status—with a minimum crew on board—until on 1 July 1934, when she returned to fully active duty with DesDiv 4, DesRon 2. She operated out of San Diego with the Battle Force destroyers until late in 1936 when she began preparations for decommissioning. On 6 April 1937, Twiggs was placed out of commission and berthed at San Diego once again. Towards the end of the destroyer's sojourn in San Diego's "red lead row", Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. To augment the "Neutrality Patrol" which President Franklin Roosevelt had placed around the eastern seaboard and Gulf ports, the Navy quickly set the wheels in motion to recommission 77 destroyers and light minelayers which had been in reserve at either Philadelphia or San Diego. As part of this operation, Twiggs was recommissioned at San Diego on 30 September 1939, Cdr. Lyman K. Swenson in command. As flagship for DesDiv 64, DesRon 32, Twiggs initially operated out of San Diego on shakedown and training cruises through November. In company with eight of her sister ships, she transited the Panama Canal early in December. Soon after reaching her new base at Key West, Florida, Twiggs got underway to shadow the British destroyer . Later in the month, she joined sister ship and the heavy cruiser in keeping a close watch on the Australian light cruiser as she prowled the Gulf of Yucatan on the alert to intercept the German liner which was attempting to slip through the Royal Navy to safety in Germany. The Americans maintained such a close surveillance of the Australian ship that her exasperated commander—Captain "Fearless Freddie" Farncomb—was heard to remark: "Queer idea of 'neutrality' these Americans have!" During her subsequent operations with DesDiv 64, Twiggs conducted neutrality patrols, training cruises for Naval Reserve contingents, battle practices, and exercises through the summer of 1940. Meanwhile, by the spring of 1940, the Allied cause had taken a decided turn for the worse, as Norway fell after a disastrous British-Norwegian defense, and France and the Low Countries crumbled under the German blitzkrieg. In addition, German submarines—preying upon the convoys in the Atlantic which served as England's lifeline—began taking heavy tolls on both the cargo ships and their escorts. After the fall of France, Britain found herself very much alone in her struggle to prevent German hegemony in Europe. With British destroyer forces in bad shape (the beatings taken in Norway, in