In anticipation of an Italian declaration of war, the , including the 8th Scout Division, assembled in Mers-el-Kébir, French Algeria, on 5–9 April 1940, only to return to Brest when the Germans invaded Norway on the 10th. On the night of 23/24 April 1940, the 8th Scout Division made a high-speed patrol of the Skagerrak, hoping to attack German merchantmen headed for Norway. They encountered two patrol boats and damaged one of them while also engaging a pair of S-boats to little effect and narrowly missed spotting a convoy of minelayers. "Le Malin" then began having engine problems and the ships were forced to reduce speed. Near-misses by German bombers damaged one of "Le Triomphant"s propeller shafts as they withdrew. "Le Malin" and "L'Indomptable" returned to Mers-el-Kébir on 9 May, but transferred shortly afterwards to nearby Algiers. She took part in a sortie by the into the Western Mediterranean on 12–13 June, after Italy declared war on the Allies on the 10th. "Le Malin" then began escorting convoys evacuating personnel from mainland France to French North Africa. and escorted cruisers fruitlessly searching for Italian cruisers on 23–24 June after an erroneous report that they were at sea. After the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July, the ship escorted the Algiers-based cruisers that failed to rendezvous with "Strasbourg" after she escaped from Mers-el-Kébir and later arrived at Toulon.