On the night of 13/14 June she participated in Operation "Vado", the bombardment of Genoa and Vado, Italy by the Third Squadron. The Vado Group included the cruisers "Foch" and "Algérie" and the Genoa Group included the cruisers "Dupleix" and "Colbert". The bombardment cause little damage as Group Genoa fired at the wrong target and half of Group Vado shells fell into the sea. The squadron returned to Toulon by mid-day on 14 June. "Foch" suffered a steering malfunction but returned safely. On 25 June the Franco-German Armistice took effect and La Marine National ceased all offensive operations. On 3 July with the ill-conceived British attack on Mers-el-Kébir, the battleship had escape undamaged, the Fourth Cruiser Division had sailed from Algiers to Oran. The Fourth failed to link up with "Strasbourg" so they sailed for Toulon. "Algérie", "Foch" and "Colbert" with twelve contre-torpilleurs sailed from Toulon to rendezvous with the French forces sailing north to France. They linked up with the Fourth in the early morning of 4 July and returned to Toulon. "Strasbourg" arrived later that evening. In August 1940 "Colbert" underwent a refit to upgrade her light anti-aircraft weapons. The quad 13.2 mm machineguns were finally installed during this refit. When completed she was placed in care and maintenance with a reduced crew. On 1 January 1941 she was activated to replace "Dupleix" in the Forces de haute mer.