HSMS Upsalla (DD-1931)

HSMS Trondheim (DD-1935)

HSMS Wasa (DD-1941)

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This series of destroyers spanned over 10 years of production and the series underwent 3 major design changes during their construction. The Upsalla class of six ships were ordered as the first replacements for the older WW1 destroyers that were approaching the end of their front line service lives. The design of the Upsalla class was to be the first ships to mount the new 4.7" dual purpose guns but these were not ready when the final design was being promulgated, so what turned out to be the very sucessfull twin 3.9" DP turret was substituted, instead. Space for three turrets was made. The flush deck design with the sweeping recurved bow made for very elegant lines.

This design was replaced in turn with the original design with the twin 4.7" which became the Trondheim sub-class. Differences in the placement of the bridge structure and after bridge due to the differing sizes of the 3.9" and 4.7" turrets. Eighteen of these two classes were built during the 1930's and they became the standard destroyer class of the Scandinavian Navy.

The final variant was the Wasa sub-class. When the Scandinavians went looking for a vessel of destroyer size to take advantage of the new 100mm and 50mm fully automatic weapon systems, they turned to the very sucessfull hull of the Upsalla type. The advent of the Second World War meant that the original order for eight units was expanded to sixteen then finally orders for twenty six were placed the final four being ordered in 1944 and completed post-war.

The first four units copied the original turbine machinery and the short ranged bunkerage that went with it. From unit five onwards newly developed diesel machinery from Scania was fitted. While less powerful than the turbines, the diesels more than doubled the range of the ships and allowed them to operate with the new Gota Lejon class aircraft carrier. The first 10 units carried the same two quad 21.5" torpedo tubes as the other sub-classes but from unit eleven the new Snaab homing and ASW torpedo system was fitted to the ships. The Snaab torpedo system was retroactively fitted to the first ten as and when the ships went through their normal refit cycles. All three sub-classes featured four single 20mm mounted in the bridge superstructure, these were retained throughout as being the only light AA guns able to fire forward.

The twin 100mm auto turret was a large advance over the previous semi-auto weapons. The biggest drawback was that the barrels needed to be changed frequently as they suffered overheating from the high rate of fire.

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