Converting to Spitfires and developing skills in oblique photography occupied the Squadron for some months in Syria before flying over to Italy.
My late father, fresh from completing the No. 1 BFTS Course in Texas and the No. 2 Flying Instructors Course in Montrose, was posted to the Squadron to help with both the conversion and the photography.
The Army was initially sceptical as to whether the Squadron would be able to provide what it required, namely an accurate picture of the Germans on the ground and to reduce the risk of Italians being accidentally targeted.
Photographs of this quality (from my late father's albums, and I have uploaded a blow-up of just one part of it) persuaded the Army that the Squadron could deliver. But flying low and straight involved risk from the German defensive positions and a number of the pilots were shot down in the same way that Garland was, but not always with such a happy outcome.