British fighters. 15–16 May After the AASF losses from 10 to 14 May, attacks on the Meuse bridgeheads on 15 may were made by Bomber Command squadrons based in England. German mobile forces broke out of the bridgehead at Sedan and at twelve Blenheims from 2 Group attacked German columns around Dinant as fighters patrolled in relays. The RAF sent another sixteen Blenheims escorted by fighters at to attack bridges near Samoy and German tanks at Monthermé and Mezières, from which four Blenheims were lost. On the night of 15/16 May around twenty Battles flew and attacked targets at Bouillon, Sedan and Monthermé for no loss but cloud cover made navigation and target finding difficult; fires were seen but no-one claimed great results. Night raids were suspended because Barratt expected the Germans to wheel south behind the Maginot Line and ordered the Battle squadrons to retire to bases around Troyes in southern Champagne, where during the Phoney War, the army and the RAF had prepared many airfields and several grass airstrips. Amid confusion cause by attacks on the airfields and roads full of troops and refugees, the squadrons began to retire, many of the Battle squadrons being out of action during the moves, which turned out to be unnecessary when the Germans drove west instead of south. The AASF had been deemed a static unit, protected by the Maginot Line and was short of even its slender establishment of vehicles. The AASF was fortunate that the Germans went west and there was time to fetch most of the equipment, using lorries from the US, loaned by the French, at the behest of the Air Attaché in Paris. Drivers were rushed by air from Britain but were ignorant of the vehicles, the locations of AASF bases and of France; someone loaded the starting handles, jacks and tools onto a lorry bound for the west coast, under the impression that they were superfluous spare parts. BAFF losses since 10 May stood at nine Lysander army co-operation aircraft and Bomber Command had lost mainly from 2 Group. The AASF and Air Component Hurricanes suffered 21 losses, half to Bf 110s and three to Bf 109s; five pilots were killed, two taken prisoner and four were wounded. The Hurricane pilots claimed fifty German aircraft, later reduced to 27 in a 1999 analysis by Cull, Lander and Weiss. On 16 May, 103 Squadron moved south