after the french surrender on 22 june, the royal navy attacked the ships in mers-el-kébir, french algeria, on 3 july to prevent them from being turned over to the germans. to avoid an attack on the ships based nearby in oran, they steamed for toulon and "tartu" was one of the ships that rendezvoused with them en route and escorted them to toulon. the vichy french reformed the fhm on 25 september after it negotiated rules limiting the force's activities and numbers with the italian and german armistice commissions. "tartu" was in reserve until she was assigned to it on 15 november. after the allies invaded french lebanon and syria in june 1941, "tartu", "cassard" and the heavy cruiser transported a battalion of infantry from algiers, french algeria, to marseilles that was intended to reinforce the levant between 30 june and 1 july. shortly afterwards, "tartu" began a refit that lasted from 4 july to 4 august. the ship was transferred to algiers, french algeria, in early december to prepare to escort the damaged battleship back to toulon in february 1942. after the allies invaded french north africa on 8 november, the germans attempted to capture the french ships in toulon intact on 27 november, but the ship was scuttled by her crew. "tartu" settled to the harbor bottom and took on a list; salvage attempts were abandoned on 11 december 1943. her wreck was struck by bombs during three allied air raids in march–april 1944 during the war and her wreck was broken up in 1956.