Beograd-class destroyer

The name ship of the class, Beograd, (right) and the flotilla leader in the Bay of Kotor after being captured by Italy in April 1941

The Beograd class of destroyers consisted of three ships built for the Yugoslav Royal Navy in the late 1930s, a variant of the French . was constructed in France, and and 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 Italians captured the other two ships. 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 war's final weeks.

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.

Background

Following the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the conclusion of World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS) was created. Austria-Hungary transferred the vessels of the former Austro-Hungarian Navy to the new nation. The Kingdom of Italy was unhappy with this and convinced the Allies to share the Austro-Hungarian ships among the victorious powers. As a result, the only modern sea-going vessels left to the KSCS were 12 torpedo boats,Template:Sfn and it had to build its naval forces almost from scratch.Template:Sfn

The name of the state was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. In the early 1930s, the Yugoslav Royal Navy (Template:Lang-sh-Latn; Template:Lang-sh-Cyrl; KM) pursued the flotilla leader concept, which involved building large destroyers similar to the World War I Royal Navy V and W-class destroyers,Template:Sfn and drew on the experience of the French Navy during the Adriatic Campaign of World War I.Template:Sfn In the interwar French Navy, these ships were intended to operate with smaller destroyers, or as half-flotillas of three ships. The Royal Yugoslav Navy decided to build three such flotilla leaders, ships that could reach high speeds and have long endurance. The endurance requirement reflected Yugoslav plans to deploy the ships to the central Mediterranean, where they would be able to operate alongside French and British warships. This resulted in the construction of the destroyer in 1930–1931. Soon after she was ordered, the onset of the Great Depression meant that only one ship of the planned half-flotilla was ever built.Template:Sfn

Although the other two planned large destroyers would not be built, the idea that Dubrovnik might operate with several smaller destroyers persisted. In 1934, buoyed by a special credit of 500 million dinars for an enlargement and modernisation program,Template:Sfn the KM decided to acquire three such destroyers to operate in a division led by Dubrovnik.Template:Sfn The Beograd class was a variant of the French , which had a strong main battery hampered by a slow rate-of-fire and combined with a weak anti-submarine suite. The French design was also top-heavy, and the forward section of the hull was too narrow, resulting in a wet forecastle in any sea state. These characteristics were combined with limited endurance.Template:Sfn

The name ship of the class, , was built by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire at Nantes, France. In contrast, the remaining ships of the class, and , were built by Jadranska brodogradilišta at Split, Yugoslavia, under French supervision. Two more ships of the class were planned but not built.Template:Sfn The Jadranska brodogradilišta shipyard at Kraljevica was responsible for the construction and delivery of boilers and other machinery.Template:Sfn

Description and construction

The ships had an overall length of , a beam of , and a normal draught of . Their standard displacement was , increasing to at full load.Template:Sfn Beograd was powered by Curtis steam turbines, and Zagreb and Ljubljana used Parsons steam turbines. Regardless of the turbines used, they drove two propellers, using steam generated by three Yarrow water-tube boilers. Their turbines were rated at and they were designed to propel the ships at a top speed of , although they were only able to reach a practical top speed of in service.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn They carried of fuel oil,Template:Sfn which gave them a radius of action of .Template:Sfn Their crews consisted of 145 personnel, including officers and enlisted men.Template:Sfn

Main armament consisted of four Škoda L/46Template:Refn superfiring guns in single mounts, two forward of the superstructure and two aft, protected by gun shields.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Secondary armament consisted of four Škoda L/67 anti-aircraft gunsTemplate:Sfn in two twin-gun mounts, located on either side of the aft shelter deck.Template:Sfn The ships were also equipped with two triple mounts of torpedo tubes and two machine guns.Template:Sfn Their fire-control systems were provided by the Dutch firm of Hazemayer.Template:Sfn As built, they could also carry 30 naval mines.Template:Sfn

Ships

List of Beograd-class destroyers

Ship	BuilderTemplate:Sfn	Laid downTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	LaunchedTemplate:Sfn	CommissionedTemplate:Sfn	Fate
	Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Nantes	1936	23 December 1937	28 April 1939	Template:Indented plainlist
	Jadranska brodogradilišta, Split		30 March 1938	August 1939	Template:Indented plainlist
			28 June 1938	December 1939	Template:Indented plainlist

Service

At the time of the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, only Beograd and Zagreb had been commissioned, with Ljubljana being brought into service three months after the war started. Their only significant pre-war task was undertaken by Beograd in May 1939 and involved transporting a large portion of Yugoslavia's gold reserve to the United Kingdom for safekeeping.Template:Sfn On 24 January 1940, Ljubljana ran into a reef off the Yugoslav port of Šibenik. The hull side was breached, and despite efforts to get the ship into the port, it sank close to shore, and some of the crew swam to safety. One crew member died, and the captain was arrested pending an investigation.Template:Sfn

When Yugoslavia was invaded by the German-led Axis powers on 6 April 1941, Beograd and Zagreb were allocated to the 1st Torpedo Division at the Bay of Kotor along with Dubrovnik,Template:Sfn but Ljubljana was still under repair at Šibenik.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 9 April, Beograd and other vessels were tasked with supporting an attack on the Italian enclave of Zara on the Dalmatian coast, but the naval prong of the attack was aborted when Beograd suffered engine damage from near misses by Italian aircraft. She returned to the Bay of Kotor for repairs.Template:Sfn Beograd and Ljubljana were captured in port by Italian forces on 17 April,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but on the same day, two of Zagreb's officers scuttled her to prevent her capture, and were killed by the resulting explosions.Template:Sfn

In Italian service, Beograd and Ljubljana were repaired, re-armed, and renamed Sebenico and Lubiana respectively. Sebenico was commissioned into the Royal Italian Navy in August 1941, and Lubiana in October or November 1942. They both served mainly as convoy escorts between Italy and the Aegean and North Africa, with Sebenico completing more than 100 convoy escort missions over a two-year period. Neither ship was involved in any notable action.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 1 April 1943, Lubiana was either sunk off the Tunisian coast by British aircraft,Template:Sfn or ran aground in the Gulf of Tunis and was lost.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sebenico was captured by the Germans in Venice after the Italian Armistice in September 1943 in a damaged condition. She was repaired, re-armed, and renamed TA43 and entered service in the Kriegsmarine (German Navy).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn TA43 served on escort and mine-laying duties in the northern Adriatic Sea, but saw little action.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn One source states that she was damaged by artillery fire on 30 April 1945 at Trieste and then scuttled,Template:Sfn with others suggesting she was scuttled on 1 May.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A 1967 French film, Flammes sur l'Adriatique (Adriatic Sea of Fire), portrayed the scuttling of Zagreb and the events leading up to it.Template:Sfn In 1973, the President of Yugoslavia and wartime Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito posthumously awarded the Order of the People's Hero to the two officers who scuttled Zagreb.Template:Sfn