40 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2008
The road to the
‘A defi nite tingle of pride’
Grand Fleet
ON SUNDAY November 12 1944,
epitomise the inter-war Royal Navy. But facing
12,000lb bombs smashed through the
Rodney in battle was a far more fearsome
armour plating of Hitler’s fl agship in a
proposition.
“I challenge any one who claims to possess
Norwegian fjord, causing the vaunted a soul to stand on Rodney’s fo’c’sle and
Tirpitz to capsize.
contemplate the stark, grey mass of turret and
THE Victorian Navy has often been characterised been that of attack and not defence.” Several hundred miles away, the men of HMS
gun that stretches before him,” one officer
by tremendous contradictions: an immense technical In Hall’s eyes, the Navy would maul the enemy Rodney were returning from gunnery off Cape
enthused. “I challenge him to stand there by
revolution from sail to the cusp of the Dreadnought merchant fleet, ravage his ports, destroy his Wrath. They didn’t know it yet, but Tirpitz’s
himself and not feel a definite tingle of pride
on the one hand and slothful and complacent on the ammunition depots and coaling stations. demise also sounded the death knell for their
and fear.”
other, rather resting on its laurels in those golden Except that the Press of the day did not believe the own battleship.
In the late summer of 1931, no-one would
years of Pax Victoriana. Royal Navy could carry the fight to the enemy. There was no longer a threat from enemy big
face Rodney’s guns, however. The leviathan
Except that Pax Victoriana wasn’t as ‘paxful’ as In the mid-1880s, the Pall Mall Gazette led a tireless ships in European waters.
was branded ‘the red ship’ for her role in the
we’ve been led to believe – and the latter years of the – and some might say unscrupulous – campaign All could be dispatched to the Far East to
Invergordon mutiny.
Victorian Navy were rather dynamic. decrying the state of the RN, too small to meet the plunge the knife into the belly of the Japanese
Rodney’s sailors learned of pay cuts imposed
The common assumption is that the ‘modern demands made of it at a time when “the scramble for beast.
on them by Whitehall from the BBC and
Navy’ was born when Jackie Fisher took office and the world has begun in earnest”. But not Rodney. She was tired – she had sailed
newspapers just three weeks before such
made a clean broom of the cobwebs of Victoriana. The bigger the lie, the more people will more than 150,000 miles since her last rlast rlast reefit. fit.
cuts wercutcutssw wereree intr introoduced.
But as Roger Parkinson demonstrates in his believe it. She would not receive another one.e.
ThTherere e was uprwas oar – uproar entirely
authoritative The Late Victorian Navy: The The scaremongering was fed by one It was a rather lacklustre end
preventable, one of her junior ofeventable,a ficers
Pre-Dreadnought Era and the Origins renegade naval captain – and MP – Charles to the career of a ship which,
observed. “The Boarobserved. d of the Admiralty
of the First World War (Boydell, £75 Beresford who leaked at least one in the words of one former
werwere e completely out of touch with the com
ISBN 978-1843-833727), the seeds of confidential report (of which he just marine, “saw as much action”
feelings of the lower deck,” he fumed. feelings on
Jutland were sown a good three decades happened to be the author...) to the as any other British battleship.
“A despicable bunch of sods was our “A desd p
before that fateful clash of battleships. press to further his aim of a larger Her story is now told definitively y
immediate, undisciplinaryimmmed , feeling
Parkinson concentrates on the political, Navy. by Iain Ballantyne in HMS Rodneyeyy
about them.”abouta
technological and strategic thoughts which The Press and Beresford (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-44-
ThThe men of Rodney mutinied
dominated the officer class in the last quarter captured the Zeitgeist. The 154067).
for for a simple cause: they were not
of the 19th Century. Admiralty too was becoming Rodney is not perhaps the obvious viious
communists, not anti-patriotic. com
In doing so, he casts light on an officer corps increasingly worried by the choice for a biography – of WW2WWW2
They werThe e simply trying to pay
far less introspective than previously assumed. growth of the French and vintage ships, Nelson, Warspite, Arke, Ark
their mortgages, loans and other the
Indeed, far from being complacent, the Russian fleets, which, it believed, Royal spring more immediately to mind.mind.
bills.bills.
Victorian officer kept a close eye on his potential would enjoy near parity in some fields Yet Rodney’s is a story rich withch with
RodRodney’ney’e s s subsequent deeds eclipsed
enemies. by the last decade of the 19th Century and incident and drama. Indeed, in almostn almostn almost
her rher role in the Invergorole in the Invle in th don mutiny.
Attachés sent back detailed – and often highly– superiority in others. every major engagement of the second e second
She was bombed in the ill-starrShe was bombe ed Norwegian
technical – reports on the state of foreign fleets and And so in March 1889, Parliament committed global conflagration, HMS Rodney was thery was theree.
campaign, played a key rcampaign played ole in Operation
the latest naval innovations. more than £20m to shipbuilding – 70 vessels in Norway, the Bismarck chase, the Malta
Pedestal, and hammered the Wehrmacht in
The French Navy of the mid-1880s appeared to be all over the next five years. The Royal Navy had to Convoys, Salerno, Normandy, the Murmansk
Normandy.
filled with “men of first-rate physique, well dressed maintain its ascendancy over the combined might of run, HMS Rodney saw action at each one.
No man who witnessed her barrage on D-Day
and in good discipline”. Not so the Tsar’s fleet. its two closest enemies. In keeping with the author’s previous
would ever forget it.
Russian ships were poorly-built by shipwrights with And yet the tubthumping did not end with the Act. biographies of ships – Warspite, London and
“The sheer volume of noise, the blast of
cursory skills. It continued into the 1890s. Victory – this is a story less of the machine than
the guns was incredible and you could feel it
“So far as I have been able to ascertain there is not The Mediterranean Fleet was too weak, Fleet the men who sailed in her.
through your body even if you were quite a
one powerful or effective ship in the whole navy,” one Street proclaimed. More money poured into the RN, And it is not just the most recent Rodney in
distance from the gun doing the firing,” recalled
British captain scathingly concluded. more castles of steel headed down the slipways. which Ballantyne is interested.
Allan Snowden. “You couldn’t help feeling a bit
Ineffective or not, the Russian Bear was viewed as The truth of the matter was that there were never He begins his story in the 18th Century,
sorry for the guys on the receiving end.”
a threat to British ambitions at sea. Indeed, Russia enough ships. from which time on there was a succession
There was no such magnanimity shown in May
and France were perceived as the Royal Navy’s most The Royal Navy which mustered for the review to of Rodneys, ending with the pre-dreadnought
1941, however.
likely foes in the final quarter of the 19th Century. mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was of the 1880s (the last RN vessel to mount a
News reached the bridge of Rodney that
Through the 1870s – sometimes referred to by magnificent – and it was stretched to the limit. Home figurehead).
Bismarck had sunk the Hood. The Rodneys were
RN historians as the ‘dark ages’ – naval spending in waters, South Africa, the Mediterranean, India and The core of the book, however, is devoted to
determined, one officer remembered, “to square
Britain surpassed both these two nations combined. Ceylon, the China Station – the Royal Navy had too the inter-war and WW2 battleship.
the deal”.
Not so in the following decade, and other possible many commitments to be master of all the oceans. Rodney and her sister Nelson were Britain’s
That she did on the morning of May 27 –
competitors – USA, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany As the author points out: “It did not matter how newest battleships in 1939 (the King George V
after Bismarck had been crippled by Swordfish
– were beginning to swell their Fleets. many battleships Britain built, there were never class were still being built).
torpedo bombers.
The growth of foreign fleets demanded the Royal enough, and each addition to Britain’s building They were also the most unusual dreadnoughts
A sub-lieutenant marvelled at the men in his
Navy keep pace. programme ensured the expansion of someone else’s Britain ever built; restrictions on displacement
turret delivering Bismarck’s mortal blows.
Naval intelligence was born in the 1880s when programme.” limited the vessels to 35,000 tons.
“They remember Coventry, London, Plymouth
a (tiny) dedicated staff was formed at Whitehall. In And all of this was mirrored a decade later. The resulting design was unorthodox: all
– especially the latter which is home to most of
time it would not merely study the navies of the Dreadnought sparked a building frenzy of other Rodney’s main armament – 16in guns – was
them,” he observed. “Justice, you still exist in
world, it would shape the Royal Navy of the future dreadnoughts around the world, while the Press forward of her superstructure.
this world.”
and its strategy. lamented that the Royal Navy was too small... except She could have been a very different ship,
Today there are few Rodneys left. The ship
For a start, it dismissed the idea of convoys in that now the threat was Germanic, not French or however. Work had begun in 1916 on another
herself was broken up in 1948. But the men of
time of war to protect trade routes: convoys were Russian. Rodney, a super battle-cruiser, sister to the
Rodney still remember her fondly.
cumbersome and indefensible. The merchant fleet This is impressive naval history – the author Mighty Hood. The Admiralty pulled
One former marine told the author that he
agreed, fearing such a move would merely delay the has drawn on manifold sources, published and the plug on the project; only
considered her “the finest battleship ever built”.
trade on which the Empire was founded. unpublished – which strips away many of the myths Hood was completed.
Another’s sentiments will no doubt be shared
More than three decades later merchantmen – and surrounding the RN at the end of Victoria’s rule. Hood came to
by many who go to sea.
Britain – would pay dearly for such attitudes. It is more academic than narrative history – as
“It’s hard to explain to a civilian one’s
But then the Royal Navy of the age wasn’t really reflected by an asking price at which many readers
feeling for a ship. You forget the hardships,
interested in defence. Capt W Hall, the first head of will no doubt baulk.
the discomforts, the monotonous food and the
the Foreign Intelligence Committee, outlined a policy Yet the author argues forcefully that far from being
dangers, but you remember the comradeship,
of which Nelson would have been proud: engage the a complacent, monolithic behemoth, the late Victorian
the runs ashore, the lower deck, indestructible
enemy more closely. Navy was one dominated if not by social change, then
humour. How can you fall in love with a
“A defensive policy is utterly at variance with the certainly by huge technological advances, expansion
big hunk of steel? But you do,
traditions of the British Navy whose role has always and powerful shifts in tactics and strategy.
and you never forget.”
The enigmatic heroes
SO MUCH of the subject matter of Phil Shanahan’s The heroes’ story appeared y appearedy appeared
book The Real Enigma Heroes (The History Press, in a boys’ comic in thec in the
£19.99, ISBN 978-07524-4472-7) reads like a well- 1960s, but no one canone can
plotted thriller that it is hard to know whether to identify the source;; author author
learn from it as a historical book or just enjoy it as a Robert Harris alsoalso
cracking good story. mentioned them in his n his
That it works so well on many different levels – it book Enigma; forrmmer mer
is also a textbook illustration of good old-fashioned shipmates spoke ofof
journalism at its best – is a testament to the skills of three men who had aad
the author, first in spotting this hidden gem of a story, changed the course e
● The Boys Division of HMS Rodney pictured in 1939 Picture: Eddie Simpson
and then in driving through a campaign to win public of the war, and
recognition for their deeds. without whose
At the heart of the book is the story of how three intervention
men serving in HMS Petard – Lt Tony Fasson, AB D-Day may
Colin Grazier and young civilian canteen manager not have been
Tommy Brown – risked their lives to recover Enigma possible.
Getting to the heart of Oak
code books from the sinking U 559 in October 1942 The campaign to raise the raise the
off Palestine. profile of the trio also receivlso received CHRC ONICLING HMS Royal Oak has become a personal labour for Daavvidvid id T Tururnner,er,
The gamble failed for the two Navy men, who a timely boost from Hollywfrom Hollywood blockbblockbusteruster whose uncle Cdr Ralph w Woodrow-Clark was among the 833 casualties when U-boaheen U-boatt
drowned when the boat suddenly sank beneath them. U571 which, in creating a fictional i fi i lAAmeriican-centriic ace Günther Prien sent torpedoes hurtling into the leviathan in Scapa Flow.
But the recovery of Enigma material before they died account of seizing Enigma, caused sufficient friction It is his uncle’s letters and papers which form a central part of Last Dawn: The wn: The
is recognised by some historians as one of the pivotal to draw attention from around the world. Royal Oak Tragedy at Scapa Flow (Argyll Publishing, £7.99 ISBN 978-1906134-06134-
episodes of the war. The two main strands of the book – the story of 136), a story less of the battleship and her tragic fate than the men who wwere
It allowed Bletchley Park to break the U-boat code, the heroes and Shanahan’s initiative to make them entombed within her that fateful October night in 1939 – and those who who
and among other things meant that Allied Atlantic household names – are expertly intertwined, and survived her sinking.
convoys could be protected from the rampaging genuinely tweak the emotions; prominent figures His book is reminiscent of Nixie Taverner’s homages to HM Ships ps
German wolf packs. stand up to shout the worth of the men and a breath- Neptune and Hood – anecdotes, press cuttings and photographs of men the
The Nazis never knew the code had been broken, taking monument is built, yet members of the men’s world has long since forgotten, but not their families.
because the incident was kept under wraps for immediate families – including his widow Olive, Particularly poignant are some of the letters reproduced: a plea from
decades – hence the lack of recognition of the nature a bride for just two days before Colin’s final fatal Woodrow-Clark’s son John: “Dear daddy, come home soon. I love you.”
of Fasson, Grazier and Brown’s actions. voyage – die without seeing or realising the impact of and the final words of 18-year-old ordinary seaman Jack Wood.
Around this incredible tale Shanahan – deputy Shanahan’s campaign. “I have not been troubled by the war and I am not worrying,” he assured reed
editor of the Tamworth Herald – weaves in other, It is indeed a fitting tribute to Fasson, Grazier his parents in his last letter home. “Really I am safer than you are. Just keep yepp youour r
equally unlikely, elements as his growing fascination and Brown, to the RN U-boat hunters, to the code- chin up and don’t worry.” The letter was delivered on the very day the Woods receivds receivdds receiveded
with the story leads him to delve deeper into crackers of Bletchley Park – and to a local ‘hack’ who notice of Jack’s death.
the mystery of the local hero whom history had doggedly pursued a long and frustrating campaign ■ The author will be signing copies of his book at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth on SaturClub in Portsmouth on Saturdayday
forgotten. because he genuinely wanted to right a wrong. July 26 between 10am and 4pm.
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