"Fitch"s first mission, from 1 July to 5 August 1942, was to escort the aircraft carrier to a point off the Gold Coast, where the carrier flew off United States Army Air Forces planes for Accra. The destroyer returned to Norfolk on 5 August for exercises in preparation for the assault on North Africa, for which she sailed from Bermuda 25 October. Screening "Ranger" and two escort carriers, "Fitch" took part in the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco, on 8 November, and guarded the carriers as they flew Army planes off to the captured airfield at Port Lyautey. Returning to Norfolk 24 November, "Fitch" joined in exercises in Casco and Chesapeake Bays, and performed coastal escort duty, sailing as far south as the Panama Canal Zone, through the remainder of 1942.