During the Battle of Gabon in November, Savorgnan de Brazza sank one of her sister ships whose crew had sided with Vichy France.

Savorgnan de Brazza shot down a German bomber in March and was then transferred to the Indian Ocean where she rescued the survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in July.

Savorgnan de Brazza had Sulzer two-stroke engines rated at a total of 4,200 metric horsepower (3,089 kW; 4,143 bhp) for a designed speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).

The ships were fitted with a 3-metre (9 ft 10 in) Mle 1932 coincidence rangefinder on the roof of the bridge that fed data to the type aviso mechanical fire-control computer.

[4] The anti-aircraft armament of the Bougainville class consisted of four 50-caliber Canon de 37 mm (1.5 in) Mle 1925 AA guns in single mounts.

[6] Between the mainmast and the aft funnel, space was reserved for a reconnaissance seaplane, either a Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY floatplane or a Potez 452 flying boat.

[9][10] Savorgnan de Brazza remained in the Far East until a few months after the start of the Second World War in September 1939 when she departed on 19 December to begin a lengthy refit at La Pallice.

The ship sailed to Cherbourg on 29 May to finish her refit which consisted of the addition of a 4-metre (13 ft 1 in) rangefinder on the bridge roof and the partial installation of a British Type 128A ASDIC.

[14] The German advance during the Battle of France, which threatened the harbours along the English Channel, caused the ship to depart Cherbourg for Britain on 18 June.

The ship was initially assigned convoy escort duties, but was soon ordered to support Operation Menace, the attempt to occupy Dakar in French West Africa.

Flying white flags, the boats were refused permission to land and Landriau, commander of the cruiser squadron in port, ordered the arrest of d'Argenlieu.

The motor boats hastily turned around and were engaged by a machine gun position on the jetty where they attempted to land, wounding d'Argenlieu.

Savorgnan de Brazza approached the harbour entrance in an attempt to rescue the men, but was driven off by 100-millimetre (3.9 in) fire from the battleship Richelieu.

Based at British Aden, she then spent most of the rest of the year patrolling the Red Sea as part of the blockade of Djibouti, French Somaliland.

[20] Relieved by the aviso Commandant Dominé in January 1942, Savorgnan de Brazza departed Aden on the 11th for an overhaul[20] at the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, Northumberland.

[12] The ship's anti-submarine weapons were replaced by their British equivalent to simplify her logistical requirements and she received the latest small-ship radars to improve her ability to find and sink submarines.

Two months later, the ship set sail for the Indian Ocean, arriving at Tamatave, French Madagascar, on 7 July and then Le Port, Réunion, on 12 August.

[25] That same day the German submarine U-181 torpedoed and sank the British cargo ship Clan Macarthur in the Indian Ocean 350 nautical miles (650 km) east of Farafangana in Madagascar.

Savorgnan de Brazza would continue to alternate service in Vietnam with tours at home until her final departure from Saigon on 16 October 1953.