Galatea joined the
Mediterranean Fleet on commissioning and except the period from March till September 1938 acted as flagship,
Rear Admiral (Destroyers). Based in
Malta, upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War she was active in joint patrols enforcing the
non-intervention policy, periodically in co-operation with the and
Italian destroyers. Later deployed in
Alexandria, she remained on alert in course of the
Italian invasion of Abissynia. In early to mid 1938 the vessel was on refit at
Devonport. She was recommissioned for the Mediterranean, deployed at Malta and Alexandria. On 29 March 1939 in
Gandia Galatea took on board the leader of the
National Defence Council colonel
Segismundo Casado and his entourage; the following day she sailed off and on 31 March Casado was transferred to the hospital ship . After the outbreak of
Second World War she was ordered home, and between February and March 1940 she took part in the operations to intercept
Axis merchantmen attempting to break out of
Vigo. On 4 April 1940, the Polish
destroyers , and reached their new homebase
Rosyth. In the afternoon they left the harbour with
Galatea, her
sister ship and three destroyers. They were ordered to conduct a patrol in the
North Sea and were later ordered to intercept German invasion groups heading for Norway. In April 1940 she was involved in the
Norwegian Campaign, leaving on 25 April
transporting part of the Norwegian National Treasury to Britain, and in May joined the
Nore Command as Flagship of the
2nd Cruiser Squadron. Arriving at Åndalsnes in late April with troops for the Norwegian campaign she returned to Rosyth with 200 crates of gold, weighing each, from the Norwegian national treasury. In June 1940 she was involved in the
Operation Aerial evacuation of troops from
Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France, including Sir
Ronald Hugh Campbell, the British Ambassador to France. On 7 September 1940 the code word "Cromwell" was issued meaning that the Germans might land in
Kent at dawn. During that night
Galatea was sent to patrol the
Straits of Dover but made no contact with the enemy. At dawn while returning to port she struck a
naval mine off
Sheerness and spent three months in
dry dock. She remained with the
Home Fleet (under refit, between October 1940 to January 1941) until May 1941, and was involved in hunting the . In July 1941 she joined the
Mediterranean Fleet via the
Red Sea, and by November was based at
Malta with Force "K", operating against the Axis supply convoys to
North Africa. ==Fate==