"[2] "We sailed from Middlesbrough in January 1940 for Tobermory, to work-up before being sent to join a group on ocean escort of convoys.

To start with I had difficulty in finding three men who could steer the ship, and as we had encountered bad weather as soon as we had put to sea, most of them were seasick.

[5] They were soon in action with other groups between 19 July – 1 August 1941 with Convoy ON 69 defending 26 merchant ships from 8 U-boats and 2 Italian submarines.

[6] B7's first convoys, in the spring of 1942, were uneventful, and as the pace of the Battle of the Atlantic hotted up in the summer and autumn, the group's charges were escorted without loss.

During this action, on 11 December, Firedrake was torpedoed by the U-boat U-211 and sank with the loss of 168 of her crew, including her current commander, and the group's Senior Officer – Escort (SOE), Commander Eric Tilden.

On 17 October U-631 was sunk in the North Atlantic, South-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland, by depth charges from Sunflower.

[11] In May 1944 Sunflower was nominated for service in Force L for the Normandy Landings, code name Operation Neptune.

On 30 August Sunflower was deployed for Channel convoy defence based at Sheerness.

By the beginning of October merchant convoys were being detached from joined ocean convoys in Southwestern Approaches and routed through the English Channel for passage to and from London because the air threat from bases in France had been removed by the military advance to Germany.

German submarines and E-Boats were active in Channel area for mine and attacks by snorkel fitted U-boats were being made on assembly points for convoys and coastal traffic in Home waters.

W. Ward at Hayle, Cornwall later that year and arrived at the breaker's yard in August 1947.