in august 1941 the squadron became a tactical reconnaissance unit and it began re-equipping with the faster curtiss tomahawk. it re-equipped with the early allison v-1710 powered mark i version of the north american mustang in april 1942, continuing to operate within raf army cooperation command. during spring and summer 1943 the mustangs were flown on "lagoon" low level shipping reconnaissance flights over the north sea to near the dutch coast, calling in heavy coastal command strike aircraft when enemy shipping was located.