By March 1945 Hawkesworth and his HQ had returned to Italy. X Corps was in a reserve role and not involved in the final offensive in April 1945, which led to the surrender of Axis forces in Italy in early May and the end of the war in Europe. By this time, however, it had become apparent that Hawkesworth was suffering from a serious heart condition. He died on the way home to Britain, when he suffered a heart attack while on board his troopship which lay at Gibraltar, on 3 June 1945 at the age of fifty-two.