During 1939 and 1940 Rodney sometimes carried an admiral and served as a fleet flagship, limiting the captain's independence aboard his own ship. Her wider work ranged across the North Atlantic, North Sea, and home waters on convoy escort and counter-raider duties. Reports that she arrived surprisingly quickly fit Dalrymple-Hamilton's effort to recover every possible knot from the battleship. Escorting fast merchant liners also shows that the supposedly slow capital ship was expected to act as a mobile response force, not merely remain beside a convoy.
Chapter · 1:10:35-1:12:42
Rodney as a fast response battleship
Home Fleet used Rodney for convoy and liner escort while Dalrymple-Hamilton drove her outward as a mobile counter-raider rather than a passive close escort.