[1] Thanet was on the China Station, deployed with the Local Destroyer Flotilla at Hong Kong on the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939.

[1] The rest of the year and all of 1940 was spent carrying out similar duties, deploying out of Hong Kong to protect trade and patrol in search of enemy vessels.

Thanet and Scout hurriedly evacuated the port on 8 December, just hours after the Imperial Japanese Army attack on Mainland positions began, and made their way to Singapore to join the Eastern Fleet.

[1] On 26 January 1942 Malaya Command received intelligence that a Japanese troop convoy was approaching Endau, and attempted to attack it with nine Lockheed Hudsons of No.

[7] The two cruisers were in fact Thanet, and the destroyer HMAS Vampire, and following the failure of the air attacks, Malaya Command ordered them to sea to intercept the convoy.

It is believed they were executed in retaliation for heavy Japanese losses sustained in an ambush by the Australian 2/18th Battalion which occurred at the same time as the naval battle off Endau.