During Operation MA 5, a planned air attack on Italian airfields in Sardinia, Escort was torpedoed by the Guglielmo Marconi on 11 July after the attack had been cancelled due to lack of surprise. Exmoor returned to patrol and escort duty in the central Mediterranean in August 1943, but later than month was selected to participate in Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings at Salerno on the mainland of Italy planned for September 1943.