The outbreak of the Second World War created an immediate need for many new destroyers and, in order to ensure delivery in the shortest possible time, it was agreed that they should be armed with such guns and mountings as were readily available.

Oribi was one of the eight "Obdurate" or "O" class destroyers, all of which shared the distinction of being the first destroyers ordered by the War Construction Programme. For quickness, the "O" class design was based on the hull of the existing "Javelin" class [of 1937] and they were armed with old type 4in. guns in 'lengthened shields'. Oribi, laid down as Observer but renamed on the stocks as a compliment to South Africa, was built by Fairfields at Govan, on the Clyde. Launched on 14ssh January 1941 and completed the same year, she displaced 1,540 tons and measured 345 feet in length with a 35 foot beam. Fitted with geared turbines on two shafts giving 40,000shp., she could steam at 34 knots and proved a highly useful addition to the fleet when she entered service.

After a harrowing start to her career on many operations in the Arctic, she was transferred on to the North Atlantic early in 1943 where, on 6th May, she rammed U-125; the damaged submarine dived immediately but was then depth-charged and sunk by the corvette Snowflake. Thereafter part of the force covering the western end of the English Channel on D-Day (1944), she remained on station in the Channel for some time but returned to the Arctic that autumn. Surviving the War, she was transferred into the Turkish navy in June 1946, renamed Gayret and finally scrapped in 1965.