At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the ship was assigned convoy escort duties in the English Channel and the Western Approaches that lasted until April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway.

Whilst escorting the aircraft carrier Glorious on 8 June 1940, she was sunk by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but not before badly damaging the former ship.

The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[4] Their main armament consisted of four QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns in single mounts, in two superfiring pairs in front of the bridge and aft of the superstructure.

[7] The ship was completed on 11 February 1930[6] at a cost of £227,621 excluding items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns, ammunition and communications equipment.

The ship spent of her time between September 1936 and April 1937 aiding refugees and making non-intervention patrols in Spanish waters.

She returned home at the end of that month and began a long refit at Devonport on 1 May that lasted until 11 April 1938 and included the installation of ASDIC.

The ship was then assigned as the emergency destroyer for Plymouth and aided Vickers-Armstrongs in testing ASDIC equipment for the Argentinian light cruiser La Argentina over the period 2–13 March.

[8] When the Second World War began in September 1939, Acasta was assigned to the 18th DF at Plymouth and escorted convoys in the English Channel until she was refitted again at Devonport between 20 December and 5 January 1940.

After the carrier was hit multiple times and began to list, Acasta left her and closed with the battleships to shorten the range for a torpedo attack.

Most of her crew died from exposure before the Norwegian merchant ship SS Borgund rescued two survivors from Acasta three days later, along with 36 men from Glorious.