 On 22 December 1940 he took command of the obsolete coastal submarine HMS "H44", spending three months in her, until 9 March 1941, tasked with training convoy escorts in anti-submarine warfare.During that period he managed to increase the number of simulated attacks under his belt.In April or May 1941 Hezlet was sent to Malta, aboard HMS "Cachalot", to be the "spare CO" in the 10th Submarine Flotilla based there (there was no bunk-space for him on "Cachalot" and so he slept in a cupboard from which books had been removed to make space for him).