 After the start of World War II, she was used as an auxiliary minelayer, and was briefly assigned to participate in Operation Sea Lion in that capacity before it was cancelled in September 1940.She was also used to lay minefields during the German invasion of the Soviet Union—Operation Barbarossa—in mid-1941.She was then used as a training ship until March 1942, when she was reduced to a headquarters ship for naval forces in Norway.