Le Malin was the first of the Le Fantasque destroyers to be launched off slipway in 1933. With the beginning of World War Two, she was delegated to hunting down German commerce raiders in the central Atlantic. Following the fall of France, she avoided British attack on Mers-el-Kébir, and escorted surviving French ships to the mainland, fighting for Vichy France. In 1942, she underwent refit in Casablanca until the port was attacked by the US Navy. A near-miss from the battleship USS Massachusetts blew a hole in the hull of the vessel, killing 7 crewmen, disabling one of the boilers, and causing a significant list to the port. The vessel was captured by Americans and passed on to the Free French, but due to the lack of facilities she received only temporary repairs and was rebased to Boston, where she received repairs and refit (as modelled in-game). In service of the Free French, she participated in the Battle of Ist and numerous minor duties across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Post-war, she served as an escort vessel for French carriers, later being delegated to the role of a stationary training vessel and eventually a floating jetty before being stricken off in 1964.

Le Malin was introduced in Update "La Royale" and, typically for French destroyers, she features a combination of excellent speed with great firepower. However, her main guns suffer from being unable to rotate fast enough to keep up with the turn rate of the vessel, having horizontal targeting speed slower than most heavy cruisers. She's best used as a somewhat limited destroyer - to deal with enemy vessels (including light cruisers), and capture the points, preferably always keeping the enemies on one side of the vessel to ensure they remain within firing angles for as long as possible.