As the Squadron’s role was Army co-operation the mechanical transport section had to be fully mobile in order to operate across country. It was divided into two echelons the first of which consisted of 32 Ford two and three ton trucks carrying sufficient equipment to enable the Squadron to operate for up to seven days. The second echelon consisted of 15 Fordson and Crossley six-wheelers and carried additional equipment including a more generous scale of tentage to back up the first echelon after a move. Heavy demands were to be placed upon the transports and their crews throughout the war in the Western Desert and suffice it to say that the Squadron could not have operated so closely with the Army had it not been for its own ability to remain mobile. As soon as the Squadron had established itself at Qasaba an intensive training programme was commenced with occasional reconnaissance flights down the frontier wire from Sollum to Fort Maddalena. Throughout the following months there was little to indicate that there was a war on and training continued unhindered. Periodically flights were detached to Heliopolis or other aerodromes in the vicinity for the purpose of participating in Command exercises or Army cooperation training. Nevertheless reconnaissance flights along the wire provided little to report. As soon as Italy entered the war in June 1940 one flight was moved to Sidi Barrani from which place daily reconnaissance flights were made of Bardia, Sidi Azeiz, Bir el Gobi, Fort Maddalena and the frontier wire. (see Map).
Bir el Gobi was being established as a perimeter camp and was constantly watched in case an advance was taking place from there to the East. During this time a few artillery reconnaissance shoots were carried out on Bardia with 60 pounder batteries. These were not particularly successful as there were insufficient fighters to provide the Squadron with an adequate escort and soon after the Lysander approached Bardia, Italian fighters took off from El Adem and forced a hasty retreat.
In June, due to the general advance of the 7th Armoured Division, under whose command the Squadron had been operating, Divisional headquarters were moved to Buqbuq.
