On 4 June 1940, Shikari was the last ship to leave Dunkirk. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Shikari was re-armed and from January 1940 carried out convoy escort operations.[5] At the end of May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was trapped by German forces at Dunkirk, and it was decided to launch Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk, and Shikari was one of the destroyers that took part in the operation,[19] carrying out her first evacuation trip on 28 May, making a second trip on 29 May.[20] On 29 May, Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord, ordered the withdrawal of modern destroyers from the Dunkirk operations owing to the high losses, putting greater pressure on old destroyers such as Shikari.[21] On 1 June, the steamer Prague was badly damaged by near misses from German artillery and bombing. Shikari, along with the sloop Shearwater and the paddle minesweeper Queen of Thanet, took off Prague's load of 3,000 French troops before Prague beached herself on the Sandwich Flats. Shikari herself was damaged by German bombing on 1 June.[22][23] Shikari continued to make evacuation runs and at 03:40 on the night of 3/4 June 1940 was the last ship to leave Dunkirk.[23][24] In total, Shikari made seven trips to Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo, embarking 3349 troops.[25] After Dunkirk, Shikari returned to escort work, and on 4 July, when the cargo ship Dallas City was damaged by German dive bombers and then collided with Flimstone, Shikari took off the crew of Dallas City before the cargo ship sank, surviving unscathed when attacked by German bombers.[26] On 24 July, the French troopship Meknès, repatriating French sailors after the French armistice with Germany, was torpedoed by the German Schnellboot S.27, and Shikari, together with the destroyers Sabre, Viscount and Wolverine rescued the survivors.[27] Winser, John de S. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6.