main body. On the night of 11/12 December, the destroyer escorted the monitor as she bombarded Italian positions near Sollum, Egypt. 1941 Mohawk was one of the escorts for the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they bombarded Bardia on 3 January 1941. The following week she participated in Operation Excess, a series of convoys to resupply Malta and convey reinforcement for the Mediterranean Fleet past Malta. The ship was part of the escort force for the main body of the fleet until one of the other escorts, the destroyer , struck a mine on 10 January that blew off her bow; Mohawk was detailed to tow her stern-first to Malta where they arrived the following day. After refuelling she departed to go to the assistance of the light cruisers and which had been attacked by German Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers. The former's fires burnt out of control and she had to be scuttled. The 14th DF covered the bombardment of Tobruk by the Inshore Squadron on the night of 19/20 January. A few days later, the flotilla formed part of the escort for the damaged Illustrious as she steamed from Malta to Alexandria on 23–25 January. For most of the Battle of Cape Matapan, Mohawk and the 14th DF escorted the fleet's battleships, but they were detached at dusk on 28 March to find and sink the badly damaged . The flotilla turned around about six hours later based on an erroneous report of a drifting battleship and spotted the burning heavy cruiser early on the morning of the 29th after she had been crippled by the British battleships at point-blank range the previous evening. The British ships picked up survivors and torpedoed the wreck. About an hour later they discovered the drifting heavy cruiser which had had all power knocked out by a torpedo hit earlier in the day. The British rescued the survivors crewmen before sinking the cruiser with three torpedoes and rejoining the main body of the fleet. The 14th DF escorted a convoy from Egypt to Greece from 1 to 6 April, although the convoy was attacked by Luftwaffe bombers, none of the destroyers were damaged. The flotilla arrived at Malta on 10/11 April with orders to interdict the Italian supply convoys between Italy and Libya at night. The first two patrols were uneventful, but British aircraft had located a small convoy off