on the southern coast of France, before she was put into Phaleron Bay on 20 July. She was there only for a week before she received orders to sail for the Far East. While the light cruiser and her consorts had been operating in the Mediterranean, war had broken out in Korea on 25 June. Accordingly, Worcester departed Phaleron Bay on 27 July, in company with Destroyer Division 21 composed of , , , and . Reaching Port Said, Egypt, on the morning of 29 July, Worcester transited the Suez Canal that afternoon. Reaching Colombo for provisions and fuel, Worcester and her escorts tarried there from 7 August to 9 August before pushing on towards the Malacca Strait. They then proceeded through the Bashi Channel to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, where they arrived on 19 August. En route, the American warships had been diverted through the Bashi Channel to be available to counter any invasion attempt by the communist Chinese of Formosa. After fueling from , Worcester departed Buckner Bay on 20 August and set a course for Keelung, Formosa, to join the Formosa Patrol. Joining that force on 21 August, Worcester remained at anchor at Keelung from 22 through 26 August. She got underway the following day to add her anti-aircraft defense to the screen of Task Force (TF) 77—the fast carrier task force consisting of and , then operating in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Korea. On 28 August, the light cruiser—steaming in company with Norris—joined TF 77 and proceeded into the Yellow Sea for operations against enemy targets located in the central and southwestern Korea. Each day in ensuing days, the carriers launched their strikes against North Korean ground targets while the screen provided protection in case of any attempts by the communist North Korean air forces to interrupt the operation. Worcesters helicopter also performed plane-guard duty, standing by in the air to rescue any ditched pilots from the waters nearby. On 4 September, Worcesters radar picked up an unidentified contact at 13:31. The combat air patrol—four Vought F4U Corsairs from Valley Forge—soon reported the stranger as being a twin-engine bomber with a pointed nose, a single tailfin, and high inverted gull wings. It also bore red star markings. At 19:45, the F4Us vectored to the "bogey" by , unceremoniously splashed the stranger 49 miles away. The following day, Worcester went to general quarters at 11:08