As the ships were leaving the Tejo estuary they were fired upon by the batteries from the forts and both Afonso de Albuquerque and Dão received direct hits and were grounded.

[2] On 28 November 1942, Afonso de Albuquerque was in Lourenço Marques (Maputo) when the German submarine U-177 torpedoed and sank the British troop ship Nova Scotia off the coast of Natal Province, South Africa.

Nova Scotia had 1,052 people aboard, most of them Italian prisoners of war or civilian internees, but in accordance with the Laconia Order that Admiral Dönitz had issued two months previously, U-177 left the scene without rescuing survivors.

[3] 858 people were lost: 650 Italian internees, 96 crew members, 88 South African guards, 10 DEMS gunners, eight military and naval personnel, five passengers, and Nova Scotia's master.

[3] In December 1941 Australian and Dutch forces occupied Portuguese Timor with the stated purpose of defending the territory against possible Japanese invasion.

Afonso de Albuquerque escorted the 7,884 GRT troopship Angola, which carried the first Portuguese troops of the expedition, reaching Timor on 29 September 1945.

Early on the morning of 18 December 1961 Afonso de Albuquerque received information that the Indian Armed Forces had launched Operation Vijay.

At 09:00, Afonso de Albuquerque sighted three Indian Navy ships, led by the Leopard-class frigate INS Betwa, just outside the Mormugao port.

Under heavy fire directed at the ship, some of the crew evacuated the wounded commander to shore and transferred him by car to medical facilities at Panjim.