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. At the time Yugoslavia entered World War II as a result of the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Beograd and her sister ships were allocated to the 1st Torpedo Division at the Bay of Kotor. To prevent a bridgehead being established at Zara, an Italian enclave on the Dalmatian coast, Beograd, four 250t-class torpedo boats and six motor torpedo boats were dispatched to the port of Šibenik, to the south of Zara, in preparation for an attack. The attack was to be coordinated with the 12th Infantry Division Jadranska and two combined regiments of the Royal Yugoslav Army attacking from the Benkovac area, supported by the Royal Yugoslav Air Force's 81st Bomber Group. The Yugoslavs launched their attack on 9 April, but the naval prong of the attack faltered when Beograds starboard engine was put out of action after a series of near misses from Italian aircraft off Šibenik. The destroyer then limped to the Bay of Kotor for repairs, escorted by the remainder of the force. She was captured there by Italian forces on 17 April.
