[8] On 16 November 1940 Salvia and her sister ships HMS Gloxinia, Hyacinth and Peony sailed from the Port of Liverpool escorting a convoy as part of Operation Collar.

[6] On 25–26 November the convoy passed Gibraltar and the four corvettes became part of Force F, which was led by the cruisers HMS Manchester and Southampton, reinforced by the destroyer Hotspur.

[6] The two Clan Line freighters stayed in Malta to unload but Manchester, Southampton, the destroyers HMS Defender and Hereward and the four corvettes then escorted the Blue Star Line refrigerated ship New Zealand Star to Alexandria.

[6] On 7 January 1941 the 10th Corvette Group sailed from Alexandria escorting RFA Brambleleaf bound for Souda Bay in Crete.

[6] However, en route the corvettes were diverted to Malta to support Operation Excess, and on 9 January they met Force A which included the battleships HMS Valiant and Warspite, aircraft carrier Illustrious and seven destroyers.

[6] On 24 April Hyacinth and Salvia sailed from Souda Bay to Porto Rafti in Attica and Nafplio in the Peloponnese to help the Evacuation of Commonwealth forces in the Battle of Greece.

At about 1902 hrs on the evening of 23 December off the coast of Cyrenaica, eastern Libya, the German submarine U-559 torpedoed and sank Shuntien: a prison ship in the convoy that was carrying between 800 and 1,000[9] Italian and German prisoners of war, guarded by more than 40 soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

[11] Salvia rescued Shuntien's Master, William Shinn, 46 of the ship's officers and men and an unknown number of her prisoners, DEMS gunners and DLI guards.

A few hours later, at about 0135 hrs on 24 December, she was off the Egyptian coast about 100 nautical miles (190 km) west of Alexandria when the Type VIIC German submarine U-568 fired four torpedoes at her.

[3] One of the torpedoes hit Salvia, breaking her in two and spilling her heavy black bunker oil onto the surface of the sea.