On 8 December 1941 Japan invaded Malaya. A month later "Rohna" left Bombay for Singapore in Convoy BM 10, arriving on 25 January 1942. She left on 28 January in Convoy NB 1, a fortnight before Singapore was surrendered to Japan. From March 1942 "Rohna" spent a year criss-crossing the Indian Ocean between Bombay, Karachi, Colombo, Basra, Aden, Suez, Khorramshahr, Bandar Abbas, Bahrain and Âbâdân; sometimes in convoys but much of the time unescorted. In March 1943 she sailed from Bombay in Convoy BA 40 to Aden and then independently to Suez, where she passed through the canal on 6–7 April.