The Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) replaced her guns and used her as a gunboat for harbour protection and coastal escort duties, briefly as Alba then Zagabria.

After the Italian armistice with the Allies in September 1943, Zagabria escaped capture by the Germans and was returned to the Yugoslav Royal Navy-in-exile in December that year.

During her construction, the plans were varied several times by the Yugoslav government,[1] so that she was completed as a royal yacht for use by the regent Prince Paul during peacetime.

[1] Beli Orao, named after the double-headed white eagle on the Yugoslav coat of arms,[3] was laid down on 23 December 1938, launched on 3 June 1939, and completed on 29 October of that year, after World War II had broken out.

[1][4][5] When Beli Orao was completed, Yugoslavia had not yet been drawn into the war, but she was immediately pressed into service to replace the admiralty yacht Vila, which was used by senior admirals for transport and to review fleet exercises.

[3] Domainko was allowed to sail in Beli Orao to Herceg Novi at the mouth of the bay, but returned to Kotor to surrender the ship.

[8] Zagabria was then attached to the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) school at La Spezia on the Ligurian Sea, where she was equipped with hydrophones for detecting submarines.

On 19 September, she departed for Valletta in the British Crown Colony of Malta with the Gabbiano-class corvettes Folaga and Gru, but had to turn back to deliver the Italian admiral Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, to Taranto in southern Italy, as the terms of the armistice did not allow him to leave the country.

[3] The flotilla conducted operations in the Adriatic late in the war, under Commander Konstantin Jeremić,[3] based at Ancona on the eastern coast of Italy from 1 April 1945.

Her ship's bell, wheel and the Yugoslav coat of arms she carried during her service are preserved at the Croatian Maritime Museum in Split.