chartered her as a troop transport. She was fitted with "degaussing" coils as protection against German magnetic mines and sailed with her original civilian crew on board in addition to a Dutch Marine detachment. The ship was ordered to take French troops evacuated to England from Dunkirk back to Brest to continue the fight. She left Plymouth on 2 June and sailed with 1,712 aboard, accompanied by the French corvette Commandant Rivière. They returned the next day, then sailed once more with approximately 1,500 men on board, returning with British troops. On 16 June Koningin Emma, made her last voyage to Brest. By now the Germans had occupied most of northern France, so she was ordered to Bayonne on 20 June where 1,482 evacuees were boarded. Koningin Emma then took part in the British occupation of Iceland, landing troops and equipment. In September 1940 Koningin Emma was formally taken over by the Admiralty to be converted into an "assault ship" at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. The upper deck was largely cleared and gravity davits installed enabling six LCAs and two LCM(1)s to be carried, along with 450 troops. Koningin Emma was armed with two 12-pounder guns, two 2-pounders, four Hotchkiss 20 mm machine guns, and four .303 cal. machine guns. The ship was commissioned as HMS Queen Emma on 22 January 1941 as a special service ship. Lofoten Raid Her first major action in her new role was Operation Claymore, a raid on the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway. On 22 February 1941 Queen Emma arrived at Scapa Flow, where men of 4 Commando boarded, as well as Royal Engineer demolition experts and a contingent of Norwegian troops. The British ships – five destroyers and two troop ships – entered the Vestfjord on the morning of 4 March, and launched their attack. Surprise was complete and there was little resistance. All targets selected were located and destroyed. The troops were embarked by 13.00 hours and within half an hour the British had left. After returning to England Queen Emma was used for the training and exercise of Special Forces in Scotland. South Atlantic In late 1941 she was selected to join the forces gathered at Freetown, Sierra Leone, for Operation Pilgrim, the planned occupation of the Canary Islands, if either the Spanish or the Germans captured Gibraltar. After maintenance at Glasgow Queen Emma sailed to Freetown, arriving