Beograd was the lead ship of her class of destroyers, built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in France during the late 1930s, and designed to be deployed as part of a division led by the flotilla leader Dubrovnik.

She entered service in April 1939, was armed with a main battery of four 120 mm (4.7 in) guns in single mounts, and had a top speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph).

When Yugoslavia entered World War II due to a German-led Axis invasion in April 1941, she was damaged by a near miss during an air attack, and was then captured by the Italians.

After refitting, she saw extensive service with the Royal Italian Navy from August 1941 to September 1943, completing over 100 convoy escort missions in the Mediterranean under the name Sebenico, mainly on routes between Italy and the Aegean and North Africa.

The endurance requirement reflected Yugoslav plans to deploy the ships to the central Mediterranean, where they would be able to cooperate with French and British warships.

[5][6][7] She carried 120 tonnes (120 long tons) of fuel oil,[5] which gave her a range of 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi).

[5][9][10] Her secondary armament consisted of four Škoda 40 mm (1.6 in) anti-aircraft (AA) guns[11] in two twin mounts, located on either side of the aft shelter deck.

[12] Less than a month after being commissioned, Beograd was sent to the United Kingdom with a large part of Yugoslavia's gold reserve, 7,344 ingots, to be lodged with the Bank of England for safekeeping.

[19] On 18 October 1941, off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the British submarine HMS Ursula sank a steamer that was under escort by a force that included Sebenico.

According to the naval historian M. J. Whitley, it is likely that her aft torpedo tubes were removed towards the end of her time in Italian hands in order to make space for additional anti-aircraft armament, but the details of what weapons may have been fitted are not known.

According to Roger Chesneau, she was sunk at the port of Trieste by Yugoslav People's Army artillery fire on 30 April 1945, and was raised in June 1946, probably to remove her as a navigation hazard, and she was scuttled a month later.