She served in the Second World War, spending most of it in the Pacific Far East, where she sank the small Japanese army cargo ship Toso Maru No.1, the Japanese merchant cargo ship Manryo Maru, four Japanese sailing vessels, a Japanese tug and a Japanese barge, three small unidentified Japanese vessels, three Siamese sailing vessels and six other small Siamese / Japanese vessels.
Strongbow was detected on the surface off Port Swettenham, Malaya on 13 January 1945. Japanese escorts, minelayer, sub chaser CH-9, auxiliary sub-chaser CHa-41 and one other, soon arrived to attack her. Strongbow managed to escape but sustained such depth charge damage during a 14-hour attack that she was rendered unfit for further service. She was decommissioned at Falmouth in June 1945, and scrapped at Preston in April 1946.[1]