During her 1942 conversion to an escort destroyer, the ship's short-range AA armament had been augmented by two Oerlikon 20 mm guns on the wings of find the best london escorts ship's bridge. The ship's director-control tower and rangefinder above the bridge were removed in exchange for a Type 271 target indication radar. A Type 286 short-range surface search radar was probably also fitted midway through the war. They attacked U-223 with depth charges until Laforey ordered them to halt, then continued to track U-223 for several hours until she was forced to surface in the early hours of 30 March 1944 after 27 hours of attack by depth charges and Hedgehog antisubmarine mortars. Hambledon joined the other ships in illuminating U-223 with searchlights and sinking her with gunfire at position 38°48′00″N 014°10′00″E / 38.80000°N 14.16667°E / 38.80000; 14.16667 (U-223 sunk) with the loss of 23 of the submarine's crew, leaving 27 survivors, but not before U-223 sank Laforey with an acoustic torpedo with the loss of 182 lives, leaving 69 survivors.

Harvester had her rear torpedo tubes replaced by a 12-pounder AA gun after the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, but it is not known exactly when this modification was made. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Harvester had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun. Harvester was lightly damaged by strafing German aircraft that same day and required repairs that were made at Chatham. On 29 March 1944, Hambledon, Blencathra, and their sister ship Wilton departed Naples to assist the destroyers Laforey, Tumult, and Ulster in hunting the German submarine U-223, which they had detected with asdic in the Tyrrhenian Sea northeast of Palermo, Sicily, near Filicudi, 135 nautical miles (250 km) south of Naples. The ship joined the Dunkirk evacuation on 29 May and returned 272 men to Dover during the day. En route she was narrowly missed by two torpedoes, but she rescued 1341 men in two trips on 31 May and an additional 576 on 1 June. The operation was also designed to open a continuous overland route (road and rail) between Manchuria and Singapore to facilitate the importation of strategic resources from Japanese conquests in the Southeast without interdiction from American submarines and aircraft.

It learns your route and blocks out false signals to now interrupt your driving. What you're saying is coming out whatever culture you are, and then implanted as someone who's been through public schools and all of these small, subtle things in word, how you might use your cutlery, what you even think of fast food and all of that, all of it is alien. Except for that information which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any such proprietary information. This decision was rescinded during the day on 30 May and the ship sailed for Dunkirk on the night of 30/31 May. On 9 June the ship was ordered to Le Havre, France, to evacuate British troops, but none were to be found. The ship was laid down on 3 June 1938 and she was purchased by the British on 5 September 1939 and renamed HMS Handy. Incensed with the earlier delay and the approach from the Jervis Bay, Krancke was determined to sink the British vessel. The vessel was designed for four 45-calibre 4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear, but 'Y' gun was removed to compensate for the additional depth charges added.

The ship, together with five other destroyers of the 9th Flotilla, was assigned to Plymouth Command for anti-invasion duties between 8 and 18 September before returning to her role as an escort vessel. Surrey History Centre. April 1938 - September 1943. ref. In August 1943, Hambledon was selected to carry Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham for Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings at Salerno on the mainland of Italy planned for September 1943. On 9 September 1943, she embarked Cunningham and United States Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Bizerta, Tunisia, to take them to Malta to observe the surrender of the Italian Royal Navy's battlefleet there, and was present when the surrender took place on 10 September 1943. She departed Malta later that day to take part in the Salerno landings, with Cunningham embarked. The ship was launched on 29 September 1939 and renamed Harvester in January 1940 as her original name was thought too liable to be confused with Hardy. In 1943, the United States launched over 11 million tons of merchant shipping; that number declined in the later war years, as priorities moved elsewhere.