The design, which had been approved six months after the treaty was signed, had a main armament of 16-inch (406 mm) guns to match the firepower of the American Colorado and Japanese Nagato classes in the battleline in a ship displacing no more than 35,000 long tons (36,000 t).

The Director of Naval Construction, Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, informed the ship's designer, Edward Attwood, "In order to keep the displacement to 35,000 tons, everything is to be cut down to a minimum.

Leaks, defective riveting, and other problems continued to affect Rodney even after a 1941 refit in Boston, Massachusetts.By 1943 officials concluded that she required a complete modernization to extend her service life.

The ship's light AA armament was heavily reinforced during a refit in February–May 1942 with seventeen 20 mm Oerlikons in single mounts added to turret roofs, the superstructure and the decks.

[22] The Nelson-class ships received several nicknames: Rodnol and Nelsol after the Royal Fleet Auxiliary oil tankers with a prominent amidships superstructure and names ending in "ol", The Queen's Mansions after a resemblance between her superstructure and the Queen Anne's Mansions block of flats, the pair of boot, the ugly sisters and the Cherry Tree class as they were cut-down by the Washington Naval Treaty.

Delayed for a day by weather too bad for diving, she arrived at the site the following evening but it was too late for any survivors of H47 and Rodney set sail for HM Dockyard, Portsmouth.

The ship participated in King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead on 16 July and then again served as the Royal Guardship during Cowes Week.

She again became the temporary fleet flagship when Nelson began a lengthy refit the following month and Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse hoisted his flag aboard her.

As the Home Fleet was assembling in Scapa Flow when tensions with Germany rose in August, Rodney developed steering problems and had to proceed to Rosyth for repairs and a bottom cleaning.

Rodney was transferred from Scapa Flow to Rosyth on 23 August with orders to attack the German invasion fleet in the English Channel when Operation Sealion began.

Dalyrmple-Hamilton declined to pursue Gneisenau when she turned away at her top speed of 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) and was able to rescue 27 survivors and 2 dead seamen from one lifeboat before returning to her convoy.

To this end, the ship carried some of the materials, such as boiler tubes and three octuple "pom-pom" mounts intended for use in her refit; other cargo included three or four crates of the Elgin Marbles.

She also carried 521 military passengers bound for Halifax, as well as an American assistant naval attaché conveying important documents back to the United States.

After Bismarck sank the battlecruiser Hood during the Battle of Denmark Strait on the morning of 24 May, Rodney was ordered by the Admiralty to join in the pursuit of the German ship, leaving the destroyer Eskimo to escort Britannic and taking Somali, Mashona and Tartar with her in the search.

Dalrymple-Hamilton continued south east for several more hours before he decided to obey the order at 16:20; during this time Bismarck passed his position just under the horizon, about 25 nmi (46 km; 29 mi) away.

Bismarck was spotted by a RAF Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat at 10:35 on 26 May and the two battleships were able to join up as Tovey had realised his mistake and doubled back.

The former ship arrived at Greenock to replenish her ammunition, fuel and supplies on 29 May and departed for Halifax on 4 June together with the ocean liner Windsor Castle, escorted by four destroyers.

Vice-Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, second-in-command of the Home Fleet, was aboard the ship to gain experience in integrating carrier and convoy operations and was not flying his flag.

The evasive manoeuvres worsened Rodney's steering problems and issues with her boilers began after Force Z turned back that evening which limited the ship to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

Rodney departed Gibraltar to rejoin the Home Fleet at Scapa two days later, but her problems worsened during the voyage as heavy weather further stressed the steering motors and exacerbated her many leaks.

The battleship was to serve as a target for frogmen training to use Chariot manned torpedoes to deliver and attach limpet mines to her hull in preparation for Operation Title.

The ship arrived at Scapa on 3 June to begin training for the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) and then rejoined Force H. She saw no combat during the landings, although there were many air raids while she was berthed in Grand Harbour, Malta.

On 31 August Rodney joined her sister in bombarding coast-defence guns near Reggio di Calabria in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Strait of Messina from Sicily (Operation Baytown) on 3 September, blowing up an ammunition dump during her shoot.

While at sea with the French battleship Richelieu to conduct a night gunnery exercise on 29 December, Rodney suffered weather damage during a severe storm that caused extensive flooding forward.

Although she was initially in reserve for the Normandy landings (Operation Overlord),[60] Rodney did engage coast-defence guns near Le Havre with two armour-piercing 16-inch shells on 6 June.

The ship was ordered forward to support operations off Sword Beach that night and accidentally rammed and sank LCT 427, killing all 13 crewmen,[61] in the darkness and congested waters off the Isle of Wight.

After reaching her assigned position, the ship engaged targets north of Caen, possibly belonging to the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend which was attacking British and Canadian troops near there.

The following morning Rodney began engaging targets in Caen proper, beginning the gradual devastation of the city, including the destruction of the spire of the Church of Saint-Pierre.

Long-range artillery on the German-occupied island of Alderney was disrupting Allied operations off the north west corner of the Cotentin Peninsula after the landings in Normandy.

Rodney was tasked to eliminate the problem and bombarded Batterie Blücher on 12 August, taking up a position on the other side of the Cap de la Hague to avoid return fire.