 During the following night these ships removed 4,000 troops from Crete.Between December 1942 and April 1943 "Abdiel", in cooperation with the minelaying submarine and "Abdiel"s sister ship , laid several minefields with about 2,000 mines in the Strait of Sicily.On 9 January 1943, after "Abdiel" laid a minefield across the Axis evacuation route from Tunisia,the escort of an Italian convoy ran into it and the destroyer (1,645 tons) was sunk, while the destroyer (1,440 tons) was severely damaged.