Gunfire from the motor boats destroyed the bridge, ruptured the boiler, killed or wounded half of the men on board and led to on-board ammunition exploding, causing her to finally stop moving and setting the ship on fire.

[1] Both Langlaagte and Parktown were both found to be in a very poor state of repair after their extended use in the Southern Ocean and long periods away from proper maintenance facilities, and were therefore unsuitable for conversion to conventional minesweepers.

[1] Parktown sailed in company with Langlaagte from Cape Town for the Mediterranean in April 1942 to join the 167th Minesweeping Group working from Alexandria, Egypt.

[1] For ten days she continued minesweeping operations off the harbour while the 8th Army were being driven back by advancing German and Italian forces.

By 18:00, the German and Italian forces had overrun the main defence lines and were closing on the harbour and all Allied ships were ordered to embark personnel for evacuation.

[3] Under cover of a smoke screen laid by a motor torpedo boat, but still receiving shell-fire from the town, the two ships left the harbour for the open sea.

[3] At 06:45 on 21 June, Parktown's crew sighted what they believed was an Italian "MAS" torpedo boat, which had been directed to the slow moving vessel by a German reconnaissance aircraft.

Within 15 minutes Parktown was stationary with a hole in the boiler, half of the crew and evacuated soldiers as casualties, out of ammunition and with the upper deck on fire.