tailed by the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, Rodney at this time was 800 miles to the South. On the 24th May Hood and the Prince of Wales attacked the two German ships with the Hood being sunk when her magazines exploded; Damaged the Prince of Wales continued the shadowing with the Norfolk and Suffolk. Rodney had been alongside the Hood in Scapa Flow just a week before and many had friends in the old battle-cruiser, although shocked the men of Rodney had great confidence in their ship.

At midday on the 24th clear of the danger area the Britannic carried on her own towards Halifax with Eskimo as the sole escort – Eskimo was also slated for a dry-docking at Boston in the USA, Rodney was now to show exactly what she was made of, working up to speeds she had only achieved on trials and this with worn propeller shafts, defective boilers and worn engines – it had been three years since she had been properly dry-docked, all recent repairs had been carried out with the sole intention of keeping the ship going whilst keeping her available, remembering that at this time Britain had only a two ‘modern’ battleships - Rodney and Nelson at 14 years old, the R and QE classes were older at 25 years old and the new KGV class were only just coming on stream.

Rodney’s boilers were originally saturated steam boilers but had been adapted for super-heating by blanking on Generating tubes and super-heaters inserted, she had always suffered from leaking super-heating tubes and the time of the Bismarck action Proved no different so repairs were done on the run , the smallest boiler maker on the ship ‘Scouse Nesbitt’ was wrapped in wet rags and entered red hot boilers to plug leaking tubes to maintain as high a speed as possible. Rodney was battering her way through heavy seas such that her destroyers could not hope to keep up so the three tribals Somali, Mashona and Tartar steadily fell behind with the risk that submarines would find an attack in such rough weather also impossible being taken. Most of the time Rodney maintained total radio silence so that the German ships would remain unaware of her presence, on the 25th now across the line of advance of the Germans Rodney slowed down allowing her escorting destroyers time to catch up, she also advised Admiral Tovey in the King George V were his heaviest unit was in a very short message. Just before 1100 Tovey advised all ships to search northwards of Bismarck’s last known position, a very serious error had been made in plotting a DF bearing of her, Dalrymple-Hamilton realised the error and did not follow realising that the error would be quickly corrected by the Admiralty, this proved to be the case and Rodney was next advise that Bismarck was making for Brest, Rodney was just 100 miles south of her possible track , Rodney continued pounding North-East at 21 knots to block the German battleship off her refuge, track of Bismarck at this time had been lost but at 1035 on the 26th May a Catalina flying boat reported a battleship, it was Bismarck, she was so close to Rodney’s position that a confirmation that it was Bismarck not Rodney was sort.

That afternoon a Fockewolf Condor maritime reconnaissance aircraft spotted Rodney and her three destroyers, although fired at it escaped but of course warned the German ship that the RN was hot on her heals, at 1500 Rodney and Tovey’s flagship King George V made contact thus joining together for the final phase of the battle., but Bismarck was still too far ahead for the two ships to catch. Later that day, during a second attack by Swordfish torpedo carrying aircraft from the carrier Victorious, Bismarck was hit on the rudders jamming them in a port turn, she could fight but could longer out-run her pursuers. Shortly before 0800 on the 27th May both British ships spotted masts but they held their fire this was the Cruiser Norfolk, Norfolk had earlier approached the Bismarck thinking it was the Rodney, Norfolk beat a hasty retreat when the error was realised, thankfully the Bismarck only fire her 5.9” secondary battery and did not hit the cruiser, Norfolk passed on the exact position of the German battleship, The two British battleships now turned to the SW from where the Norfolk had beat her hasty retreat, sea conditions were very rough with heavy rain squalls KGV sighted the enemy first at 0843 at 25,000 yards, Rodney a minute later

At 0847 Rodney was the first to open fire at a range of 23,400 yards, KGV followed at 0848 and Bismarck at 0849, Bismarck rightly identified Rodney as the most dangerous target and opened on her, her first shells landed just 200 yards astern of Rodney, Rodney’s shells fell well over. N as did her second salvo, the third was a straddle, they had the German ships range, Bismarck’s next salvo was 300 yards astern of Rodney, Rodney had now closed the Bismarck and opened the arcs of X turret and this now joined in, as Bismarck fired her third salvo Rodney fired her fourth. Rodney fired two types of salvo, the outer guns of A and X plus the inner gun of B in a five gun salvo followed by the inner guns of A and Y and the outer guns of B in a four gun salvo and this is how she initially engaged the German ship. Rodney’s fourth salvo was to spell the beginning of the end for the hapless German ship, of the four shells there were just two splashes telling of two misses and two hits, of these hits at 0902 at least one of the shells hit in the vicinity of Bruno turrets on the Bismarck disabling it for good and partially disabling Anton ( German turrets were labelled from forwards : Anton, Bruno, Caesar and Dora) to make matters worse the devastating explosion tore upwards through the bridge killing many of the bridge team, Bruno turret never fired again but Anton resumed in local control at 0927.

From now on Bismarck’s gunnery was increasing erratic whilst the KGV had now joined in hitting the German ship, Rodney’s 6” secondary batteries also now joined in.

At 0923 Rodney fired the first of two torpedoes from her starboard tube at the Bismarck, the first time a battleship had torpedoed another in battle, at 0931 a 16” hit from Rodney blew off the left gun barrel of Dora turret, the left gun fired once more but had to be abandoned by its crew due to smoke and gas, at about 0830 a 16” shell from Rodney penetrated Bismarck’s armour deck and exploded in the port engine room killing most of the crew therein and putting the engine room out of action. Another seriously damaging hit wrecked Bismarck’s armoured fire control station and another hit on Bruno turret blasted the 12.6” thick back plate clear off the turret.

At 0944 Rodney now desperately short of fuel but determined to finish off the German ship had closed to almost point blank range and was firing full nine gun broadsides into her, a hit was seen to peel back a section of the foc’sle deck starting a raging fire inside, Rodney was zig-zagging for safety and firing these from alternate sides, further torpedoes were fired from the port tube at this time, the starboard tube being out of action due to a damaged sluice valve. Bismarck was now a blazing wreck with smoke pouring out of her but she still flew her battle flag she had last fired a gun from Caesar turret at about 0931 but until she either sank or struck her colours fire was maintained into her, at 1011 a 16” from Rodney blew off a section of her stern.

At 1016 Rodney ceased fore and turned away, now critically short of fuel she had to withdraw and steam for the UK, KGV also followed suit but having an after turret maintained fire from this as she withdrew.

At 1028 with Bismarck now 5 miles astern the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire closed in and fired torpedoes at both sides of the German ship, she sank at 1039 with Dorsetshire and Maori rescuing what men had survived, sadly whilst engaged in rescuing the men from the Bismarck there was a submarine scare and the Dorsetshire had to break off from her humanitarian duties to protect her own crew numbering nearly a 1000 men, of Bismarck’s crew of over 2,200 men Maori picked up 25 and Dorsetshire 85 totalling 110 men , approximately 2,100 had died along with the 1,415 from Hood It has been said that Bismarck was sunk by her own crew firing scuttling charges but the damage she had sustained would have been fatal in any account, firing the scuttling charges would merely have hastened her end. After the battle Rodney with her escorting destroyers for the Clyde, in total the old battleship had fired 378 rounds of 16” shell, 706 rounds of 6”. The damage to Rodney by the Bismarck was limited to a few small holes from shrapnel from the near misses and reputedly a hit from a 5.9” shell from her secondary batteries, most of the damage was self inflicted, her paintwork was soot blackened from the cordite smoke, nearly all the paint on her gun barrels had either been burnt off or ruined. The wood decking on the foc’sle deck had largely been ripped away by the blast from her own 16” guns, rails on the foc’sle had been torn out by that same muzzle blast, inside smashed light fittings and sheared electric cables were everywhere, sanitary piping was ruptured toilet bowls and urinal ceramics shattered and various rivets and bolts in her structure sheared probably during the firing of nine gun broadsides.

Rodney arrived off Greenock on the afternoon of the 29th May with virtually no fuel left; she immediately commenced bunkering and replenishing her ammunition and other stores.

On the 04th June Rodney sailed once more for Canada with 4 escorting destroyers they provided cover for the Union Castle liner- troopship Winsor Castle, Rodney arrived at Halifax and sailed almost immediately for Boston arriving on the 12th June. repairs were started on the 13th of June and continued until the 12th August when she commenced trials, on the 20th August she sailed for Bermuda to commence working up, for once Rodney had been given a reasonably comprehensive refit but still time was of the essence b but largely most defects had been repaired, even the damage caused by the bomb had at last been fully repaired, in addition to the fitting of extra AA guns new fire control systems and radar for her 16” guns had been fitted, the older type 79Z radar had been replaced b y the newer type 281 surface warning set, she also had a new captain : James William Rivett-Carnac. During the passage to Bermuda there was a scare that the German raider Admiral Hipper was in the area but nothing came of this.

Following working up Rodney sailed for the UK and a short refit on the Clyde were additional radar sets were fitted , her final outfit being types 284 main armament control, 271 surface warning and 281 air warning. After a short period with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow she sailed for the Gibraltar arriving on the 24th September and joining force H, here she formed part of the heavy escort for convoys supplying Malta, during this operation, halberd, Nelson was hit by an air launched torpedo on the 27th September and on the 29th Nelson returned to the UK for repairs with Rodney assuming the role of flagship on the 01st October at Gibraltar. She provide cover for a further Malta convoy over the 16th to 19th October, and in early November after relief by the old battleship Malaya Rodney returned to the Home Fleet arriving in Loch Ewe on the 08th November, she was there only hours before sailing for Hvalfjord, Iceland, she arrived on the 12th and remained at anchor here at a few hours notice to sail in case Germany’s newest battleship Tirpitz should sail. On the 22nd December Rodney sailed for Scapa Flow were she spent Christmas and the New Year

1942

In the new year she was allocated for convoy escort duties once more being based on the Clyde but in February she was given a partial refit at Birkenhead, the poor state of her boilers and steering had again raised their heads , in addition to work on these her 16” gun barrels were replaced, extra AA guns in the form of 20mm Oerlikons fitted and had additional radar sets : 282, 283 and 285 fitted, she remained in the yard where she was built until the 05th may when she returned to the Home Fleet once more were she carried out further heavy escort duties on Northern convoys.

This image shows Rodney on her trials following the completion of her refit at Birkenhead February to 05th May 1942,m the striking cammouflage and the 'all guns trained to port' stance adds to the power of this photograph scanned from an image of my fathers

She continued convoy protection duties for the next 3 months escorting one WS19P to Capetown in late June. August saw her as part of force H, the heavy escort for another Malta convoy WS21X - operation Pedestal, in which the tanker Ohio was to achieve fame. The escort for this convoy comprised the two battleships Nelson and Rodney, the carriers Eagle, Indomitable and Victorious, then Dido class cruisers Charybdis, Phoebe and Sirius and the destroyers Antelope, Ithuriel, Lightning, lookout, Wishart and Vansittart, the battleships and carriers escorted the convoy as far as the Sicilian Narrows before returning to Gibraltar on the 12th August, on the 16th Rodney sailed for Scapa Flow to rejoin the Home Fleet. In September she was given a further short refit her steering was still giving major problems and was really very unreliable, she had three steering motors and times all three were out of service with the ship steering on her propellers, her boilers were also still in a very poor state with frequent leaking tubes, although frequently under repair these were aimed at ‘just keeping her going’. Her hull also had many leaks the consequence of her service in northern waters. During the repairs which lasted from the 25th August to the 16th September when she restored and ammunition before carry out sea trials, during the repairs once again her light AA outfit was supplemented with the addition of further weapons.

Following the refit Rodney carried out shore bombardment practice shoots and exercises until on the 23rd October when she sailed for Gibraltar to join the task force which would support the landings in North Africa under the mantle of Operation Torch. At Gibraltar Rodney joined force H once more with her sister-ship Nelson, The Duke of York and Renown, on the 06th November force H sailed to provide heavy cover for the landings to prevent interference by either Vichy French or Italian forces, although prepared for any eventuality the only contact between enemy forces was the light cruiser Aurora and her escorting destroyers were attacked by the Vichy French destroyers La Surprise ,La Tramontaine, La Tornade, and La Typhon , the French ships came off far the worst with Surprise and Tramontaine being sunk and Tornade being beached on fire, Typhon fled seriously damaged to Oran.

During this action Aurora was engaged by the 7.6” guns of Fort Santon, Rodney observed the light cruiser being bracketed by well aimed shells from the fort, at the cruisers request Rodney opened fire on the fort which then went silent, damage to fort was difficult to ascertain as it was on a hill surrounded by housing so Rodney had to take great care not to cause civilian damage, low cloud caused the suspension of firing. Later that afternoon Rodney again shelled the fort and again the guns did not respond.

The next day Fort Santon turned the tables on the Rodney by firing on her, although near missed she was undamaged, Rodney now had a forward observation (spotting) officer ashore and withdrawing beyond the range of the shore guns began a single gun bombardment of the fort this time the guns were silenced for good. On the 10th November a battery of three 9.4” guns at the Castanelle battery were giving the US troops a hard time, this shoot over a range of 17 miles was very risky as US troops were just 500 yards from the gun battery however Rodney’s shooting was very accurate and her bombardment plus attack by the troops caused the battery to surrender. With North Africa now increasing under allied control Rodney steamed to Mers-el-Kebir were she waited in readiness should be needed , in Late December she shifted to Algiers spending Christmas at anchor off the port before sailing for Gibraltar were she spent the New Year

1943

The early months of 1943 were spent on patrols out of Gibraltar to and from the North African ports, these ports were not considered safe as attacks were made on ships there by Italian frogmen so ships had to keep on a high alert and keep moving, On the 07th may Rodney sailed for Plymouth for a routine dry-docking and maintenance period, repairs were still in the ‘keep her going category’ she was far too valuable a ship to be out of service long enough to carry out repairs properly and on the 29th may was back afloat spending the next two days taking on ammunition, Nelson arrived the next day to enter the dock just left by Rodney, Rodney sailed on the 01st June to Scapa Flow to join the Home Fleet once more. A few days later and Nelson joined her sister were they both conducted shore bombardment practice in readiness for Operation Husky – the invasion of Sicily. For this operation the British heavy ships were split into 3 divisions, Nelson, Rodney and Indomitable formed No1, Warspite, Valiant and Formidable No2. And KGV and Howe No.3.

Divisions 1 and 2 along with over 2,000 troop transports assembled south of Malta, as well as covering the landings the battleships were there should the Italian fleet attempt to interfere, in Rodney’s engine rooms there was a note book called the ‘Shake book’ in which her men would mark the times they wanted a ‘shake’ or calling, some wag had written : 0230 call Mussolini !

Rodney’s men were to be very disappointed , the Italian fleet chose not to appear and her guns largely remained silent, one honour , however, did fall to Rodney on the 14th July she entered the Grand harbour at Malta, the first British battleship to do so since Warspite had left in December 1940, although the visit was short lived as she sailed the next day for the invasion beaches she returned to Malta again and was at anchor in French creek during the night of the 20th July when a heavy German air raid occurred with three bombs falling near the battleship. Rodney was again in poor mechanical condition and spent the next few weeks in Malta on standby but she was not required. She next put to sea at the end of August taking part in operation Hammer with Nelson, the cruiser Orion and escorting destroyers, they steamed down the straits of Messina in a daring bombardment of the Calabrian coast between Calabria and Pessaro to soften up the shore defences in readiness for the invasion of Italy. The fall of shot was spotted by special reconnaissance Spitfires, the shore batteries retaliated, and their shells fell amongst the destroyer screen thankfully not hitting anything. Spotting for the Rodney a Spitfire reported rather unnecessarily slap in the middle for a huge ammunition dump exploded making it quite clear they had hit their target, even Nelson with whom Rodney had a fierce rivalry reported on her good shooting, when invading troops overran the gun batteries they found them shattered and deserted.

Following this action Rodney was part of the covering force for operation avalanche, the landings at Salerno, her most of the action was repulsing German air attacks from the 09th September, this defence was maintained until the allies had established air bases on the Italian mainland Rodney then returned to Malta, on arrival they were surprised to find the Italian fleet in port, it having surrendered.

In October Rodney and Nelson returned to Home Fleet duties sailing for Scapa Flow off Gibraltar on the 01st. November the two battle ships met up with their escort to the UK, a single destroyer the Offa, Rodney was now experiencing serious steering and engine troubles, ominously she was lit up by a search-light from supposedly neutral Spain but nothing appeared to come from it. Rodney arrived in the Clyde on the 05th of November, with the war expected to drag on for several more years a plan was drawn up to modernise both the Rodney and Nelson, possibly in the USA, but constraints in the need to construct new ships, particularly escort vessels so this plan came to nought and the neglect to properly maintain Rodney continued, this neglect would ultimately hasten the end of her service life.

December was spent training army officers as bombardment liaison officers and on training exercises to work up the Free French battleship Richelieu.

1944

On the 08th January Rodney was deliberately heeled to port in attempt to staunch leaks now running at 1,000 tons per hour thus needing constant running of her pumps, in addition to this another 800 tons was sitting in un-pumpable tanks. With no improvement on the 11th and the ship deemed unseaworthy 60% of her crew were sent on leave and she was de-stored and ammunitioned ready for dry-docking, on the 16th January she sailed for Rosyth escorted by two destroyers, she had so few crew just in light AA outfit and 4.7” AA guns were manned. She lay at anchor off Rosyth until the 11th February when she went alongside to commence repairs, on the 28th she went into a dry-dock to have her hull attended to, in this docking her torpedo tubes were removed as was the catapult for the much derided Walrus, or Shagbat, aircraft and although most defects were attended to this was once again a stop-gap docking intended mainly on keeping the old warhorse going rather than improving or modernising her.

On the 20th of March she restored and loaded ammunition, a strange feature of loading ammunition was that the ship was still under repair in the dry-dock at the time with furnace for red hot rivets everywhere, on the 27th she floated out of the dry-dock and after tests sailed on the 31st for Scapa Flow much to the dismay of some of her crew as the anchorage was regarded as the hell-hole of the navy. Sailing north she passed Nelson on her way to take over the dock she had just left. Arriving at Scapa on the 01st April and being the only battleship in the anchorage she secured to the flagship buoy for it had a shore telephone connection.

Rodney now commenced a period of intensive gunnery training including main armament and AA drill using friendly aircraft, on the 14th April proof that her repairs were the very minimum needed all steering failed and to make matters worse power for lighting failed in the entire aft end of the battleship , ships staff manage to quickly repair things and she carried out her latest 16” shoot, all this intensive drill and the need to return one of the heaviest gunned RN battleships to service had but one end, the invasion of Normandy.

Normandy

On the 25th may captain Fitzroy returned on board with sailing orders to take part in operation overlord, the invasion of Europe was about to begin, Rodney carried out one last exercise in conjunction with Howe and three destroyers, Meteor, Wager and Wakeful , Howe was there to make up the numbers as she was not slated for the operation itself, following this last practice with about ten days to go Rodney sailed for Greenock , the Anchorage was packed with ships of all sizes, other battleships were Warspite, and Ramillies plus the cruisers Frobisher, Danae, Dragon and Mauritius, on the 29th may the warships departed the anchorage for a rehearsal followed by three days of taking on stores and the maximum quantity of ammunition.

On the 2nd June some ships left the anchorage but Rodney stayed back held in reserve with her escorts, one of which was the AA cruiser Sirius, submarine protection was in the hands of the frigate Riou and the V and W class destroyer Westcott. Rodney and her little task force finally sailed at 1300 on the 03rd, at 1900 Rodney’s captain broadcast over the tannoy that they were the stand-by bombardment vessel ready to take over anywhere when another ship ran out of ammunition, Nelson now with the Rodney was to be held even further back up the reserve ladder, for once Rodney was not to be overshadowed by her sister. On the morning of the 4th Rodney and Nelson were off the Smalls lightship when due to the weather the invasion was postponed and the ships put into Milford Haven except Rodney which loitered off Anglesey, on the morning of the 05th she turned south again with her men instructed to shower and put on clean clothing – this was to reduce the chance of infection should any of their clothing be driven into a wound. At 0230 on the 06th Rodney was off the Isle of Wight. At 0400 now heading south she went to action stations , she entered the invasion area via the swept channels heading for the Sword sector on the way she fired at a floating mine but failed to explode of sink it leaving that to the following ships, Rodney now Wandered into an area full of landing craft luckily not hitting any she signalled to leave, at the same time a shore battery opened fire on a frigate which made smoke and hit it from the battery which then targeted the Rodney , Rodney replied with two rounds of 16” after which the shore battery ceased fire.

Not yet required Rodney returned to Spithead where she anchored at 1900 , her stay was very short as she weighed anchor in the early hours of the 07th to return to the beachheads now escort by Sirius Riou and Bleasdale a hunt class destroyer in the mad jostle of shipping Rodney collided with a rode right over a tank landing craft, the one following collided with the battleships port bow, sadly many of the crew of the landing craft went down with her., at 0930 Rodney was off the American beachheads were the USN battleships Texas, Arkansas and Nevada were all blasting away at the shore, on the way she had passed other famed veterans such as the Belfast, Rodney anchored off sword sector near Warspite and the cruisers Frobisher, Danae, Dragon and Mauritius, Rodney had a grandstand view that afternoon whilst waiting for her first ‘official’ call to action, her turn came at 1830 firing with 16” and 6” at a target to the north of Caen she expended 132 sixteen inch and 99 six inch causing much damage to the 12th SS Hitler Jugend Division. As night fell she ceased fire to reopen fire again on the 08th at 0900 with a 6” shoot at troop concentrations near Caen, Rodney then at a request commenced firing 75 rounds of 16” HE at Caen itself, unfortunately the signal had read 15 rounds but when written down was misread as 75, damage was very severe, far more than intended, one other side effect was the depletion of 16” HE shells of which only 900 remained in the UK.

On the 09th the 7.5” gunned cruiser Frobisher had failed to silence the Benneville gun battery, Rodney now fired seven rounds of 16” Armour Piercing (AP) shell all hit and silenced the battery, following this she bombarded the gun battery at Houlgate, that afternoon the ship was bombed by a group of twelve ME109’s and FW190’s, all bombs missed, later she sailed for Milford haven to take on more ammunition, on arrival at Milford lighters were ready and waiting and she commenced taking on munitions immediately. Rodney sailed on the 11th loaded with 260 HE and 610 AP 16” and 2,600 ( both AP and HE) 6” shells but she did not return to the beachheads instead returned to a readiness position at anchor off Spithead on the morning of the 12th , she sailed on the 18th passing the Ramillies returning for more ammunition, that evening she anchored off Juno beach replacing Nelson on the gun line, the 19th dawned with gales and rain which postponed the bombardment of Caen scheduled to be attacked that day.

By the 23rd the weather had improved enabling the men and equipment needed for the attack on Caen to be landed, Rodney provided fire support with 16” over a 30 minute period., she also fired ten rounds at Carpiquet airfield as harassing fire, in this firing was deliberately erratic to disrupt enemy operations, Rodney remained off the beaches until the 30th July when she returned to Devonport for more ammunition, during this time she provided both 6” and 16” fire support on numerous occasions, as the fighting had moved further inland the ranges were now about 18 miles approaching the battleships maximum, during this deployment she fired 519 sixteen inch, 454 six inch and 1200 4.7” shells, each 16” shell had cost about £250.

On the 07th August after a period of rest and leave for her crew in Plymouth Rodney load stores and munitions and sailed again on the 10th, her mission was a strange one, she was going to bombard British Territory, on the 12th August Rodney opened fire on the Blucher battery on Alderney, this battery containing four six inch guns which had been firing shells onto the Cotentin peninsula and causing considerable trouble for the allies. Great accuracy was needed due to the nearby British civilian population; to aid this spotting aircraft from No.26 Squadron were used. Rodney anchored behind the Cap Del la Hague firing over the peninsula to provide the battle ship with protection from return fire, although accuracy was good, 40 shells fell very close to the battery it was only put out of action temporarily. After ceasing fire Rodney returned to Portland arriving at 2230 that evening, she left on the 27th for Plymouth were the crew each had 25 days leave. Whilst at Plymouth Rodney was docked but only absolutely essential work was done on the old battleship, on the 12th of September she sailed for Scapa Flow once more to join the home fleet carrying out a full 16” gunnery shoot, on arrival she offloaded her HE shells replacing them with AP ready for use should the Tirpitz come out of hiding and attack the Russian convoys Rodney was there to protect, on the 15th she sailed to cover convoy Jw60 to Kola Inlet, with her was a substantial escort involving the carriers Striker and Campania, and six destroyers : Myngs, Zambezi, Verulam, Savage, Stord and Alonquin in addition to Rodney’s escort of another four : Muskateer, Marne, meteor and Milne, the convoy arrived on the 20th , on the 28th Rodney returned with convoy RA60 arriving back in Scapa Flow 03rd October.

On the 05th October Rodney assumed the role of Home fleet flagship at Scapa Flow secured to the flagship buoy with its telephone line, the next time Rodney moved it was in mid October to carry out an essential refit at Rosyth returning to Scapa by the end of the month. An event that was to change the war for the old battleship now occurred, Tirpitz already damaged by earlier bombing raids was moved to a new berth off Haakoy Island. Rodney ever ready for a duel with her German adversary sailed on the 08th October for a 16” practice shoot, however Tirpitz had placed herself with range of the RAF admittedly at extreme range, on the 12th of November 32 Lancaster bombers took off armed with 12,000 lb tallboy bombs, three direct hits and two near misses caused the German ship to capsize and sink with the loss of half her nearly 2,000 crew. The reason for Rodney’s presence had gone.

1945

If Rodney had been in good condition she might have gone to join the war in the Pacific but in reality she was a worn out old ship that no-one really wanted, she now languished as a stationary flagship on her buoy at Scapa Flow her trips to sea were few and far between and limited to short periods such was the poor state of her machinery, steering and hull. On the 08th May WW2 in Europe drew to a close and she witnessed the arrival of the first surrendering U-boats., following this she next went to sea towards the end of May for a run to Rosyth to give her crew a run ashore in civilisation, following this she returned to Scapa in July ,at the end of September King George V1, the Queen and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret visited the ship at anchor in the middle of the Firth of Forth, the old ship had been given a new coat of paint for the occasion and her bright-work shone as if the old girl had had a new lease of life. In mid November 1945 the old battle-cruiser renown arrived back in the UK from the war in the Far East and took over the role of Scapa guard ship from Rodney. Rodney left Scapa for the last time shortly afterwards on the way south to Portsmouth she fired her 16” guns for the last time, in Portsmouth she handed over the role of flagship to Nelson which had also recently arrived home from the Far East, on the 28th November the old girl sailed for Rosyth, her journey was to be the long way round, so bad was her condition now that bets were taken that she would need a tug, on the 02nd December she arrived at Rosyth and commenced de-storing and removing all ammunition .

In January 1946 Captain Fitzroy left her and her former Captain, Now Admiral Sir Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, held a farewell dinner in her Ward Room, Rodney then went into lay-up in reserve at Rosyth, she was placed on the disposal list in March 1948 and sold to BISCO ( British Iron and Steel Company) who allocated her to TW wards at Inverkeithing were she arrived under tow for scrapping on the 26th march 1948, Rodney Made a Sad sight as she was towed under the Forth Bridge, her masts had been cut back to allow her in her lightened state to pass under the bridge safely, her 6” secondary battery was gone to lighten her draft so she arrive at the scrapping berth in a little over a year she had gone.

A number of the ships relics survive: her flag flown during the Bismarck action is in Dalrymple-Hamilton's church near Stranraer; he was also given her Crest and the large letters of her name. One of her bells is in the Merseyside maritime Museum, and of course her name is carried on by two Companies of the Sea Cadets – Gosforth and Skelmersdale. The old ship had lived up to her motto : Non Genarant Aquilae Columbas ( Eagles do not breed doves), but one can be forgiven for wondering what would have become of her had she been modernised and given new machinery, would she merely have lived for a handful of years or perhaps styed in reserve as the untimate deterent such as the USN Iowa class. After the sinking of the Bismarck much was made of Victorious's planes torpedoing and slowing and disabling the Battleship, little was made of Rodney's part in the sinking, for without the Rodney it is entirely possible that the Bismarck would have survived, becuase of the lack of credit she became known as the forgotten battleship, she and her men gave valiant and hard fought service for their country and should be remembered for that service.

Rodneys battle honours are : Norway 1940 - Atlantic 1940-41 - Bismarck 1941 - Malta convoys 1941-42 - North Africa 1942-43 - Sicily 1943 - Salerno 1943 - Mediterranean 1943 - Normandy 1944 - English Channel 1944 - Arctic 1944 She also escorted the following nine convoys : SC11, HX085/1, HX093, HX 108, HX 114, TC010, HALBERD, JW060 AND RA060

See link below to access Part 1.

Article completed 22 May 2008 by Steve Woodward

Bibliography

Bibliography:

1. IWM,
2. Kew records office
3. HMS Rodney Iain Ballntyne
4. Battlehip Nelson – Ronald Careless
5. Conway’s 1922-46