HMS Venetia – This destroyer was of WW1 vintage and was active in convoy escort duties and the evacuation of the Dutch royal family from the Netherlands in May 1940.
Venetia entered the port at 20:40 hours on the 23rd May, 1940 under fire. She suffered a number of casualties, was set on fire and badly damaged. Gunners aboard HMS Venomous, seeing that Venetia was in danger of being sunk and the entrance to the port blocked, realized that the Germans had captured Fort de la Crèche on a hill overlooking the harbour entrance and were using its coastal artillery to fire on Venetia. Venomous opened fire on the Fort and silenced the guns there. Venetia had taken a number of hits and was unable to embark any troops before backing out of the harbour at full speed.
After spending the summer of 1940 undergoing repairs, Venetia returned to Nore Command in August 1940 and began convoy defence and patrol duties in the North Sea and Thames Estuary in September 1940. On 19 October 1940, she struck a mine off Knob Buoy in the Thames Estuary 12 nautical miles north-east of Margate, Kent, England, and sank.