[2] When the United Kingdom entered World War II in early September 1939, Wessex and the destroyers Keppel, Vanessa, Vesper, Viscount, Vivacious, Vortigern, and Wakeful were assigned to the 17th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth for convoy defence and patrol duties in the English Channel and Southwestern Approaches.

[2] In April 1940, Wessex was reassigned under the Commander-in-Chief, The Nore for the support of the operations of Allied forces in France.

She then was reassigned under the Commander-in-Chief, Dover to support Allied forces opposing the German advance in Belgium and France.

At 16:30 hours, 27 German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked the destroyers, hitting Wessex with three bombs.

The German aircraft then concentrated their attack on Burza, which suffered heavy damage from two bomb hits and three near misses but managed to limp back to Dover with Vimiera.