Having completed the escort duties, the naval command intended that Quail would join the 3rd Flotilla in the Indian Ocean.

[1] She sailed for Gibraltar as part of an escort for capital ships of the Home Fleet that were also assigned to cover the landings.

She deployed out of Malta and on 8 July sailed as part of a screen for the battleships Nelson, Rodney, Warspite and Valiant, the aircraft carriers Indomitable and Formidable and the cruisers Aurora, Penelope, Cleopatra and Euryalus, with the destroyers Quilliam, Queenborough, Isis, Faulknor, Echo, Intrepid, Raider, Eclipse, Fury, Inglefield, Ilex, Troubridge, Tyrian, Tumult, Offa, the Greek Vasilissa Olga and the Polish ORP Piorun in the Western Mediterranean.

[1] They provided cover against Italian interference in the allied landings, and by 12 July the escorting destroyers were deployed on interception patrols.

[1] Ten days later on 31 August she was part of a screen for the battleships Nelson and Rodney and the cruiser Orion during the preliminary bombardment of the Italian coast between Reggio Calabria and Pessaro before the allied landings in Italy.

Quail carried out bombardments and screening duties with the destroyers Offa, Petard, Queenborough, Quilliam, Tartar, Troubridge, Tyrian and ORP Piorun in early September.

[1] In October Quail was transferred to the Adriatic and based at Bari to support military operations and escort convoys.

[1] On 15 November, whilst on patrol in the Adriatic, Quail struck a mine that had been part of a barrage laid by the German submarine U-453 on 25 October.