Following shakedown, Beatty escorted the Norwegian tanker Britainsea and Barstowe from the Isles of Shoals to Portland, Maine, on 8 August before she was detached for patrol duty and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training.

In company with Quick, the destroyer transported her high-ranking passenger to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Argentia, Newfoundland, before disembarking him at Portland on 22 August.

Clearing Trinidad shortly before noon on 16 September, Beatty joined Davis and Eberle in an antisubmarine sweep near Tobago Island.

Beatty then rendezvoused with a convoy on 17 September, escorting it to a dispersal point off Georgetown, British Guiana, and then heading back to Trinidad.

After shifting to San Juan, where she made port on the 23rd, Beatty sailed with Convoy NC-5, via Kingston, Jamaica, and Belize, Honduras, to New Orleans.

Beatty joined the transport area's antisubmarine screen at midnight and patrolled south of Bernadou and Cole as they circled slowly, waiting for the order to land their troops at Safi.

Enjoying the element of surprise, Beatty proceeded toward the beach, staying on Bernadou's starboard quarter as she and Cole began their movement shoreward.

At 0415, Beatty took her station along with other ships of the fire support group, and, at 0430, heard the prearranged code words "Play Ball."

Beatty lost communication with the Army troops on shore, and by 0520 maneuvered seaward toward the transport area, to take station in a screen before sunrise.

At 0640, she observed enemy fire from batteries at Point de la Tour, and saw some splashes close aboard and in the vicinity of the boat lane to the "Red" and "Blue" beaches.

She returned to the United States late in November and entered the New York Navy Yard for voyage repairs and alterations.

Ending the third cycle upon her arrival at New York on 28 April, Beatty underwent the usual voyage repairs and conducted type training before getting underway for Hampton Roads on 13 May.

Further type training in the Chesapeake Bay area followed, before she stood out of Hampton Roads on 8 June, as part of the escort for fast Convoy UGF-9, bound for Algeria.

After the neutralization of the landing zone, Beatty returned to the transport area to take up screening duties and to await contact with her shore fire control party (SFCP).

During the forenoon, Beatty observed enemy planes appearing low and fast out of the Valle Forte, over Lagi di Biviere, and from the valley just west of the Fiume Acati, strafing ground troops, bombing the beaches and seemingly disappearing almost as soon as they were seen.

The enemy planes "maintained their nuisance value the entire period of daylight," enjoying what almost amounted to immunity because "ships could not fire on them also without danger to (our) own forces."

Shell fragments hit Beatty's main deck and port side when tank landing craft (LCTs) nearby fired on "friendly" planes at 1847.

In just over three hours, Beatty hurled 799 rounds at targets designated by her spotters, inflicting what she suspected was a considerable amount of damage on the enemy positions.

Nevertheless, Beatty took station in the antisubmarine screen at 1140, and sent her men to general quarters several times during the afternoon due to air attacks on transport and beach areas.

At that point, Beatty's sailors could see that the plane was a United States Army Air Forces C-47 Skytrain troop transport.

The plane had disgorged her paratroops before she crash-landed at sea; her pilot, First Lieutenant P. J. Paccassi, USAAF, earned praise from Beatty's commanding officer for the skill with which he had landed his badly damaged aircraft.

Beatty remained on antisubmarine patrol until 2100 on 12 July, when she departed the Scoglitti area in the screen for a group of transports returning to Algeria.

On 2 September, while part of the antisubmarine screen of Section II of Convoy UGF-10, bound for Bizerte, Tunisia, Beatty went to general quarters upon the report of enemy aircraft in the vicinity.

Control identified one as a Ju 88, but a smoke screen obscured the view over the next few moments, and radar alternatively picked up and lost contacts in the heavy haze.

While Beatty strove to fight her assailants, one German plane managed to close to about 500 yards and dropped a torpedo which struck the ship near frame 124 at about 1813, only ten minutes after the start of action.

While a bucket brigade valiantly attempted to bail out the flooding compartments, Beatty's sailors jettisoned practically everything from ready ammunition to her searchlight and smoke generator.