after her refit was completed on 18 january 1944, "steinbrinck" and her sister "theodor riedel" spent the first half of the year laying minefields at the entrance to the skaggerak and escorting convoys to and from norway. sometime in 1944, the ship had her radar replaced by a fumo 24 search radar and her foremast was rebuilt in a goal-post shape to allow the antenna to fully rotate. a fumo 63 k hohentwiel radar replaced the searchlight on its platform abaft the rear funnel. on 3 may the ship passed through the kiel canal en route to hamburg for a lengthy refit. while in the dockyard, she was struck by a bomb in the diesel generator room on 18 june. despite the extent of the damage, the dockyard reported that her refit would be completed as scheduled on 20 november. on 4 november another bomb detonated alongside "steinbrinck" and caused extensive flooding and shock damage from the explosion. the ship was patched up and towed to wesermünde for more thorough repairs, but her completion was seriously delayed. by 1 april 1945, only a single engine was operable and the kriegsmarine made the decision to strip her crew for combat duties ashore after she was moved to cuxhaven. she was still there in may when the germans surrendered.