On 5 April 1943 "Ellyson" arrived at NS Argentia, Dominion of Newfoundland, to prepare for operations with the Royal Navy. She sailed for England on 12 May in the screen of the battleships and , and operated with the British Home Fleet out of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands screening convoys, giving distant support to Allied shipping to Murmansk and Iceland, and attempting to lure German battleship and other German surface ships from the safety of Norwegian bases to battle on the open seas. In July she took part in a feint invasion of southern Norway to distract German attention from the real assault on Sicily.