On 27 August 1939, a few days before the Second World War began, "Britannic" was requisitioned as she was returning from New York. She was converted into a troop ship at Southampton. A few days later left she embarked British Indian Army officers and naval officers, whom she then took from Greenock to Bombay. While in Bombay she was fitted with one BL 6-inch Mk XII naval gun for defence against surface craft and one QF 3-inch 20 cwt high-angle gun for anti-aircraft defence to make her a defensively equipped merchant ship.