Completed in 1918, they were in service until shortly after the end of World War II in 1945.

Wrangel served as a target ship before she was sunk in 1960 and Wachtmeister was broken up for scrap in 1951.

The Wrangel class completed a line of Swedish 30-knot (56 km/h; 35 mph) destroyers, originating from HSwMS Wale.

Compared to contemporary destroyers in other navies, the ships were significantly smaller and more lightly armed, but they were improved versions of the preceding Hugin class and were the first Swedish destroyers to use single-reduction geared turbines.

The torpedo armament of the Wrangel-class destroyers consisted of 457 mm (18 in) torpedoes fired from two twin-tube mounts located on the centreline aft of the funnels and one single tube on each broadside between the second and third funnels.