on 27 august 1939, in anticipation of war with nazi germany, the french navy planned to reorganize the mediterranean fleet into the fhm of three squadrons. when france declared war on 3 september, the reorganization was ordered and the 3rd light squadron, which included the 5th and 9th scout divisions with all of the "vauquelin"-class ships, was assigned to the 3rd squadron. in mid-october "vauquelin" and "maillé brézé" escorted the heavy cruisers and to dakar, french west africa, and then escorted a convoy back home. the 5th scout division with "vauquelin", "le chevalier paul" and "tartu" was tentatively assigned to force z that would have been formed in early 1940 to support the finns during the winter war against the soviets if the finns hadn't been forced to sign the moscow peace treaty in march. three days after the french surrender on 22 june, all of the "vauquelin"s were stationed in toulon, except for "kersaint" in mers-el-kébir, french algeria.