[1] Very little information on the earliest parts of Louise Lykes' career are reported in secondary sources, but some time after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the ship was armed with one 4-inch (10 cm), two 3-inch (7.6 cm), and eight 20-millimetre (0.79 in) guns, and a Naval Armed Guard detachment to man them.

[3] Information on most of Louise Lykes' wartime activities is also absent from secondary sources, but she is recorded as sailing in Convoy UGF 2 from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Casablanca in November 1942 with 21 other merchant vessels,[4] and the return convoy, GUF 2, which returned to Hampton Roads on 11 December.

[4][5][Note 1] Less than a month after her cruise to Casablanca and back, Louis Lykes departed from New York City for Belfast with a cargo of munitions.

[6] Lookouts on Louise Lykes spotted the German vessel and opened fire, straddling the submarine with misses.

[6] Master Edwin J. Madden, 9 other officers, 41 crewmen, and 32 Naval Armed Guardsmen were killed in the attack on Louise Lykes,[3] the first of two ships sunk by U-384 during the war.