Operation Harpoon (i)

'Harpoon' (i) was a British operation to send 200 troops from Dover to the Hook of Holland in the destroyers Venomous and Verity to protect the demolition parties previously delivered by the destroyer Wild Swan to prepare the port facilities for destruction in the event that a German seizure seemed probable (10/13 May 1940).

Another element of the operation was the delivery, at a time early on 13 May, of a composite battalion of Guards to support the marine party already present. The guardsmen were carried in the 2,910-ton Canterbury and 2,386-ton Maid of Orleans, escorted by the destroyers Boreas, Keith, Wivern and Wolsey. After unloading, the ships returned to Dover, arriving later in the same day.