When the Second World War began in 1939, the Royal Navy decided to reconvert her back into a heavy cruiser and her original armament was reinstalled.

Hawkins reentered service in early 1940 and was assigned to the South Atlantic Division where she patrolled for Axis commerce raiders and escorted convoys.

The ship returned to the UK in early 1944 to participate in Operation Neptune, the naval portion of the invasion of Normandy in June.

The Hawkins-class cruisers were designed to be able to hunt down commerce raiders in the open ocean, for which they needed a heavy armament, high speed and long range.

[6] Hawkins carried enough fuel oil and coal to give her a range of 5,640 nautical miles (10,450 km; 6,490 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[8] The guns of the first three Hawkins-class ships to be completed, Vindictive, Raleigh and Hawkins, were controlled by a mechanical Mark I Dreyer Fire-control Table.

It used data provided by the 15-foot (4.6 m) coincidence rangefinder in the pedestal-type gunnery director positioned under the spotting top at the head of the tripod mast.

The coal-fired boiler room was converted into an oil tank which increased her storage capacity to 2,600 long tons (2,642 t) and boosted her range by 20%.

The ship was recommissioned again in September 1932 to become the flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the East Indies Station, but was again reduced to reserve in April 1935.

[18] The ship recommissioned as a heavy cruiser in January 1940 and was assigned to the South American Division of the North America and West Indies Station.

On 10–12 February, Hawkins captured five Italian merchant ships totalling 28,055 gross register tons (GRT) that had attempted to escape from Kismayo, including SS Adria.

[21] Hawkins remained in the Indian Ocean, escorting convoys and searching for Axis commerce raiders, until she returned to the UK to begin a refit at HM Dockyard, Devonport, on 4 December.

[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] During one of these escort missions, the troop ship SS Khedive Ismail was torpedoed with heavy loss of life by the Japanese submarine I-27 on 12 February 1944.

[32] Later that year, Hawkins returned home, visiting Scapa Flow, Lough Neagh and the Clyde for exercises before participating in the Normandy landings.

[36] Hawkins was transferred to the British Iron & Steel Corporation on 26 August 1947 and broken up in December that year at the Arnott Young scrapyard at Dalmuir, Scotland.