Beograd-class destroyer

two naval ships side by side alongside a dock with mountains in the background
The name ship of the class, Beograd, (right) and the flotilla leader Dubrovnik in the Bay of Kotor after being captured by Italy in April 1941
Class overview
NameBeograd class
Builders
Operators
Preceded byDubrovnik
Succeeded bySplit
Built1937–1939
In service1939–1945
Planned3
Completed3
Lost3
General characteristics
Class and typeDestroyer
Displacement
  • 1,210 tonnes (1,190 long tons) (standard)
  • 1,655 tonnes (1,629 long tons) (full load)
Length98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam9.45 m (31 ft 0 in)
Draught3.18 m (10 ft 5 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi)
Complement145
Armament

The Beograd class of destroyers consisted of three ships built for the Yugoslav Royal Navy in the late 1930s, a variant of the French Bourrasque class. Beograd was constructed in France and Zagreb and Ljubljana were built in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In January 1940, Ljubljana struck a reef off the port of Šibenik, and was still under repair when the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia commenced in April 1941. During the invasion, Zagreb was scuttled to prevent its capture, and the other two ships were captured by the Italians. The Royal Italian Navy operated Beograd and Ljubljana as convoy escorts between Italy, the Aegean Sea, and North Africa, under the names Sebenico and Lubiana respectively. Lubiana was lost in the Gulf of Tunis in April 1943; Sebenico was seized by the Germans in September 1943 after the Italian surrender and was subsequently operated by the German Navy as TA43. There are conflicting reports about the fate of TA43, but it was lost in the final weeks of the war.

In 1967, a French film was made about the scuttling of Zagreb. In 1973, the President of Yugoslavia and wartime Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito posthumously awarded the two officers who scuttled Zagreb with the Order of the People's Hero.