After this, the squadron was deployed to Italy, operating from Grottaglie from November 1943. This resulted in numerous detachments and a major series of fighter-intruder and fighter-bomber missions. Some were in support of Yugoslav Partisans in the Balkans, some flew on into the Danube basin with the objective of destroying oil barges supplying fuel to Germany from the Romanian oil fields and some, during the autumn of 1944, headed south-east over the southern Aegean Sea with the objective of harassing the Wehrmacht's eventual retreat from the fighting in the Dodecanese Islands. Also, very successfully, the squadron provided air cover for Allied ground troops in the vicinity of Ancona, Italy, where a number of Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers operating without fighter escort were shot down by the squadron's Beaufighters.