The ship served in that role for a short time, being decommissioned on 1 February 1965 and broken up as the part of a wider Swedish naval programme of retiring destroyers and frigates.

The Göteborg or City class were a development of the Ehrensköld-class destroyer with a higher speed achieved by introducing superheating and lightening the structure through using welding rather than rivets.

After the success of the first two members of the class, Göteborg and Stockholm, both laid down in 1933, the Swedish Riksdag authorised an additional two ships of the same design in 1936.

[4] Power was provided by three Penhoët oil-fired boilers feeding two de Laval geared steam turbines driving two shafts.

New materials allowed the boilers to be superheated to 125 °C (257 °F), which raised the rated power to e 32,000 shaft horsepower (24,000 kW) to give a design speed of 39 knots (72 km/h; 45 mph).

[5] A total of 150 t (150 long tons) of fuel oil was carried to give a range of 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

[4] Malmö was laid down by Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad in Gothenburg, launched on 22 September 1938 and commissioned on 15 August the following year.

[11] The vessel also provided escort to merchant ships travelling in Swedish waters and, during October 1941, was involved in the evacuation of Gotland to Nynäshamn.