In April 1940, after sea trials, Wryneck was recommissioned for service with the new pennant number L04, and assigned to convoy defence duty based at Alexandria.

On the morning of 27 April she was in Souda Bay when a convoy led by the cruiser HMS Calcutta evacuating troops from Nauplia in the Peloponnese came under air attack in the Argolic Gulf.

By the time Vendetta, Waterhen and Wryneck reached the convoy, the Dutch troop ship Slamat had been disabled and left behind and the destroyer HMS Diamond had been ordered to stay and assist.

[6] After 1900 hrs on 27 April the Vice Admiral, Light Forces, Henry Pridham-Wippell, became concerned that Diamond had not returned to Souda Bay and was not answering radio signals.

[6] The last living survivor from Slamat,[8] Royal Army Service Corps veteran George Dexter, states that after Wryneck was sunk he and three other men were rescued by the cruiser HMS Orion.

There they were met by the passengers of a caïque full of Greek refugees and British soldiers evacuated from Piraeus, who were sheltering by day and sailing only by night to avoid detection.

The caïque's captain, George Vergos, was also involved in SOE work and was a decorated veteran (OBE) of the Royal Navy from the First World War, also fleeing Greece with his extended family and some other Greeks.

Pirie and Pawson together with Dennis Hamson were now charged with evacuating an unknown amount of bullion from the British Embassy in Athens, all lost with the Irene.