Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

A wonderful history of a great ship, 06 Aug 2008
I was surprised to recently come across this book in Waterstones (more expensive than on Amazon!) and bought this book on a whim. My late father was a young stoker on HMS Rodney - joining in 1943 - after Bismark - but in time for D-Day and the Russian convoys. He left the ship following Victory in Europe and was in Vancouver ready to join the Pacific fleet when the war ended.

This is a wonderful history - accessible for non-specialists like myself. Following a brief introduction to the Admiral himself and the first ships that subsequently bore his name, the book focuses on the battleship laid down in the 1920s and finally broken up in 1948.

The strange shape of the Rodney and her sister ship Nelson resulted from the constraints of the Washington Naval treaty (vague memories of this from history at school). Similarly, I had a vague recollection of the Invergordon mutiny - but wasn't fully aware of the role of the crew of the `Red Rodney' in leading the revolt. Most people know of the role of Rodney in the sinking of the Bismark, perhaps fewer the key role she played around D-Day - not helped by reports crediting many of her actions to HMS Nelson.

The book gives a real feel for life on a battleship in peacetime and war. Fascinating how the crew managed to keep the worn-out ship functioning towards the end of the war - and putting back the bits that fell off every time the guns were fired.

I just wish this wonderful book had been published while my father was still alive - I just imagine the discussions we would have had.

ps no mention of sheep - so still not sure if this story is true or not.....


Ballantyne's best yet, 04 Jun 2008
ON Sunday November 12 1944, 12,000lb bombs smashed through the armour plating of Hitler's flagship in a Norwegian fjord, causing the vaunted Tirpitz to capsize.

Several hundred miles away, the men of HMS Rodney were returning from gunnery off Cape Wrath. They didn't know it yet, but Tirpitz's demise also sounded the death knell for their own battleship.

There was no longer a threat from enemy big ships in European waters.
All could be dispatched to the Far East to plunge the knife into the belly of the Japanese beast.

But not Rodney. She was tired - she had sailed more than 150,000 miles since her last refit. She would not receive another one.

It was a rather lacklustre end to the career of a ship which, in the words of one former marine, "saw as much action" as any other British battleship.
Her story is now told definitively by Iain Ballantyne in HMS Rodney (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-154067).

Rodney is not perhaps the obvious choice for a biography - of WW2 vintage ships, Nelson, Warspite, Ark Royal spring more immediately to mind.
Yet Rodney's is a story rich with incident and drama. Indeed, in almost every major engagement of the second global conflagration, HMS Rodney was there.

Norway, the Bismarck chase, the Malta Convoys, Salerno, Normandy, the Murmansk run, HMS Rodney saw action at each one.

In keeping with the author's previous biographies of ships - Warspite, London and Victory - this is a story less of the machine than the men who sailed in her.

And it is not just the most recent Rodney with which Ballantyne is interested in.

He begins his story in the 18th Century, from which time on there was a succession of Rodneys, ending with the pre-dreadnought of the 1880s (the last RN vessel to mount a figurehead).

The core of the book, however, is devoted to the Inter-War and WW2 battleship.

Rodney and her sister Nelson were Britain's newest battleships in 1939 (the King George V class were still being built).

They were also the most unusual dreadnoughts Britain ever built; restrictions on displacement limited the vessels to 35,000-tons.
The resulting design was unorthodox: all Rodney's main armament - 16in guns - was foreward of her superstructure.

She could have been a very different ship, however. Work had begun in 1916 on another Rodney, a super battle-cruiser, sister to the Mighty Hood. The Admiralty pulled the plug on the project; only
Hood was completed.

Hood came to epitomise the Inter-War Royal Navy. But facing Rodney in battle was a far more fearsome proposition.

"I challenge any one who claims to possess a soul to stand on Rodney's fo'c'sle and contemplate the stark, grey mass of turret and gun that stretches before him," one officer enthused. "I challenge him to stand there by himself and not feel a definite tingle of pride and fear."

In the late summer of 1931, no-one would face Rodney's guns, however. The leviathan was branded `the red ship' for her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
Rodney's sailors learned of pay cuts imposed on them by Whitehall from the BBC and newspapers just three weeks before such cuts were introduced.

There was uproar - uproar entirely preventable, one of her junior officers observed. "The Board of the Admiralty were completely out of touch with the feelings of the lower deck," he fumed. "A despicable bunch of sods was our immediate, undisciplinary, feeling about them."

The men of Rodney mutinied for a simple cause: they were not communists, not anti-patriotic. They were simply trying to pay their mortgages, loans and other bills.

Rodney's subsequent deeds eclipsed her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
She was bombed in the ill-starred Norwegian campaign, played a key role in Operation Pedestal, and hammered the Wehrmacht in Normandy.

No man who witnessed her barrage on D-Day would ever forget it.

"The sheer volume of noise, the blast of the guns was incredible and you could feel it through your body even if you were quite a distance from the gun doing the firing," recalled Allan Snowden. "You couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the guys on the receiving end."

There was no such magnanimity shown in May 1941, however.

News reached the bridge of Rodney that Bismarck had sunk the Hood. The Rodneys were determined, one officer rememebered, "to square the deal".
That she did on the morning of May 27 - after Bismarck had been crippled by Swordfish torpedo bombers.

A sub-lieutenant marvelled at the men in his turret delivering Bismarck's mortal blows.

"They remember Coventry, London, Plymouth - especially the latter which is home to most of them," he observed. "Justice, you still exist in this world."

Today there are few Rodneys left. The ship herself was broken up in 1948. But the men of Rodney still remember her fondly.

One former marine told the author that he considered her "the finest battleship ever built".

Another's sentiments will no doubt be shared by many who go to sea. "It's hard to explain to a civilian one's feeling for a ship. You forget the hardships, the discomforts, the monotonous food and the dangers, but you remember the comradeship, the runs ashore, the lower deck, indestructible humour. How can you full in love with a big hunk of steel? But you do, and you never forget."

A most complete work., 02 Jun 2008
As the illustration on the book's cover reveals, this is a book about the mighty battleship HMS Rodney but, in getting to the subject itself, author Iain Ballantyne provides the reader with 42 fascinating pages of previous Royal Navy vessels of the same name. The first HMS Rodney, for example, was a cutter, the second a 16 gun brig-sloop. With the next being a 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line and the one after that sporting 92 guns, a picture is painted whereby each successive ship to bear this illustrious name was destined to be larger than its predecessor.

The penultimate Rodney was a Battleship of 10,300 tons launched in 1884 and sold in 1909. Whilst a Battlecruiser of 33,600 tons was ordered in 1916 - as a sister ship to the famous HMS Hood, she was cancelled long before completion. The last HMS Rodney, the subject of this book, was a Battleship of 33,900 tons launched in 1925 and scrapped in 1948 after a career as equally as illustrious as the Admiral after which she was named.

The thing I like most about this book is the attention to detail. HMS Rodney was the last British warship launched with an ornate figurehead - a bust of Admiral Rodney of course. Elsewhere, we learn that, not only was a Royal Marine hanged in 1837 from the yardarm of a previous HMS Rodney, but we also learn much about the implications of his death because he was an Irishman. Whilst that particular incident may be of small consequence to those with an interest in the battleship itself, I mention it in order to underline the fine attention to detail contained within.

This is a book which will reveal something to almost everyone who thought they knew all there was to know about this once great ship. This was one of the capital ships which finally sank the Bismarck, this is the ship which was commanded by Cunningham and later by Tovey - long before they became admirals themselves.

It is a work of supreme research and fascinating insight and I congratulate the author on an excellent achievement.

NM



An inspirational book, 21 Apr 2008
I bought this book for a relative who had links with HMS Rodney, but I ended up reading it myself first and I am certainly glad that I did. I have no experience of War or the Navy beyond history lessons at school, however this book teaches us what it was like from the point of view of those that took part. The book itself tell the story of all the ships which were named `HMS Rodney', something which I am not sure many people are aware of, this renaming of a series of ships each of which inherits the name. A major part of the book however is taken up with the most famous Rodney of them all, the one which played a major part in the sinking of the Bismarck. The experiences of young and frightened sailors are vividly described and the numerous photographs bring it all to life. Iain Ballantyne has done an excellent job in ensuring that these men will never be forgotten, and for that we should be very grateful. I can recommend this book to anyone whether they are interested in War or Naval History or not, because it is also a social history which goes way beyond the usual books of this kind.

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

A wonderful history of a great ship, 06 Aug 2008
I was surprised to recently come across this book in Waterstones (more expensive than on Amazon!) and bought this book on a whim. My late father was a young stoker on HMS Rodney - joining in 1943 - after Bismark - but in time for D-Day and the Russian convoys. He left the ship following Victory in Europe and was in Vancouver ready to join the Pacific fleet when the war ended.

This is a wonderful history - accessible for non-specialists like myself. Following a brief introduction to the Admiral himself and the first ships that subsequently bore his name, the book focuses on the battleship laid down in the 1920s and finally broken up in 1948.

The strange shape of the Rodney and her sister ship Nelson resulted from the constraints of the Washington Naval treaty (vague memories of this from history at school). Similarly, I had a vague recollection of the Invergordon mutiny - but wasn't fully aware of the role of the crew of the `Red Rodney' in leading the revolt. Most people know of the role of Rodney in the sinking of the Bismark, perhaps fewer the key role she played around D-Day - not helped by reports crediting many of her actions to HMS Nelson.

The book gives a real feel for life on a battleship in peacetime and war. Fascinating how the crew managed to keep the worn-out ship functioning towards the end of the war - and putting back the bits that fell off every time the guns were fired.

I just wish this wonderful book had been published while my father was still alive - I just imagine the discussions we would have had.

ps no mention of sheep - so still not sure if this story is true or not.....


Ballantyne's best yet, 04 Jun 2008
ON Sunday November 12 1944, 12,000lb bombs smashed through the armour plating of Hitler's flagship in a Norwegian fjord, causing the vaunted Tirpitz to capsize.

Several hundred miles away, the men of HMS Rodney were returning from gunnery off Cape Wrath. They didn't know it yet, but Tirpitz's demise also sounded the death knell for their own battleship.

There was no longer a threat from enemy big ships in European waters.
All could be dispatched to the Far East to plunge the knife into the belly of the Japanese beast.

But not Rodney. She was tired - she had sailed more than 150,000 miles since her last refit. She would not receive another one.

It was a rather lacklustre end to the career of a ship which, in the words of one former marine, "saw as much action" as any other British battleship.
Her story is now told definitively by Iain Ballantyne in HMS Rodney (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-154067).

Rodney is not perhaps the obvious choice for a biography - of WW2 vintage ships, Nelson, Warspite, Ark Royal spring more immediately to mind.
Yet Rodney's is a story rich with incident and drama. Indeed, in almost every major engagement of the second global conflagration, HMS Rodney was there.

Norway, the Bismarck chase, the Malta Convoys, Salerno, Normandy, the Murmansk run, HMS Rodney saw action at each one.

In keeping with the author's previous biographies of ships - Warspite, London and Victory - this is a story less of the machine than the men who sailed in her.

And it is not just the most recent Rodney with which Ballantyne is interested in.

He begins his story in the 18th Century, from which time on there was a succession of Rodneys, ending with the pre-dreadnought of the 1880s (the last RN vessel to mount a figurehead).

The core of the book, however, is devoted to the Inter-War and WW2 battleship.

Rodney and her sister Nelson were Britain's newest battleships in 1939 (the King George V class were still being built).

They were also the most unusual dreadnoughts Britain ever built; restrictions on displacement limited the vessels to 35,000-tons.
The resulting design was unorthodox: all Rodney's main armament - 16in guns - was foreward of her superstructure.

She could have been a very different ship, however. Work had begun in 1916 on another Rodney, a super battle-cruiser, sister to the Mighty Hood. The Admiralty pulled the plug on the project; only
Hood was completed.

Hood came to epitomise the Inter-War Royal Navy. But facing Rodney in battle was a far more fearsome proposition.

"I challenge any one who claims to possess a soul to stand on Rodney's fo'c'sle and contemplate the stark, grey mass of turret and gun that stretches before him," one officer enthused. "I challenge him to stand there by himself and not feel a definite tingle of pride and fear."

In the late summer of 1931, no-one would face Rodney's guns, however. The leviathan was branded `the red ship' for her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
Rodney's sailors learned of pay cuts imposed on them by Whitehall from the BBC and newspapers just three weeks before such cuts were introduced.

There was uproar - uproar entirely preventable, one of her junior officers observed. "The Board of the Admiralty were completely out of touch with the feelings of the lower deck," he fumed. "A despicable bunch of sods was our immediate, undisciplinary, feeling about them."

The men of Rodney mutinied for a simple cause: they were not communists, not anti-patriotic. They were simply trying to pay their mortgages, loans and other bills.

Rodney's subsequent deeds eclipsed her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
She was bombed in the ill-starred Norwegian campaign, played a key role in Operation Pedestal, and hammered the Wehrmacht in Normandy.

No man who witnessed her barrage on D-Day would ever forget it.

"The sheer volume of noise, the blast of the guns was incredible and you could feel it through your body even if you were quite a distance from the gun doing the firing," recalled Allan Snowden. "You couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the guys on the receiving end."

There was no such magnanimity shown in May 1941, however.

News reached the bridge of Rodney that Bismarck had sunk the Hood. The Rodneys were determined, one officer rememebered, "to square the deal".
That she did on the morning of May 27 - after Bismarck had been crippled by Swordfish torpedo bombers.

A sub-lieutenant marvelled at the men in his turret delivering Bismarck's mortal blows.

"They remember Coventry, London, Plymouth - especially the latter which is home to most of them," he observed. "Justice, you still exist in this world."

Today there are few Rodneys left. The ship herself was broken up in 1948. But the men of Rodney still remember her fondly.

One former marine told the author that he considered her "the finest battleship ever built".

Another's sentiments will no doubt be shared by many who go to sea. "It's hard to explain to a civilian one's feeling for a ship. You forget the hardships, the discomforts, the monotonous food and the dangers, but you remember the comradeship, the runs ashore, the lower deck, indestructible humour. How can you full in love with a big hunk of steel? But you do, and you never forget."

A most complete work., 02 Jun 2008
As the illustration on the book's cover reveals, this is a book about the mighty battleship HMS Rodney but, in getting to the subject itself, author Iain Ballantyne provides the reader with 42 fascinating pages of previous Royal Navy vessels of the same name. The first HMS Rodney, for example, was a cutter, the second a 16 gun brig-sloop. With the next being a 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line and the one after that sporting 92 guns, a picture is painted whereby each successive ship to bear this illustrious name was destined to be larger than its predecessor.

The penultimate Rodney was a Battleship of 10,300 tons launched in 1884 and sold in 1909. Whilst a Battlecruiser of 33,600 tons was ordered in 1916 - as a sister ship to the famous HMS Hood, she was cancelled long before completion. The last HMS Rodney, the subject of this book, was a Battleship of 33,900 tons launched in 1925 and scrapped in 1948 after a career as equally as illustrious as the Admiral after which she was named.

The thing I like most about this book is the attention to detail. HMS Rodney was the last British warship launched with an ornate figurehead - a bust of Admiral Rodney of course. Elsewhere, we learn that, not only was a Royal Marine hanged in 1837 from the yardarm of a previous HMS Rodney, but we also learn much about the implications of his death because he was an Irishman. Whilst that particular incident may be of small consequence to those with an interest in the battleship itself, I mention it in order to underline the fine attention to detail contained within.

This is a book which will reveal something to almost everyone who thought they knew all there was to know about this once great ship. This was one of the capital ships which finally sank the Bismarck, this is the ship which was commanded by Cunningham and later by Tovey - long before they became admirals themselves.

It is a work of supreme research and fascinating insight and I congratulate the author on an excellent achievement.

NM



An inspirational book, 21 Apr 2008
I bought this book for a relative who had links with HMS Rodney, but I ended up reading it myself first and I am certainly glad that I did. I have no experience of War or the Navy beyond history lessons at school, however this book teaches us what it was like from the point of view of those that took part. The book itself tell the story of all the ships which were named `HMS Rodney', something which I am not sure many people are aware of, this renaming of a series of ships each of which inherits the name. A major part of the book however is taken up with the most famous Rodney of them all, the one which played a major part in the sinking of the Bismarck. The experiences of young and frightened sailors are vividly described and the numerous photographs bring it all to life. Iain Ballantyne has done an excellent job in ensuring that these men will never be forgotten, and for that we should be very grateful. I can recommend this book to anyone whether they are interested in War or Naval History or not, because it is also a social history which goes way beyond the usual books of this kind.

I am relieved it has arrived and not dissappointed, 15 Mar 2001
This years Warship annual conitnues ever much as before. Not as good as the long awaited 1999-2000 edition (which will be hard to surpass) but of the usual high standard anyway. There is a notable 20th century bias to this years annual, among which the paper on U-Boats is of immediate interest. The Editors review of the years naval events is all inclusive once again, and his short piece on the Kursk tragedy is worthy of mention. The Notes section is rather good this year, covered many diverse aspects of our interest from wargaming to the internet to theme parks and to what the Naval Annual was doing 100 years ago.

Lets not have to wait so long for the 2001-2002 annual.

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

A wonderful history of a great ship, 06 Aug 2008
I was surprised to recently come across this book in Waterstones (more expensive than on Amazon!) and bought this book on a whim. My late father was a young stoker on HMS Rodney - joining in 1943 - after Bismark - but in time for D-Day and the Russian convoys. He left the ship following Victory in Europe and was in Vancouver ready to join the Pacific fleet when the war ended.

This is a wonderful history - accessible for non-specialists like myself. Following a brief introduction to the Admiral himself and the first ships that subsequently bore his name, the book focuses on the battleship laid down in the 1920s and finally broken up in 1948.

The strange shape of the Rodney and her sister ship Nelson resulted from the constraints of the Washington Naval treaty (vague memories of this from history at school). Similarly, I had a vague recollection of the Invergordon mutiny - but wasn't fully aware of the role of the crew of the `Red Rodney' in leading the revolt. Most people know of the role of Rodney in the sinking of the Bismark, perhaps fewer the key role she played around D-Day - not helped by reports crediting many of her actions to HMS Nelson.

The book gives a real feel for life on a battleship in peacetime and war. Fascinating how the crew managed to keep the worn-out ship functioning towards the end of the war - and putting back the bits that fell off every time the guns were fired.

I just wish this wonderful book had been published while my father was still alive - I just imagine the discussions we would have had.

ps no mention of sheep - so still not sure if this story is true or not.....


Ballantyne's best yet, 04 Jun 2008
ON Sunday November 12 1944, 12,000lb bombs smashed through the armour plating of Hitler's flagship in a Norwegian fjord, causing the vaunted Tirpitz to capsize.

Several hundred miles away, the men of HMS Rodney were returning from gunnery off Cape Wrath. They didn't know it yet, but Tirpitz's demise also sounded the death knell for their own battleship.

There was no longer a threat from enemy big ships in European waters.
All could be dispatched to the Far East to plunge the knife into the belly of the Japanese beast.

But not Rodney. She was tired - she had sailed more than 150,000 miles since her last refit. She would not receive another one.

It was a rather lacklustre end to the career of a ship which, in the words of one former marine, "saw as much action" as any other British battleship.
Her story is now told definitively by Iain Ballantyne in HMS Rodney (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-154067).

Rodney is not perhaps the obvious choice for a biography - of WW2 vintage ships, Nelson, Warspite, Ark Royal spring more immediately to mind.
Yet Rodney's is a story rich with incident and drama. Indeed, in almost every major engagement of the second global conflagration, HMS Rodney was there.

Norway, the Bismarck chase, the Malta Convoys, Salerno, Normandy, the Murmansk run, HMS Rodney saw action at each one.

In keeping with the author's previous biographies of ships - Warspite, London and Victory - this is a story less of the machine than the men who sailed in her.

And it is not just the most recent Rodney with which Ballantyne is interested in.

He begins his story in the 18th Century, from which time on there was a succession of Rodneys, ending with the pre-dreadnought of the 1880s (the last RN vessel to mount a figurehead).

The core of the book, however, is devoted to the Inter-War and WW2 battleship.

Rodney and her sister Nelson were Britain's newest battleships in 1939 (the King George V class were still being built).

They were also the most unusual dreadnoughts Britain ever built; restrictions on displacement limited the vessels to 35,000-tons.
The resulting design was unorthodox: all Rodney's main armament - 16in guns - was foreward of her superstructure.

She could have been a very different ship, however. Work had begun in 1916 on another Rodney, a super battle-cruiser, sister to the Mighty Hood. The Admiralty pulled the plug on the project; only
Hood was completed.

Hood came to epitomise the Inter-War Royal Navy. But facing Rodney in battle was a far more fearsome proposition.

"I challenge any one who claims to possess a soul to stand on Rodney's fo'c'sle and contemplate the stark, grey mass of turret and gun that stretches before him," one officer enthused. "I challenge him to stand there by himself and not feel a definite tingle of pride and fear."

In the late summer of 1931, no-one would face Rodney's guns, however. The leviathan was branded `the red ship' for her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
Rodney's sailors learned of pay cuts imposed on them by Whitehall from the BBC and newspapers just three weeks before such cuts were introduced.

There was uproar - uproar entirely preventable, one of her junior officers observed. "The Board of the Admiralty were completely out of touch with the feelings of the lower deck," he fumed. "A despicable bunch of sods was our immediate, undisciplinary, feeling about them."

The men of Rodney mutinied for a simple cause: they were not communists, not anti-patriotic. They were simply trying to pay their mortgages, loans and other bills.

Rodney's subsequent deeds eclipsed her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
She was bombed in the ill-starred Norwegian campaign, played a key role in Operation Pedestal, and hammered the Wehrmacht in Normandy.

No man who witnessed her barrage on D-Day would ever forget it.

"The sheer volume of noise, the blast of the guns was incredible and you could feel it through your body even if you were quite a distance from the gun doing the firing," recalled Allan Snowden. "You couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the guys on the receiving end."

There was no such magnanimity shown in May 1941, however.

News reached the bridge of Rodney that Bismarck had sunk the Hood. The Rodneys were determined, one officer rememebered, "to square the deal".
That she did on the morning of May 27 - after Bismarck had been crippled by Swordfish torpedo bombers.

A sub-lieutenant marvelled at the men in his turret delivering Bismarck's mortal blows.

"They remember Coventry, London, Plymouth - especially the latter which is home to most of them," he observed. "Justice, you still exist in this world."

Today there are few Rodneys left. The ship herself was broken up in 1948. But the men of Rodney still remember her fondly.

One former marine told the author that he considered her "the finest battleship ever built".

Another's sentiments will no doubt be shared by many who go to sea. "It's hard to explain to a civilian one's feeling for a ship. You forget the hardships, the discomforts, the monotonous food and the dangers, but you remember the comradeship, the runs ashore, the lower deck, indestructible humour. How can you full in love with a big hunk of steel? But you do, and you never forget."

A most complete work., 02 Jun 2008
As the illustration on the book's cover reveals, this is a book about the mighty battleship HMS Rodney but, in getting to the subject itself, author Iain Ballantyne provides the reader with 42 fascinating pages of previous Royal Navy vessels of the same name. The first HMS Rodney, for example, was a cutter, the second a 16 gun brig-sloop. With the next being a 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line and the one after that sporting 92 guns, a picture is painted whereby each successive ship to bear this illustrious name was destined to be larger than its predecessor.

The penultimate Rodney was a Battleship of 10,300 tons launched in 1884 and sold in 1909. Whilst a Battlecruiser of 33,600 tons was ordered in 1916 - as a sister ship to the famous HMS Hood, she was cancelled long before completion. The last HMS Rodney, the subject of this book, was a Battleship of 33,900 tons launched in 1925 and scrapped in 1948 after a career as equally as illustrious as the Admiral after which she was named.

The thing I like most about this book is the attention to detail. HMS Rodney was the last British warship launched with an ornate figurehead - a bust of Admiral Rodney of course. Elsewhere, we learn that, not only was a Royal Marine hanged in 1837 from the yardarm of a previous HMS Rodney, but we also learn much about the implications of his death because he was an Irishman. Whilst that particular incident may be of small consequence to those with an interest in the battleship itself, I mention it in order to underline the fine attention to detail contained within.

This is a book which will reveal something to almost everyone who thought they knew all there was to know about this once great ship. This was one of the capital ships which finally sank the Bismarck, this is the ship which was commanded by Cunningham and later by Tovey - long before they became admirals themselves.

It is a work of supreme research and fascinating insight and I congratulate the author on an excellent achievement.

NM



An inspirational book, 21 Apr 2008
I bought this book for a relative who had links with HMS Rodney, but I ended up reading it myself first and I am certainly glad that I did. I have no experience of War or the Navy beyond history lessons at school, however this book teaches us what it was like from the point of view of those that took part. The book itself tell the story of all the ships which were named `HMS Rodney', something which I am not sure many people are aware of, this renaming of a series of ships each of which inherits the name. A major part of the book however is taken up with the most famous Rodney of them all, the one which played a major part in the sinking of the Bismarck. The experiences of young and frightened sailors are vividly described and the numerous photographs bring it all to life. Iain Ballantyne has done an excellent job in ensuring that these men will never be forgotten, and for that we should be very grateful. I can recommend this book to anyone whether they are interested in War or Naval History or not, because it is also a social history which goes way beyond the usual books of this kind.

I am relieved it has arrived and not dissappointed, 15 Mar 2001
This years Warship annual conitnues ever much as before. Not as good as the long awaited 1999-2000 edition (which will be hard to surpass) but of the usual high standard anyway. There is a notable 20th century bias to this years annual, among which the paper on U-Boats is of immediate interest. The Editors review of the years naval events is all inclusive once again, and his short piece on the Kursk tragedy is worthy of mention. The Notes section is rather good this year, covered many diverse aspects of our interest from wargaming to the internet to theme parks and to what the Naval Annual was doing 100 years ago.

Lets not have to wait so long for the 2001-2002 annual.

Disappointing, 29 Jan 2001
A disappointing third. In no way does this book manage to concoct the explosive mixture of personalities and technical advancement. Perhaps the period was lacking of both. Even with exerts of Goodall's diaries, the story remains flat. The only part which came near the first two installments was the chapter on destroyers. One can only hope there will be a fourth installment, please.

Another quality offering to complete the Trilogy, 22 Oct 2000
This is the final instalment that completes Brown's trilogy on warship design for the RN.

The formula is now familiar and highly agreeable. Brown has the ability to make technical things comprehensible to non-naval architects. Lots of new insights and a fairly sanguine view of British capability in WW2 which was nothing near the popular conception of history. Designs lagged behind, calculations had huge mistakes often un-noticed (witness the Hunt Type 1s) and there was a complete inability to see where the threat was coming from. Not a single British warship class for the whole period had an adequate air defence capability designed in.

The only criticism is the fact that Brown doesn't give us much information on the ships of any particular class: one needs to have Lenton and Colledge handy at all times - difficult when you are trying to read it on the night plane to Edinburgh! The description of the destroyers as the "xth Emergency Flotilla" rather than by letter class seems particular perverse. For this reason I can only give him 4 stars.

Another DK Brown Classic, 02 Sep 2000
This is the latest (and I understand the last) in DK Brown's excellent series on British warship design. I thought his last 2 offerings (Warrior to Dreadnought and The Grand Fleet) were great, but this one is even better.

The book follows the now-standard format. The first eight chapters cover warship types I general, with one chapter devoted to each type (battleships, carriers, etc.), followed by another four chapters covering various period-specific aspects. This time they deal with modernisations, updates and scrapping, wartime damage, warship production and repair, and a discussion on "what makes a good design". There are also 20 appendices that cover other technical and background aspects in some detail.

His extensive personal knowledge on the subject (he was MOD's Deputy Chief Naval Architect) and access to MOD's design records from the period mean that he is able to go into immense detail, describing the successes and failures of the period (in the latter case he does pull his punches!). Of particular interest is the discussion on the pros and cons associated with the RN's approach to carrier design as opposed to the US approach - this is often an area for great debate, but Mr Brown offers some technical reasoning that goes beyond the arguments normally put forward. As well as describing the ships he goes into detail on damage and damage control, ship production, the various treaties limiting naval construction and some elements of basic naval architecture for the layman. The chapter on damage is particularly interesting to the wargamer and includes some impressive compilations of statistics that should serve future rule-writers well The text is clear and, whilst technical in nature, should be readily understandable to anyone with an interest in naval design, and is, as always, supported by an ample supply of photographs and diagrams. In summary an excellent production, that should be an immediate addition to any naval enthusiast's bookshelf. Highly recommended!

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

A wonderful history of a great ship, 06 Aug 2008
I was surprised to recently come across this book in Waterstones (more expensive than on Amazon!) and bought this book on a whim. My late father was a young stoker on HMS Rodney - joining in 1943 - after Bismark - but in time for D-Day and the Russian convoys. He left the ship following Victory in Europe and was in Vancouver ready to join the Pacific fleet when the war ended.

This is a wonderful history - accessible for non-specialists like myself. Following a brief introduction to the Admiral himself and the first ships that subsequently bore his name, the book focuses on the battleship laid down in the 1920s and finally broken up in 1948.

The strange shape of the Rodney and her sister ship Nelson resulted from the constraints of the Washington Naval treaty (vague memories of this from history at school). Similarly, I had a vague recollection of the Invergordon mutiny - but wasn't fully aware of the role of the crew of the `Red Rodney' in leading the revolt. Most people know of the role of Rodney in the sinking of the Bismark, perhaps fewer the key role she played around D-Day - not helped by reports crediting many of her actions to HMS Nelson.

The book gives a real feel for life on a battleship in peacetime and war. Fascinating how the crew managed to keep the worn-out ship functioning towards the end of the war - and putting back the bits that fell off every time the guns were fired.

I just wish this wonderful book had been published while my father was still alive - I just imagine the discussions we would have had.

ps no mention of sheep - so still not sure if this story is true or not.....


Ballantyne's best yet, 04 Jun 2008
ON Sunday November 12 1944, 12,000lb bombs smashed through the armour plating of Hitler's flagship in a Norwegian fjord, causing the vaunted Tirpitz to capsize.

Several hundred miles away, the men of HMS Rodney were returning from gunnery off Cape Wrath. They didn't know it yet, but Tirpitz's demise also sounded the death knell for their own battleship.

There was no longer a threat from enemy big ships in European waters.
All could be dispatched to the Far East to plunge the knife into the belly of the Japanese beast.

But not Rodney. She was tired - she had sailed more than 150,000 miles since her last refit. She would not receive another one.

It was a rather lacklustre end to the career of a ship which, in the words of one former marine, "saw as much action" as any other British battleship.
Her story is now told definitively by Iain Ballantyne in HMS Rodney (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-154067).

Rodney is not perhaps the obvious choice for a biography - of WW2 vintage ships, Nelson, Warspite, Ark Royal spring more immediately to mind.
Yet Rodney's is a story rich with incident and drama. Indeed, in almost every major engagement of the second global conflagration, HMS Rodney was there.

Norway, the Bismarck chase, the Malta Convoys, Salerno, Normandy, the Murmansk run, HMS Rodney saw action at each one.

In keeping with the author's previous biographies of ships - Warspite, London and Victory - this is a story less of the machine than the men who sailed in her.

And it is not just the most recent Rodney with which Ballantyne is interested in.

He begins his story in the 18th Century, from which time on there was a succession of Rodneys, ending with the pre-dreadnought of the 1880s (the last RN vessel to mount a figurehead).

The core of the book, however, is devoted to the Inter-War and WW2 battleship.

Rodney and her sister Nelson were Britain's newest battleships in 1939 (the King George V class were still being built).

They were also the most unusual dreadnoughts Britain ever built; restrictions on displacement limited the vessels to 35,000-tons.
The resulting design was unorthodox: all Rodney's main armament - 16in guns - was foreward of her superstructure.

She could have been a very different ship, however. Work had begun in 1916 on another Rodney, a super battle-cruiser, sister to the Mighty Hood. The Admiralty pulled the plug on the project; only
Hood was completed.

Hood came to epitomise the Inter-War Royal Navy. But facing Rodney in battle was a far more fearsome proposition.

"I challenge any one who claims to possess a soul to stand on Rodney's fo'c'sle and contemplate the stark, grey mass of turret and gun that stretches before him," one officer enthused. "I challenge him to stand there by himself and not feel a definite tingle of pride and fear."

In the late summer of 1931, no-one would face Rodney's guns, however. The leviathan was branded `the red ship' for her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
Rodney's sailors learned of pay cuts imposed on them by Whitehall from the BBC and newspapers just three weeks before such cuts were introduced.

There was uproar - uproar entirely preventable, one of her junior officers observed. "The Board of the Admiralty were completely out of touch with the feelings of the lower deck," he fumed. "A despicable bunch of sods was our immediate, undisciplinary, feeling about them."

The men of Rodney mutinied for a simple cause: they were not communists, not anti-patriotic. They were simply trying to pay their mortgages, loans and other bills.

Rodney's subsequent deeds eclipsed her role in the Invergordon mutiny.
She was bombed in the ill-starred Norwegian campaign, played a key role in Operation Pedestal, and hammered the Wehrmacht in Normandy.

No man who witnessed her barrage on D-Day would ever forget it.

"The sheer volume of noise, the blast of the guns was incredible and you could feel it through your body even if you were quite a distance from the gun doing the firing," recalled Allan Snowden. "You couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the guys on the receiving end."

There was no such magnanimity shown in May 1941, however.

News reached the bridge of Rodney that Bismarck had sunk the Hood. The Rodneys were determined, one officer rememebered, "to square the deal".
That she did on the morning of May 27 - after Bismarck had been crippled by Swordfish torpedo bombers.

A sub-lieutenant marvelled at the men in his turret delivering Bismarck's mortal blows.

"They remember Coventry, London, Plymouth - especially the latter which is home to most of them," he observed. "Justice, you still exist in this world."

Today there are few Rodneys left. The ship herself was broken up in 1948. But the men of Rodney still remember her fondly.

One former marine told the author that he considered her "the finest battleship ever built".

Another's sentiments will no doubt be shared by many who go to sea. "It's hard to explain to a civilian one's feeling for a ship. You forget the hardships, the discomforts, the monotonous food and the dangers, but you remember the comradeship, the runs ashore, the lower deck, indestructible humour. How can you full in love with a big hunk of steel? But you do, and you never forget."

A most complete work., 02 Jun 2008
As the illustration on the book's cover reveals, this is a book about the mighty battleship HMS Rodney but, in getting to the subject itself, author Iain Ballantyne provides the reader with 42 fascinating pages of previous Royal Navy vessels of the same name. The first HMS Rodney, for example, was a cutter, the second a 16 gun brig-sloop. With the next being a 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line and the one after that sporting 92 guns, a picture is painted whereby each successive ship to bear this illustrious name was destined to be larger than its predecessor.

The penultimate Rodney was a Battleship of 10,300 tons launched in 1884 and sold in 1909. Whilst a Battlecruiser of 33,600 tons was ordered in 1916 - as a sister ship to the famous HMS Hood, she was cancelled long before completion. The last HMS Rodney, the subject of this book, was a Battleship of 33,900 tons launched in 1925 and scrapped in 1948 after a career as equally as illustrious as the Admiral after which she was named.

The thing I like most about this book is the attention to detail. HMS Rodney was the last British warship launched with an ornate figurehead - a bust of Admiral Rodney of course. Elsewhere, we learn that, not only was a Royal Marine hanged in 1837 from the yardarm of a previous HMS Rodney, but we also learn much about the implications of his death because he was an Irishman. Whilst that particular incident may be of small consequence to those with an interest in the battleship itself, I mention it in order to underline the fine attention to detail contained within.

This is a book which will reveal something to almost everyone who thought they knew all there was to know about this once great ship. This was one of the capital ships which finally sank the Bismarck, this is the ship which was commanded by Cunningham and later by Tovey - long before they became admirals themselves.

It is a work of supreme research and fascinating insight and I congratulate the author on an excellent achievement.

NM



An inspirational book, 21 Apr 2008
I bought this book for a relative who had links with HMS Rodney, but I ended up reading it myself first and I am certainly glad that I did. I have no experience of War or the Navy beyond history lessons at school, however this book teaches us what it was like from the point of view of those that took part. The book itself tell the story of all the ships which were named `HMS Rodney', something which I am not sure many people are aware of, this renaming of a series of ships each of which inherits the name. A major part of the book however is taken up with the most famous Rodney of them all, the one which played a major part in the sinking of the Bismarck. The experiences of young and frightened sailors are vividly described and the numerous photographs bring it all to life. Iain Ballantyne has done an excellent job in ensuring that these men will never be forgotten, and for that we should be very grateful. I can recommend this book to anyone whether they are interested in War or Naval History or not, because it is also a social history which goes way beyond the usual books of this kind.

I am relieved it has arrived and not dissappointed, 15 Mar 2001
This years Warship annual conitnues ever much as before. Not as good as the long awaited 1999-2000 edition (which will be hard to surpass) but of the usual high standard anyway. There is a notable 20th century bias to this years annual, among which the paper on U-Boats is of immediate interest. The Editors review of the years naval events is all inclusive once again, and his short piece on the Kursk tragedy is worthy of mention. The Notes section is rather good this year, covered many diverse aspects of our interest from wargaming to the internet to theme parks and to what the Naval Annual was doing 100 years ago.

Lets not have to wait so long for the 2001-2002 annual.

Disappointing, 29 Jan 2001
A disappointing third. In no way does this book manage to concoct the explosive mixture of personalities and technical advancement. Perhaps the period was lacking of both. Even with exerts of Goodall's diaries, the story remains flat. The only part which came near the first two installments was the chapter on destroyers. One can only hope there will be a fourth installment, please.

Another quality offering to complete the Trilogy, 22 Oct 2000
This is the final instalment that completes Brown's trilogy on warship design for the RN.

The formula is now familiar and highly agreeable. Brown has the ability to make technical things comprehensible to non-naval architects. Lots of new insights and a fairly sanguine view of British capability in WW2 which was nothing near the popular conception of history. Designs lagged behind, calculations had huge mistakes often un-noticed (witness the Hunt Type 1s) and there was a complete inability to see where the threat was coming from. Not a single British warship class for the whole period had an adequate air defence capability designed in.

The only criticism is the fact that Brown doesn't give us much information on the ships of any particular class: one needs to have Lenton and Colledge handy at all times - difficult when you are trying to read it on the night plane to Edinburgh! The description of the destroyers as the "xth Emergency Flotilla" rather than by letter class seems particular perverse. For this reason I can only give him 4 stars.

Another DK Brown Classic, 02 Sep 2000
This is the latest (and I understand the last) in DK Brown's excellent series on British warship design. I thought his last 2 offerings (Warrior to Dreadnought and The Grand Fleet) were great, but this one is even better.

The book follows the now-standard format. The first eight chapters cover warship types I general, with one chapter devoted to each type (battleships, carriers, etc.), followed by another four chapters covering various period-specific aspects. This time they deal with modernisations, updates and scrapping, wartime damage, warship production and repair, and a discussion on "what makes a good design". There are also 20 appendices that cover other technical and background aspects in some detail.

His extensive personal knowledge on the subject (he was MOD's Deputy Chief Naval Architect) and access to MOD's design records from the period mean that he is able to go into immense detail, describing the successes and failures of the period (in the latter case he does pull his punches!). Of particular interest is the discussion on the pros and cons associated with the RN's approach to carrier design as opposed to the US approach - this is often an area for great debate, but Mr Brown offers some technical reasoning that goes beyond the arguments normally put forward. As well as describing the ships he goes into detail on damage and damage control, ship production, the various treaties limiting naval construction and some elements of basic naval architecture for the layman. The chapter on damage is particularly interesting to the wargamer and includes some impressive compilations of statistics that should serve future rule-writers well The text is clear and, whilst technical in nature, should be readily understandable to anyone with an interest in naval design, and is, as always, supported by an ample supply of photographs and diagrams. In summary an excellent production, that should be an immediate addition to any naval enthusiast's bookshelf. Highly recommended!

Not bad, 26 Jul 2008
Not a bad read at all, and full credit to the author for doing the research, but just as with his take on the Royal Marines, I found this just a little too dry in places.

VERY VERY INTERESTING, 14 Jan 2007
I find the SBS much more interesting than the SAS because they seem to love being in the shadows, unlike their SAS sisters. And i find that much more interesting than the nuts out shoot them up and call it a day sas book.

It dives deep in to SBS history from their foundings to todays operations. The book has lots of good photographs and diagrams showing maps and recon drawings. They are every bit as daring and brave as the SAS but they seem to use their patience and brains to execute their missions.(no disrespect to the sas)

the book is a must buy.

Good overall picture, from an outsiders view, 02 Mar 2002
The text is well written and compelling, with a flowing narritive troughout the history of this select band of men. As the author has never served with the unit, the book has the feel of a sterile examination of an outsider. That apart an excellent and informative read

Great book looking at the history of the SBS, 19 May 2001
This is a great book talking about all the special boat services from ww2 right up to now, it talks about many of the famous raids by the SBS and makes you realise that there is more to special forces than the SAS, if your looking for a McNab style book forget it, this book talks about all SBS involvements and what they did and how they did it and talks about the bigger picture as well talking about MOD defence cuts which have created problems for the armed forces as a whole. if you have an interest in the marines or the sas then i recommend this book to you

Jack Tar, 13 Oct 2008
If you read only one book of history this year that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nelson, read Jack Tar.
During the Great War (1793-1815), the Royal Navy was the backbone of the defence of the British Isles and took a major part in the final victory.
Just as the great battles from Valmi to Waterloo were won by the troops in the field, the naval battles were in the end won by the crews - and not by the Nelsons, Hoods or Cochranes.

Roy and Lesley Adkins have worked like the archaeologists they are, unearthing hundreds of sources, extracting hundreds of relevant pieces, then carefully glueing them together until the whole image is reconstructed: the portrait of rough, hard-working men (women and children) living a perilous life on board a primitive, claustrophobic machine in a hostile environment.
Apart from the constant danger from man and nature, ships' companies appear more like small rural communities than the "rum, lash and sodomy" society depicted in "miserabilist" books like Masefield's one.
Jack Tar was no saint but the product of the very harsh 18th-century society. His voice is seldom heard in history books.
When you turn the last page, you'll have envisioned the complete life of Jack Tar from his entry as Johnny Newcome to his later life in Greenwich hospital (if he was lucky), told in his own words.

If you have no previous knowledge of the naval history of the period, don't worry, Roy and Lesley have everything at hand for you: maps, diagrams, explanation of all the nautical terms you'll need.

Jack Tar; a man, women and child of many faces, 07 Oct 2008
This is a wonderful follow up to the Adkins' 2 previous books 'Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle' and 'War for all the Oceans', and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In this volume the sailors take the limelight and history takes a step back to create the setting for their lives. And what lives they were!

I am always surprised how many sailors of all ranks were able to write journals and diaries about their time at sea, how literate they were, how perceptive and honest their observations were, and more surprisingly how those manuscripts have survived. The Adkins have carefully drawn from these and many other contemporary sources and woven them into their text to create a vivid picture of life in the British Navy at the time of Nelson and the war with France. A good selection of maps, and illustrations helps fuel the imagination, and, as ever, they have succeeded in presenting the flavour of the time, bring the people and events to life in such a way it is easy to suspend disbelief and fancy you are watching real time events

Electric fluid, birds of ill omen, ship wreck, coffee made from burnt bread, one armed cooks,rats in your pies, weevils in your biscuits, goats falling down the hatches, holystones, wash day, pay day, strong liquor, marriage certificates, wives, children, mistresses and dogs on board, volunteers and press gangs, hernias, amputations and disease, cockroaches like animated varnish on the walls, dancing, prize money, pensions and begging, betrayal, decency, heroism, births and deaths. They are all here, and more.

Anyone researching the life of an ancestor in Nelson's navy will find it an engrossing picture of their experiences, or if you just get jaded by the complacency of modern life, have watched one too many reality TV programs and read one too many dull blogs about the middle classes relocating to the country, immerse yourself in the true hardships these men and women suffered and emerge refreshed with your sense of perspective restored.

This is a good book in which to lose oneself on a winter's night in front of a warm fire while the storms rage outside.

Stunning Artwork, 12 Oct 2008
This massive tome is a visual delight. The huge format brings to life the artwork and I cannot wait to get my hands on the first volume. The cover price is £50 and even at that I would have been sorely tempted to buy.
Having said all that, as someone has already pointed out it is lacking in any form of technical details, but if you want that buy something like the anatomy of the ship series.
What text there is gives a reasonable overview of international naval events in this period, but it is really just extended captions for the pictures.
As a summary it is a useful addition to any library, but only if you are either not interested in technical details or already have them covered by other volumes.

This book is enormous!, 07 Aug 2008
I wondered what had arrived when the huge package containing this book arrived. I have never seen, let alone owned, such a physically massive book as this one.

The content is pretty good, but why the publisher chose such a massive format is beyond me.



Much promise, little delivery, 30 Jul 2008
I so much wanted this to be the best book of its type but it failed to deliver. Yes, there were fine pictures and various titbits of information but none of the technical details that I love. I want to know why triple turrets were preferred on a particular class rather than twin turrets. Why on earth did the USA go for 12" guns on the Alaska class?

The book has gone to its rest on a bookshelf but it won't be the one I reach for when I need to check on naval facts

A wonderful history of a great ship, 06 Aug 2008
I was surprised to recently come across this book in Waterstones (more expensive than on Amazon!) and bought this book on a whim. My late father was a young stoker on HMS Rodney - joining in 1943 - after Bismark - but in time for D-Day and the Russian convoys. He left the ship following Victory in Europe and was in Vancouver ready to join the Pacific fleet when the war ended.

This is a wonderful history - accessible for non-specialists like myself. Following a brief introduction to the Admiral himself and the first ships that subsequently bore his name, the book focuses on the battleship laid down in the 1920s and finally broken up in 1948.

The strange shape of the Rodney and her sister ship Nelson resulted from the constraints of the Washington Naval treaty (vague memories of this from history at school). Similarly, I had a vague recollection of the Invergordon mutiny - but wasn't fully aware of the role of the crew of the `Red Rodney' in leading the revolt. Most people know of the role of Rodney in the sinking of the Bismark, perhaps fewer the key role she played around D-Day - not helped by reports crediting many of her actions to HMS Nelson.

The book gives a real feel for life on a battleship in peacetime and war. Fascinating how the crew managed to keep the worn-out ship functioning towards the end of the war - and putting back the bits that fell off every time the guns were fired.

I just wish this wonderful book had been published while my father was still alive - I just imagine the discussions we would have had.

ps no mention of sheep - so still not sure if this story is true or not.....