The only change of note was that from April 1943 the Squadron became known as 208 Fighter Reconnaissance Squadron instead of 208 Army Co-operation Squadron. Training continued through the Summer while the Squadron moved to Rayak in Syria. The pilots became despondent about the lack of demands from the Army for reconnaissance flights and wondered whether they would ever see operations again. However, on 8th September there was great jubilation on the Squadron when it learned of the unconditional surrender of Italy against whom it had operated for a long period at the beginning of the war. Training was stepped up to improve fighter and evasion tactics and interceptions while strafing sorties were carried out for the Mountain Warfare Training School. By the middle of the month the Squadron was loaned a Spitfire for pilots to gain experience on type, a hopeful sign for the future.
In November the Squadron moved once more,
this time to El Bassa in Palestine, to train with the 7th Army Group Royal Artillery practising photo- dropping and vertical and oblique photography. In December, the long awaited news arrived that the Squadron was to be re-equipped with Spitfires Vs and one flight was moved to Muqeibila and then Megidda to practise flying the new aircraft, the runway at El Bassa being too short. By January, the Squadron, equipped with sixteen Spitfires, took part in an exercise in the Cairo-Suez area and so impressed the Army with its accuracy in pinpointing targets that it was suspected of ‘fixing”! The Spitfire was found to be better equipped for photographic work and both vertical and oblique results proved successful on the exercise.
In February t
wo flights moved to Barsis, Cyrenaica to carry out the depressing duty of shipping patrols. However this order was cancelled on arrival at Barsis and the Squadron joyfully learned that it was destined for operations in Italy. The Squadron therefore completed an about face and travelled the 1,550 miles back to Megidda again. By the beginning of March personnel were on their way to Italy happy in the knowledge that they were to be rearmed with Spitfire IXs.
