She spent most of World War II on convoy escort duties in the English Channel and the North Atlantic, based at Dover, Gibraltar, and Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Boreas also participated in Operation Husky and was later loaned to the Royal Hellenic Navy the next year after conversion into an escort destroyer.
Boreas carried a maximum of 390 long tons (400 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).
[6] Boreas was converted to an escort destroyer in late 1943 with the replacement of the 12-pounder high-angle gun with additional depth charge stowage.
[10] Boreas was completed on 20 February 1931[11] at a cost of £221,156, excluding items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns, ammunition and communications equipment.
[13] After a refit at Portsmouth that lasted until 26 September, she conducted multiple patrols off the coast of Spain in 1937 and 1938 as part of the United Kingdom's policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
On 6 March 1938, she rescued survivors of the torpedoed Baleares, a heavy cruiser belonging to the Spanish Nationalists, off Cartagena, Spain with the destroyer Kempenfelt.
[14] In September 1939, during the beginning of World War II, the ship was assigned to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla and spent the first six months on escort and patrol duties in the English Channel and North Sea.
[7] After working up, the ship was briefly assigned to Western Approaches Command on escort duties before she was transferred to the 18th Destroyer Flotilla at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she arrived on 28 April.
Boreas returned to Freetown in February; she remained there until June when she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet to participate in Operation Husky.
[17] Salamis was assigned to escort duty at Gibraltar until October when she was transferred to the Aegean where she served with the 12th (Greek) Destroyer Flotilla for the rest of the war.