Through August and into September of 1940 the tempo of war continued to rise. As the enemy forces advanced beyond the wire into Egypt the advanced flight was withdrawn from Sidi Barrani to Qasaba. From there daily reconnaissance flights were carried out on their progress and the building of their perimeter camps at Sidi Barrani, Nebeiwa, Bir Enba, Soffafi, Rabia, Half Way House and Halfaya Pass. At the same time one flight was detached to Siwa to watch Giarabub as recent intelligence reports indicated 
that an enemy column might be advancing from there. Photographs of these perimeter camps were taken almost daily and a fair idea was obtained of what the camps contained, but no great detail could be obtained by visual reconnaissance owing to the fact that the machines were kept up to about 4,000 feet by the light Breda anti-aircraft gun of which there was a considerable number in each camp. Also most vehicles seemed to be well camouflaged.
Few of these reconnaissances were ever escorted owing to the shortage of fighters and so no time was wasted over the area. The pilots just made a quick dash in and back dropping reconnaissance reports on our forward troops as required. For each particular area over which a reconnaissance was required the pilot carried a large scale sketch compiled from the photographs taken of the area. Onto this sketch reconnaissance details were written thus saving time in pinpointing. On 15th October, during a tactical reconnaissance sortie, the Squadron suffered its first casualty of the war due to enemy action. According to reports from an Egyptian frontier p
ost the Lysander was pursued down to the ground by three enemy fighters as it tried to evade their fire. Four pans of ammunition had been discharged by the rear gunner before the aircraft finally crashed killing both its occupants.
This unfortunate incident however did not deter the Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden MC, MP, Secretary of State for War, from flying in a Squadron aircraft, for on 22nd October he was flown to Siwa in company with GOC in C British Troops Egypt, General Sir H. Maitland-Wilson KCB, DSO, and for the occasion was escorted by five Squadron aircraft.
