[1] Ordered under the 1937 Programme and laid down as Job No J4502, Hawthorn Leslie & Co of Newcastle Upon Tyne were awarded the contract to build her with machinery supplied by Parsons.

[2] HMS Lightning was the subject of an Oscar Parkes drawing created into a popular postcard by J Salmon Ltd Sevenoaks Kent.

The convoy comprised ships Azalea, Eridge, Nelson, Renown, Ark Royal, Hermione, Arethusa, Manxman, Cossack, Maori, Nestor, Faulknor, Fury, Foresight, Forester, Foxhound, Encounter, Sikh and Duncan.

On 22 August 1941 Lightning sailed from Scapa Flow with Lively and Newark to search for the crippled Free French submarine Rubis, which had been attacked by a German aircraft off the coast of Norway.

Lightning and Laforey left Greenock for the first major Malta convoy of the war on 17 September 1941, crossing the Clyde Boom at 0530.

These included Prince of Wales, Edinburgh, Kenya, Euryalus, Sheffield, Oribi, Cossack, Fury, Farndale and Heythrop.

On 11 December 1941, Lightning, Harvester and Highlander were ordered to leave Gibraltar and rendezvous with the battleship Duke of York, in mid Atlantic, and escort her to America.

Bad Atlantic weather delayed the rendezvous, at 1830 on 17 December in approximate position 38-30N, 23W joined Duke of York with Highlander and Harvester.

With the bad weather continuing, the destroyers remained with Duke of York until 20 December then at 1800 in approximate position 35N, 40W, detached again to Ponta Delgada, Azores to refuel.

Continuing to Bermuda where Lightning shared an anchorage with the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ranger, they arrived at Newport News on New Year's Eve.

On 14 March 1942 Lightning was taking part in an anti-submarine ASDIC sweep in the Gibraltar Straits when her rudder was badly damaged, one of the depth charges exploded underneath her prematurely.

After Operation Ironclad, Between May and July Lightning was temporary transferred to the Far East Fleet, sailing to Colombo in Ceylon, for a boiler clean.

Completed by 11 July, the following day, at 0600, Lightning put to sea as 'A Force' with the battleship Warspite, the aircraft carriers Indomitable, Illustrious, the cruiser Gambia, and four destroyers including Laforey and Lookout.

That same evening, at 2100, the ship's lookouts sighted three small boats and, after investigating, picked up all the crew of 35 plus 4 gunners and a dog (given to Lightning as a gift, and named ‘Flash’) from the 10,095 ton Norwegian merchant vessel Tankexpress.

Lightning joined Force Z comprising aircraft carrier Indomitable, cruiser Phoebe, and sisters Laforey and Lookout.

Follow-up to Operation Torch November 1942 After refits, Lightning and Laforey left Greenock 12 December 1942 for Liverpool to escort Duchess of Richmond, a 20,000-ton Canadian Pacific liner which had embarked thousands of troops for North Africa, in convoy KMF 5.

On 21 December Lightning helped rescue more than 1,000 soldiers and nurses from the 23,722 ton P&O liner Strathallan,[4][5] which was torpedoed by U-562 off the coast of Algeria, carrying over 4,000 Allied personnel.

During late February and March 1943 Lightning was escorting troop and supply ships between Algiers and Bône in the day and attacking enemy convoys at night.

On her last voyage, Lightning left Bône alone at 1745 hours on the evening of Friday 12 March 1943 and after joining Loyal provided flanking screening cover to the cruisers Aurora and Sirius.