By mid February 1942, the situation regarding serviceability was so grave, that No 232 was merged with No 242 and its ground crews were evacuated to Ceylon.

Leaving the UK in November, the ground echelon arrived in Gibraltar, being joined by the aircrew and aircraft in December.

It moved to North Africa in early December under the command of Archibald Winskill and immediately began undertaking ground attack and fighter operations in support of 1st Army, continuing this task until the end of the North African campaign.

Re-equipped with Spitfire IXs, it moved to Corsica in April 1944 and took part in the Allied landing on the South Coast of France, remaining in France to support the Allied advance north until October 1944, when it returned to Naples and disbanded on 31 October.

These were taken to India in February where it immediately began carrying out transport flights throughout South-East Asia.