Departing the Mediterranean on 3 August, Herndon on spent the next nine months escorting troopships across the Atlantic from New York to various British ports as the massive buildup for the invasion of France hit full strike.

After two weeks of experimental operations in Chesapeake Bay for the Naval Research Laboratory, Herndon headed back toward the Mediterranean as a convoy escort on 14 October.

Returning to the United States on 12 November, she conducted battle exercises in Casco Bay and escorted convoys along the Atlantic coast through February 1945.

[1] The destroyer and her crew turned south 21 April 1945 and headed for the still-hot war in the Pacific, reaching Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Diego on 15 May.

Japanese capitulation came at last with the formal signing of the surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, and Herndon proceeded to the China coast to enforce provisions of the peace.

On that day Japanese Vice Admiral Kanako, and his staff came aboard Herndon to sign and implement the unconditional surrender of all Japanese-controlled combatant and merchant vessels in the Qingdao area.