In late October 1941 Devonshire was in the South Atlantic, patrolling between Freetown and Simonstown, when trawlers of the South African Defence Force sighted a convoy of five French merchant ships, escorted by the French sloop D’Iberville, which was en route from vichy-held Madagascar into the South Atlantic and steaming well south of Cope Town. Devonshire, which was at Simonstown, was ordered to intercept and on 1st November she sailed south. Next day she rendezvoused with Colombo and the armed merchant cruiser Carthage, and they were later joined by Carnarvon Castle. The French convoy was sighted during the afternoon and next day, having refused to be diverted to South African ports, the merchant ships were boarded and sent in to Cape Town with prize crews. The sloop D’Iberville, being outgunned by the two cruisers and two armed merchant cruisers, was forced to part company with her convoy and move away to the west. With the operation over Devonshire steamed into the Indian Ocean to escort the troopship Viceroy of India, after which she moved into the Atlantic Ocean to head north for Freetown.

Nine days after leaving Simonstown, at 07.10 on Saturday 22 November, in a position Lat 040 - I0'S/180 - 45'W, some 1,000 miles west of Gabon, the observer in the cruiser's Walrus aircraft sighted a suspicious merchant ship to the west. Devonshire immediately altered course to close the position and 50 minutes later the merchant ship was sighted. By this time the aircrewman had given a description of the ship and after consulting the weekly intelligence report and a copy of the 23 June 1941 issue of Life magazine, it was strongly suspected that the ship was the German armed raider Atlantis, or ‘Raider C' as she was known to British Intelligence. The ship's frequent alterations of course deepened suspicions in the minds of those on Devonshire's bridge

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