She ferried ammunition to French Lebanon after it was invaded by the Allied forces in June 1941 and then unsuccessfully attempted to transport reinforcements there the following month.

During her sea trials on 7 April 1933, Vauquelin's Parsons turbines provided 79,846 PS (58,727 kW; 78,754 shp) and she reached 39.7 knots (73.5 km/h; 45.7 mph) for a single hour.

The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).

They were also fitted with a pair of depth-charge throwers, one on each broadside abreast the aft funnels, for which they carried a dozen 100-kilogram (220 lb) depth charges.

The Navy reconsidered its anti-submarine warfare tactics after the war began in September and reinstated the pair of depth-charge throwers, although these were an older model than the one previously installed.

[10] 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.

[13] The Vichy French government reestablished the FHM on 25 September after it negotiated rules limiting the force's activities and numbers with the Italian and German Armistice Commissions.

Chevalier Paul was sunk during the early morning of 16 June by torpedo bombers based in Cyprus and Vauquelin was dispatched the following day, carrying 800 rounds of 138.6 mm ammunition.

Undetected by the British, she reached Beirut on the 21st,[14] but was damaged the following day by three Bristol Blenheim bombers from the Royal Air Force's 11 Squadron that hit the ship six times, killing five crewmen and wounding seventeen.

[15] Vauquelin and the other two contre-torpilleurs, Guépard and Valmy originally based in Beirut, sailed on 29 June, bound for Thessaloniki in Axis-controlled Greece.

They loaded 450 men from a battalion of Algerian Light Infantry (Tirailleurs algériens) and 90 t (89 long tons) of supplies as reinforcements for Lebanon.

[16] Vauquelin was transferred to Algiers, French Algeria, in early December to prepare to escort the damaged battleship Dunkerque back to Toulon in February 1942.