The ship began a refit at La Pallice on 14 January 1944 that was completed in early May. After word of the Allied landings at Normandy on 6 June was received by "Kapitan zur See" Theodor von Bechtolsheim, commander of the "8. Zerstörerflottile", ordered his three remaining destroyers, "Z24", "Z32", , and the torpedo boat , to sail for Brest to begin operations against the invasion fleet. They were attacked by Beaufighters during their journey, with "Z32" damaged by a pair of rockets and one aircraft forced to ditch. Once they reached Brest, "Z24" and "Z32" had their anti-aircraft suites reinforced. On the night of 8/9 June, the four ships set out from Brest for Cherbourg, but were intercepted by eight Allied destroyers of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla in the Battle of Ushant. The German ships had been spotted first and the British opened fire first, with the Germans responding with a four-torpedo salvo from each destroyer that missed when the Allied ships turned to evade them. Their fire was extremely effective with "Z24" badly damaged only moments after firing her first salvo. The range was so close that both sides engaged with their or 37 mm anti-aircraft guns which appreciably added to the damaged suffered by "Z24". The Allied ships hit the German destroyer with five shells before she was able to lay smoke and disengage. The first shell struck the 15 cm loading room for the turret, severing all communication with the turret, while another shell devastated the forward superstructure, killing 13 men, and set the radio room on fire. Other shells hit the forward engine room, set the aft funnel and some ready-use ammunition on fire and destroyed one of the amidships quadruple 2 cm gun mounts. Two Canadian destroyers pursued "Z24" and "T24" until the German ships passed over a minefield and they reached Brest later in that evening.