On the night of 29/30 April, Paladin and HMS Nubian made a sweep along the south coast of Sicily and sank a 2,000 ton merchant ship escorted by E boats, without damage or casualties to themselves. Paladin took her in tow, but two hours later they were bombed by an enemy aircraft and Pakenham had to be scuttled. Pakenham received some direct hits from gunfire and was disabled. In the ensuing action, the Battle of the Cigno Convoy, the Cigno was sunk and the other destroyer was severely damaged. In the early morning of 16 April 1943, she and HMS Pakenham were on a sweep in the Sicilian narrows when two Italian torpedo boats were encountered. She was escorting a convoy from Tripoli at the time. On 17 February 1943, she sank the German submarine U-205 north-west of Derna, assisted by a Bisley aircraft of the South African Air Force. Paladin also took part in other Mediterranean operations, including the passage of convoys to Malta from Egypt after the relief of the island in November. Very early in the morning of 14 September, she, along with four other destroyers and the cruiser HMS Dido, bombarded the Daba area to good effect. Paladin, along with a force of two cruisers and four destroyers, bombarded shipping and harbour facilities at Mersa Matruh on the night of 19/20 July. While the latter got through, the Vigorous convoy was prevented from doing so by the appearance of the Italian battle fleet, coupled with heavy air attacks. In June 1942, she was among the ships loaned from the Eastern Fleet to the Mediterranean for Operation Vigorous, the passage of a convoy to Malta from Alexandria at the same time, Operation Harpoon, the passage of another convoy from the west, sailed from Gibraltar. In the first week of May 1942, she took part in Operation Ironclad, the capture of Diego Suarez, Madagascar, from Vichy French forces, forming part of the screen for the heavy ships. Paladin took part in rescue operations following the sinking of the heavy cruisers HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire on 5 April and assisted in the recovery of approximately 1,120 men from both crews, many of whom were in the water for 30 hours in a shark-infested sea. She was at sea with the fleet when the Japanese made their Indian Ocean raid with air attacks on Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

She was allocated to the Eastern Fleet which was then under the command of Admiral Sir James Somerville, leaving Greenock on 17 February 1942, arriving in Colombo via the Cape on 24 March. She was laid down on 22 July 1940, launched on 11 June 1941 and completed on 12 December of that year.

Kingdom under fire 2 paladin