Duguay-Trouin, the namesake of her class, was developed as the first French post-WW1 cruiser, launched on 14 August 1923. During the interwar period, she served as a convoy escort and gunnery training ship. In WW2, she unsuccessfully attempted to intercept Deutschland-class ships. After the French surrender, she joined Force X and became interned at Alexandria. After Case Anton, she joined Allied forces with the rest of Force X, and in 1943 underwent a refit. In 1944, she carried troops between Algeria, Corsica, and southern Italy. Following that, she participated in Operation Dragoon - amphibious landings in Southern France. Finally, she assisted Allied forces by bombarding Axis positions along the Italian coast. As the war ended, she took part in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata massacres and ferried troops between France and Algeria. After a refit, she assisted French forces during the Malagasy Uprising in Madagascar and, from late October 1948 till September 1951 she was stationed in Singapore during the First Indochina War. She finally arrived back in Toulon in November 1951, after travelling over 70,000 nautical miles in the last 4 years. The vessel was so worn out that a decision was made to decommission her in March 1952 and sell her for breaking up in 1953, after serving one of the longest careers of the warships of her time.
The Duguay-Trouin was the second pre-order vessel, after Aigle, announced for the introduction of the French navy to War Thunder. She was added to the game in Update "Sky Guardians". Following the addition of the rest of the French navy in Update "La Royale" she was removed from the War Thunder store after the 11th Anniversary sale. She's best characterized by her excellent sustained firepower against enemy destroyers or light cruisers, along with relatively good survivability. She lacks the shells to counter heavily armoured warships or protection against a large volume of incoming High Explosive shells. Given the opportunity, she can be used to great effect in pushing the capture points or asserting the numeric advantage by dealing with the smaller vessels of the opposing force.