Fearless helped to sink one final submarine in 1941 and escorted many Malta convoys in the Mediterranean before she was torpedoed by an Italian bomber and had to be scuttled on 23 July 1941.

Fearless carried a maximum of 470 long tons (480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 6,350 nautical miles (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

During this time, Fearless escorted the elderly liner SS Habana, full of refugee children, from the Basque Country to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France.

At the end of March 1940, Fearless and the destroyer Hostile were assigned to screen the light cruiser Birmingham as she searched for German fishing ships off the Norwegian coast.

The convoy entered the Andfjorden on the morning of 15 April en route to make their landings at Harstad, but paused there after reports of a German submarine on the surface inside the Vågsfjorden were received.

Machinegun fire from Fearless discouraged von Gossler from properly disposing of his secret documents and a boat from Brazen was able to retrieve many of them, including a map showing the location of all U-boats in Norwegian waters.

A week later, she was escorting the battlecruiser Hood and Ark Royal, together with her sisters Faulknor and Foxhound and the destroyer Escapade, from Scapa Flow to Gibraltar where they would form Force H.[9] On 3 July she took part in the attack on the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir (Operation Catapult).

A month later the ship escorted Force H during Operation Hurry, a mission to fly off fighter aircraft for Malta and conduct an airstrike on Cagliari on 2 August.

[10] Two days later, while returning to the UK, Fearless collided with the trawler Flying Wing and was repaired at the Barclay Curle shipyard in Scotstoun between 10 August and 11 October.

[11] On 31 January, Force H departed Gibraltar to carry out Operation Picket, an unsuccessful night torpedo attack by eight of Ark Royal's Fairey Swordfish on the Tirso Dam in Sardinia.

The British ships returned to Gibraltar on 4 February and began preparing for Operation Grog, a naval bombardment of Genoa, that was successfully carried out five days later.

A few days later, Fearless and four other destroyers escorted Sheffield, the battlecruiser Renown, and Ark Royal in Operation Winch, which delivered 12 Hurricane fighters to Malta.

Her crew were taken off by her sister, which then sank the wrecked and burning ship with torpedoes at 10:57,[15] about 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) north-north-east of Bône, Algeria, in position 37°40′N 08°20′E / 37.667°N 8.333°E / 37.667; 8.333.