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The 'Outdated' British Battleship That Avenged HMS Hood

100K views · Jun 22, 2026 · Education

Comments · 232

  • @Micm-v3o · 3 months ago

    Rodney was cleverly designed, and the only battleship class which obeyed the treaty, unlike EVERY other country

    16

  • @FreeThoughtCrime · 2 months ago

    I actually think these were some of the best looking ships of the era. The superstructure set so far back made them look so sleek and badass.

    15

  • @derekashwell7064 · 3 months ago

    My father was a P. O. Stoker on the Rodney during the action. He was also on H M S Jamaica when they sank the Sharnhorst.

    49

  • @deputyheadboy1 · 2 months ago

    War is not about fair fights! it’s about bringing overwhelming force to the action.

    25

  • @jonellison9832 · 3 months ago

    Good design aesthetics... Function over form... Rodney was beautiful

    71

  • @animalian01 · 2 months ago

    I agree the Rodney and Nelson looked unusual but I wouldn't say they were ugly to my eyes they looked good.

    14

  • @robintaylor2845 · 2 months ago

    My Grandad was a range finder on Rodney during the encounter with Bismark. He told me that they got so close that Rodney blew her own railings off due to aiming so low. He didn't speak much about his service, he had night terrors all of his life from witnessing, through binoculars, German sailors jumping from Bismark into the burning sea.

    15

  • @kevincraven4038 · 1 month ago

    My late dad, who was just 19 years old at the time (b. 25/04/1922), was aboard HMS Rodney during the hunt and final battle against Bismarck...I spotted him in the Pathe Newsreel, together with his shipmates celebrating their victory at Greenock, and no doubt their safe return. Dad passed away in June 2004, aged 82.

    3

  • @slappythelizard · 2 months ago

    Bismarck: &quot;You really going to die over one measly ship?&quot; <br><br>Rodney: &quot;Someone is&quot;

    6

  • @timbrewin9241 · 1 month ago

    My great uncle was on HMS Rodney as an Engine Room Artificer Third Class during this action and won a Distinguished Service Medal because he volunteered to barricade the engine room against sea water entering from the inside, and to cross a waterlogged compartment to do this.

    2

  • @Biketunerfy · 3 months ago

    My Grandad was a in WW2 in the RN and was shipwrecked on HMS Dunedin after a U-boat torpedoed her 1,500 miles off the coast of Brazil. &nbsp;He got shrapnel wounds all down his leg and arm. &nbsp;He was in a life raft for 7 days and nights and could hear the sharks killing off and eating his shipmates at night with them screaming in agony powerless to help them. &nbsp;His left arm was hanging over the life raft when fell unconscious and barracuda had bitten chunks out of his arm. &nbsp;Thankfully the USS Nishmaha heard their distress call and found them. &nbsp;They rushed them to Trinidad where he woke up in a hospital.

    30

  • @davidbruce7213 · 3 months ago

    At the outset of WW2 Rodney and Nelson were the 2 most powerful battleships in the world, 9 x 16” guns (though there was a worry that a full broadside might capsize!). When the admiralty set the fleet steaming west to catch Bismarck, Rodney’s captain made an educated guess that Bismarck was sailing for Brest and sailed east in pursuit. This was how, with Bismarck wounded, Rodney was able to catch up and do exactly what she was built for, her shells smashed into Bismarck. Unfortunately those shells were as rubbish as those produced in WW1 (at Dogger Bank and Jutland british navy shells passed straight through their opponents without exploding), this happened with Bismarck too. Rodney literally blew holes through Bismarck from, what for capital ships, was point blank range. <br>The narrator mentions nicknames for Rodney and Nelson, you rarely hear that Hood was known as the fleets ‘largest submarine’ due to how low she sat in the water after her armour was beefed up.<br><br>Rodney or Nelson should have been kept for posterity as part of the British War museum displays.

    59

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