Lieutenant Richard Been Stannard won the Victoria Cross (VC) while serving as her commander during the Namsos campaign in 1940.

(Smith's Dock Company also built a number of other trawlers that would serve in the RNPS such as Phyllis Rosalie, which became HMT Amethyst.)

On 12 March 1940, Arab was escorting a convoy during which the German air force bombed SS Statira.

In late April 1940, the Admiralty sent the 15th Anti-Submarine Striking Force, under Lieutenant Commander Sir Geoffrey Congreve, to Namsos, Norway, about 100 miles north of Trondheim.

At the end of the year he left Arab and went on to command destroyers, earning a DSO (Distinguished Service Order) while captain of HMS Vimy.

Walker eventually broke in half and sank, but Arab landed her master and 42 crew members (four had been lost in the torpedoing), at Gourock.