During a convoy to Malta in January 1942, the ship was detailed to escort the merchant ship "Thermopylae" to Benghazi when she started having engine trouble. En route, however, "Thermopylae" was sunk by air attack on 19 January. On 23 March "Hotspur" was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and was assigned to Force A of the fleet during the Indian Ocean raid by the Japanese in early April 1942. The ship returned to the Mediterranean to participate in Operation Vigorous, another convoy from Alexandria to Malta, in June. "Hotspur" was forced to sink her sister, "Hasty", after the latter was damaged by a torpedo from German motor torpedo boat "S-55". After the ship returned to the Indian Ocean, she escorted the carrier when that ship supported operations on Madagascar in September. "Hotspur" remained in the Indian Ocean until January 1943 when she was transferred to Freetown, where she arrived on 14 February. The ship remained there only briefly before being transferred home to begin a conversion to an escort destroyer. The conversion began at Sheerness on 1 March and lasted until 31 May.