Returning to Norfolk six days later, Thompson operated along the east coast until mid-April when she joined the build-up of forces for the invasion of western Europe.

The following day, 16 April, Nevada, Texas, and Destroyer Division 36 (DesDiv 36) departed for exercises off the Irish coast before returning to Belfast Lough.

After more shore bombardment practice, in which her five-inch and Bofors gunners exercised at their battle stations and sharpened up their gunnery, she put out of Belfast Lough for Plymouth and thence proceeded to the Isle of Portland, where she arrived on 27 April.

En route, she stood to action stations, her guns trained out and ready for any eventuality as the drama of history's greatest landing operation unfolded around her.

But when the haze cleared away, the destroyer's main battery opened fire with a vengeance, tongues of flame flashing from her gun muzzles as her salvos screamed shoreward.

Thompson, screening as part of the Allied naval craft gathered there, joined in commencing fire on the intruders who were successfully driven off, retiring to the northward at high speed.

Thompson continued to operate off Normandy beaches throughout the remainder of June 1944, steaming often between the Baie de la Seine, and Plymouth, England.

Thompson reached Naples on 6 August and joined the Allied expeditionary forces amassing for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.

Entering Mers-El-Kebir on 20 January, she remained in North African waters until 1 February, when she joined the screen of Convoy GUS-68, en route to the United States.

Shortly after the ship returned to Buckner Bay, yet another typhoon warning scrambled the Fleet and set it seaward into the East China Sea once more.

She and her sister-ships in Mine Division 61 (MineDiv 61), formed a scouting line four miles (6 km) apart on 10 October, keeping careful lookout while returning to Buckner Bay, searching for life rafts, derelicts, or men in the water.

Following six months duty with American occupation forces in Chinese waters, Thompson returned to the United States in early September 1947 and arrived at San Diego, California, on 2 October.

En route, however, the ships received orders to put about for the west coast after spending a few days in Hawaii, arriving at San Diego on 4 February 1949.

After spending the first three months of 1950 in routine exercises and cruises out of San Diego, Thompson steamed for Pearl Harbor on 6 April 1950, for a three-month overhaul.

Completing her overhaul ahead of schedule, Thompson returned to San Diego on 20 July and began an accelerated and rigorous underway training period which lasted through August and part of September 1950.

Twenty-four hours from their destination, orders directed them to patrol off Wake Island during the meeting of General Douglas MacArthur and President Harry Truman.

While Thompson and Carmick had steamed across the Pacific, United Nations forces had been rallying after the initial heavy losses and retreats at the hands of the communist armies.

Accordingly, the American Eighth Army put heavy pressure on North Korean troops, pushing them towards P'yŏngyang, on the west coast of Korea.

To remedy this problem, an operation was mounted to open up the mined port of Chinnampo, some 50 km southwest of P'yŏngyang, at the mouth of the Taedong River.

Thompson and Carmick, newly arrived in the "Land of the Morning Calm", were detailed to join the makeshift minesweeping organization recently established under Commander Stephen M.

[1] Consisting of Forrest Royal (DD-872), Catamount (LSD-17), Horace A. Bass (APD-124), Pelican (AMS-32), Swallow (AMS-36), and Gull (AMS-16), Japanese LST Q-007,[2] four Republic of Korea minesweepers, and a helicopter from Rochester (CA-124), this task group performed a nearly impossible feat in slightly over two weeks.

One port which served as an evacuation point was Chinnampo, familiar to Thompson's men as a result of the minesweeping operation conducted a scant month before.

While United Nations warships conducted bombardments of advancing communist troops, Thompson escorted troopships out of the harbor in dense fog and through treacherous tidal currents to assist in the evacuation.

There, she spent close to three weeks engaged in clearance sweeps so that support ships could take fire-support stations to assist ground forces ashore.

Using Wonsan as a base, she operated to the northward, eventually sweeping Kyoto Wan deep, 60 miles (97 km) south of the Manchurian border.

Thompson's gunners had just completed the destruction of a railroad bridge near Sŏngjin when communist shore batteries opened fire, soon straddling the ship.

Five days later, the minesweeper arrived at Sasebo on 26 August for tender availability, repairing her engines and battle damage, before she headed north to Sŏngjin.

From three widely spaced points enemy guns took the minesweepers under fire, catching Thompson amidships on the starboard side as she was laying clouds of oily black smoke between Kite and the shoreline.

Beginning on 8 June 1953, she played the title role in Columbia Pictures's "The Caine Mutiny", the 1954 film adaptation of the Herman Wouk novel of the same name.

After taking part in two exercises in late September 1953, she operated out of San Diego until 1 December 1953, when she reported to the Pacific Reserve Fleet to prepare for inactivation.