the situation on 3 June; had been lost in May, ones had been delivered and Fighter Command had aircraft but the Cabinet refused to increase the three AASF fighter squadrons. The Air Staff found it difficult to explain away the success of tactical operations but claimed that air superiority was due to the advance of the German armies and that it was unworkable for armies in retreat, which became a self-fulfilling prophecy. After the Battle of France, the Air Ministry continue to define air superiority as the possession of more bombers than an opposing air force, despite the period from 1939 to late 1940 exploding many interwar theories of warfare. Land battles had not resembled those of the First World War and bombers had not ended wars in a few weeks. The Air Staff emphasised the value of ground strafing, which had been demonstrated by the Hurricane squadrons of the AASF and the Air Component, rather than bombing in support of the army. Casualties The Battle squadrons suffered a loss on 10 May, on 11 May and on 12 May. In the number of operational AASF bombers fell from On 14 May the AASF made a maximum effort, sending and eight Blenheims to attack targets near Sedan; more than half were lost, cumulative AASF losses reaching In three weeks more than had been shot down and killed. The remaining bombers began to operate mostly at night and from 15 May to 5 June losses fell to albeit with much reduced bombing accuracy. In 2017, Greg Baughen wrote that an Air Ministry study estimated that from 5 to 15 June, the AASF Battles had flown sorties for a loss of a rate. Although the loss of RAF records during the made totals unreliable, the loss rate was probably the same and while high, the losses contrasted favourably with the rate from 10 to 15 May. Blenheim losses averaged but from 20 May, when they received escorts, the rate fell to Martin Maryland bombers of the had a loss rate of the lowest of the Allied day bombers. In the ten days from the beginning of until the return of the Battle squadrons to Britain, the 2 Group Blenheims flew and the sorties contributing of the total, a considerable achievement for six squadrons. From 10 May to 24 June the AASF lost and the Air Component another five weeks, the RAF lost