Lepanto saw a lot of action during the Spanish Civil War. At the start of the hostilities she was involved in the blockade of the
Gibraltar Strait to prevent the
rebel transport of troops from
Spanish Morocco to southern Spain. In the course of these operations she was damaged by rebel aircraft on 5 August 1936, a couple of hours before the convoy known as
Convoy de la victoria successfully broke the Republican blockade. In September she joined the
squadron which sailed to the
Bay of Biscay in support of Republican forces isolated on the northern front. For most of 1937 the destroyer was on
convoy duty. While involved in one of these missions,
Lepanto took part of the
Battle of Cape Cherchell. At the
Battle of Cape Palos,
Lepanto together with and , broke away from escorting the
cruiser and fired three
torpedoes at the Nationalist
heavy cruiser . Since
Lepanto was likely responsible for the fatal hit in the forward
magazine that sank the enemy cruiser, she was awarded the
Distintivo de Madrid along with other loyalist vessels. On 5 March 1939, their crews hoping to avoid execution,
Lepanto fled
Cartagena with the Republican squadron bound for
Bizerte, Tunisia, arriving on 11 March. The next day, Commander of the Fleet
Miguel Buiza asked for political asylum and the ships were requisitioned by the French authorities and left in the custody by a few crewmen, the rest being held in a
prison camp at
Meheri Zabbens. Later the rebel transports
Mallorca and
Marqués de Comillas arrived 31 March 1939 with new crews to take over the ships. ==Post war==