The Gerard Callenburgh class were a group of four destroyers ordered for the Royal Netherlands Navy just before World War II.

Two ships were completed - Gerard Callenburgh by the Germans after being captured and Isaac Sweers in Britain after being evacuated as the Netherlands fell to the Nazis.

She was one of the German ships sent to intercept the Operation Neptune invasion armada, but they were themselves engaged by a squadron consisting of Tartar, Ashanti, Eskimo, Javelin, Haida, Huron and Błyskawica).

Isaac Sweers was, unlike her sister Philips Van Almonde, launched and then towed to England by the tug Zwarte Zee.

She went on to serve in the Mediterranean Sea with Force H. In December 1941, together with Sikh, Maori and Legion she sank the Italian cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano in the Battle of Cape Bon.