He also ordered that patrols should be made a speed of , not the leisurely used by "Léon Gambetta"s late captain. After the Italian declaration of war on 23 May, the French ships withdrew further into the Mediterranean and Ionian Seas with the 2nd DL ultimately basing itself at Alexandria, Egypt, Bizerte, French Tunisia, and British Malta; the division was responsible for patrolling the area between Capo Colonna in southern Italy and the easternmost point of the Greek island of Crete. At the end of 1915, the French and British decided that the Serbian Army's position in Montenegro and Albania was untenable and that it would have to be evacuated. "Victor Hugo" helped transfer some of the evacuees from Brindisi, Italy, to Bizerte in early January. The Allies occupied the neutral island of Corfu on 9 January to provide a place for the Serbs to recuperate and to rebuild their army. In March, they occupied the Greek island of Argostoli to serve as a base for the battlefleet while the armored cruisers were based further north at Corfu. The Royal Serbian Army deemed fit for combat in May and the French armored cruisers provided distant cover for the transfer to the Salonica Front until it was completed on 15 June. Shortages of coal and trained manpower hampered most training for the rest of the year and became worse in 1917. As tensions rose between the Allies and the neutral Greek government in early 1917, "Victor Hugo" and the armored cruiser were tasked to patrol the Gulf of Corinth and prevent any Greek troops from moving from their positions in the Peloponnese across the bridge over the Corinth Canal on 28 April to interfere with Allied operations in Athens. The 2nd DL landed a company of Senegalese troops on 11 June and reinforced them with machine-gun armed sailors until King Constantine I abdicated the following day and a pro-Allied government was installed. On 12 August, the 2nd DL was disbanded with "Victor Hugo" reduced to reserve at Bizerte and "Jules Ferry" was assigned to transport duties for the next year. "Victor Hugo" was reactivated in 1921 and assigned to the Atlantic Flying Division (). The following year she was transferred to the Far Eastern Division (). Departing on 12 October 1922 with "Jules Michelet", they arrived in Saigon, French Indochina, on 19 April 1923. Her service there was uneventful and the ship arrived back in Toulon on 11 July at which time she was placed in reserve.