Classic Battlefield Tours

02/02/2025

Lunch and talks at the RAF Club in London

A talk on the Lancaster bomber by a crew member Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

9th October 2025

12.30 to 16.00

The Lancaster bomber - PA474, acquired by the BBMF in 1973, is one of only two surviving airworthy examples of the type; the other is in Canada. She was completed on 31 May 1945 and assigned to reconnaissance duties at No. 82 Squadron RAF after appearing too late to take part in the bombing of Japan. After various duties, she was adopted by the Air Historical Branch for display work. She appeared in two films: Operation Crossbow and The Guns of Navarone.

PA474 displays the markings of bombs for operations over Germany, ice-cream cones for operations over Italy, and poppies when she releases poppies during exhibition flights. During the 2008 RAF Waddington AirDay, PA474 was flown in formation with the recently restored Avro Vulcan XH558in a historic display of two Avro "heavy metal" classics.

Formate of the day

Pre-lunch drinks 12:30

Lunch with wine at 13:00

Talk Begins at 14:30

The event finishes at 16:30

The cost per person is £175

Other talks

A unique talk with John Peters about his experiences in the first Gulf War.

5th June 2025

12.30 to 16.00

On his first mission during Operation Desert Storm, aged 29, an ultra-low level daylight mission on Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base, his Panavia Tornado GR.1 of XV Squadron was hit at fifty feet by a shoulder-launched SAM SA-14, and the military of Iraq captured him and his navigator (John Nichol). After capture, he was shown, bruised, and beaten, on television.

He received around 25,000 letters from well-wishers following the appearance. He said that he was "treated very specially" as a result of his experiences and found it difficult to live up to the image the public had of him. At the end of the war, he was released and returned to the RAF for a further ten years.

The cost per person is £175

A talk on the ‘Crisis at K*t’

by Alan Wakefield

12th March 2025

12.30 to 16.00

Crisis at K*t' talk covers the early days of the Mesopotamia campaign, Townshend's advance up the Tigris, the siege and attempted relief operations, and reasons for the failure to relieve the 6th (Poona) Division.

Alan Wakefield is a curator at the Imperial War Museum, London. He holds an MA in War Studies from King's College London. Alan has written a number of books and articles on various aspects of World War I.

The cost per person is £175

To book, please email me at: [email protected]

01/02/2025

Friedrich Paulus after his capture

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (23 September 1890 – 1 February 1957) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) during World War II who is best known for his surrender of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 to February 1943). The battle ended in disaster for the Wehrmacht when Soviet forces encircled the Germans within the city, leading to the ultimate death or capture of most of the 265,000-strong 6th Army, their Axis allies, and collaborators.

At first, Paulus refused to collaborate with the Soviets. However, after the attempted assassination of Hi**er on 20 July 1944, he became a vocal critic of the N**i regime, joining the Soviet-sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany which appealed to Germans to surrender. In response, Germany put his wife as well as his daughter Olga von K*tzschenbach into Sippenhaft. He later acted as a witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. He was allowed to move to the German Democratic Republic in 1953, two years before the repatriation of the remaining German POWs.

During the Nuremberg Trials, a journalist asked Paulus about the Stalingrad prisoners. He told the journalist to tell the wives and mothers that their husbands and sons were well. However, of the 91,000 German prisoners taken at Stalingrad, half had died on the march to Siberian prison camps, and nearly as many died in captivity; only about 6,000 survived and returned home.

After his return to the German Democratic Republic in 1953, Paulus gave a talk in Berlin on 2 July 1954 in the presence of Western journalists, titled "On the vital issues of our nation". In it, he paid respect to the memory of General Heinz Guderian, who had died a little over a month previously and criticized the political leaderships of the German Empire and N**i Germany for causing the defeats of the German Army in both world wars.

From 1953 to 1956, Paulus lived in Dresden, East Germany, where he worked as the civilian chief of the East German Military History Research Institute. In late 1956, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and became progressively weaker. He died a few months later, in Dresden, on 1 February 1957, aged 66.

31/01/2025

Panzer IV use after World War 2

The Panzerkampfwagen IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the Panzer IV, is a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War.

The Panzer IV was the most numerous German tank and the second-most numerous German fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle of the Second World War; 8,553 Panzer IVs of all versions were built during World War II, only exceeded by the StuG III assault gun with 10,086 vehicles.

The Panzer IV was partially succeeded by the Panther medium tank, which was introduced to counter the Soviet T-34, although it continued to be a significant component of German armoured formations to the end of the war. It was the most widely exported tank in German service, with around 300 sold to Finland, Romania, Spain, and Bulgaria.

While their numbers remain uncertain, Syria received around 60 Panzers that were refurbished in France between 1950 and 1952, followed by 50 others purchased from Czechoslovakia in 1954, per the Czechoslovakia-Syria arms deal. A Soviet 12.7mm DShK machine gun on an anti-aircraft mount was retrofitted on the cupola. These ex-German tanks were used to shell Israeli settlements below the Golan Heights, together with Soviet-supplied T-34s, and were fired upon in 1965 during the Water War by Israeli Super Sherman and Centurion tanks. Syria received 17 Panzer IVs from Spain, with these seeing combat during the Six-Day War in 1967. Panzer IVs also participated in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, with some dug in as pillboxes. Several of Syria's Panzer IVs were captured by the Israeli Army and donated to the Yad La-Shiryon Museum.

In the picture, note the machine gun mount on the commander cupola.

30/01/2025

Lapland War

During World War II, the Lapland War saw fighting between Finland and N**i Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Though the Finns and the Germans had been fighting together against the Soviet Union since 1941 during the Continuation War (1941–1944), peace negotiations between the Finnish government and the Allies of World War II had been conducted intermittently during 1943–1944, but no agreement had been reached. The Moscow Armistice, signed on 19 September 1944, demanded that Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland.

The Wehrmacht had anticipated this turn of events and planned an organised withdrawal to N**i-occupied Norway, as part of Operation Birke (Birch). Despite a failed offensive landing operation by Germany in the Gulf of Finland, the evacuation proceeded peacefully at first. The Finns escalated the situation into warfare on 28 September after Soviet pressure to adhere to the terms of the armistice. The Finnish Army was required by the Soviet Union to push Wehrmacht troops out of Finnish territory. After a series of minor battles, the war came to an effective end in November 1944, when all of the Wehrmacht troops had reached Norway or the border area and took fortified positions. The last Wehrmacht soldiers left Finland on 27 April 1945, shortly before the end of World War II in Europe.

The Finns considered the war a separate conflict because hostilities with other nations had ceased after the Continuation War. From the German perspective, it was a part of the two campaigns to evacuate from northern Finland and northern Norway. Soviet involvement in the war amounted to monitoring Finnish operations, minor air support, and entering northeastern Lapland during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive. The military impact was relatively limited with each side sustaining around 4,000 in total casualties, although the Germans' delaying scorched earth and land mine strategies devastated Finnish Lapland. The Wehrmacht successfully withdrew, and Finland upheld its obligations under the Moscow Armistice, but it remained formally at war with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom until ratification of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.

The picture is of a sign that the Germans left in Muonio, Lapland. Its message is: 'As thanks for not demonstrating brotherhood in arms!'

29/01/2025

Batons of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (c. 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), acquired many titles and honours including the rank of field marshal or equivalent in eight nations' armies. Each nation provided him with a baton as a symbol of his rank. The surviving batons are on display at Apsley House, the former London residence of the Dukes of Wellington.

At Wellington's funeral, his military ranks were described as:

Field Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of Her [Britannic] Majesty's Forces
Field Marshal of the Austrian Army
Field Marshal of the Hanoverian Army
Field Marshal of the Army of the Netherlands
Marshal-General of the Portuguese Army
Field Marshal of the Prussian Army
Field Marshal of the Russian Army
Captain-General of the Spanish Army

At Wellington's lying in state, his batons of military rank were placed alongside the coffin on eight velvet cushions each on a pedestal on gold lion supporters. The pedestals were more than two feet in height, each bearing the shield and banners of their respective nations. On two additional similar pedestals were placed Wellington's standard and guidon.

For many years the batons were all on display at Apsley House. However, on 9 December 1965, there was a robbery in which three items were stolen, one of which was the Russian Marshal's Baton. It has not been recovered.
The seven remaining field marshal batons along with two more British batons (one presented to the Duke in 1821 by George IV) are on permanent display at Apsley House

28/01/2025

Nicholas Winton

Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by N**i Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children in danger and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for 'children's transport').

His humanitarian accomplishments remained unknown and unnoticed by the world for nearly 50 years until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television programme That's Life!, where he was reunited with dozens of the children he had helped come to Britain and was introduced to many of their children and grandchildren. The British press celebrated him and dubbed him the "British Schindler". In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from N**i-occupied Czechoslovakia". In 2014, he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (1st class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman.

There are three memorials at Liverpool Street station in London, where the Kindertransport children arrived. In September 2010, another statue of Winton was unveiled, this time at Maidenhead railway station by Home Secretary Theresa May, MP for Maidenhead. Created by Lydia Karpinska, it depicts Winton sitting on a bench and reading a book

Winton died in 2015, aged 106.

27/01/2025

Red coat (military uniform)

Red coat, also referred to as redcoat or scarlet tunic, is a military garment formerly much used by most regiments of the British Army, so customarily that the term became a common synecdoche for the soldiers themselves.

Red was chosen because uniforms were purchased competitively from the lowest bidder, and Venetian red was the least expensive dye.

The red coat was widely (though not exclusively) used by the infantry and some cavalry units of the British military plus the Royal Marines, from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The garment was also widely used by the British Colonial Auxiliary Forces and the British Indian Army during the same period. Though, by the 20th century, the red coat was abandoned for practical duties in favour of khaki by all British Empire military units, it continues to be used for ceremonial full dress and mess dress uniforms in many countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The usage of red coats by English soldiers dates back to the Tudor period, when the Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders were both equipped in the royal colours of the House of Tudor, red and gold. During the Tudor conquest of Ireland and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, units of English soldiers were equipped in red coats, most notably the New Model Army, which fought on the Parliamentary side.

From the mid-17th century to the 19th century, the uniform of most British soldiers (apart from artillery, rifles, and light cavalry) included a madder red coat or coatee. From 1873 onwards, the more vivid shade of scarlet was adopted for all ranks, having previously been worn only by officers, sergeants , and all ranks of some cavalry regiments.

26/01/2025

Royal Horse Artillery

In 1793, during the French Revolutionary Wars, Great Britain and allied European powers declared war on France over the French occupation of the Rhine delta and Antwerp, precipitating the Flanders Campaign. Britain remained in conflict with France for almost 22 years, during which time significant progress was achieved in artillery development. The first two troops of Horse Artillery were raised in January 1793 at Goodwood, West Sussex, by the Master-General of the Ordnance, the 3rd Duke of Richmond, to provide fire support for the cavalry. Two more troops joined them in November 1793. Each troop had six 6-pounder guns. Another development was forming a headquarters staff providing a channel between the regiment and the Board of Ordnance. By 1806, eleven troops had been formed, with ten companies of the Royal Irish Artillery incorporated, as the Seventh Battalion, after the union with Ireland in 1801. The Royal Regiment of Artillery was not part of the British Army at this time, but part of the establishment of the Board of Ordnance, with the Master-General as its commanding officer; only after the Board's abolition in 1855 did the Artillery become part of the British Army under the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.

All RHA personnel were mounted. Included in the establishment were 45 drivers and 187 horses, making it the first self-contained fighting unit of artillery. Initially, there was a clear distinction between the mounted Royal Horse Artillery and the rest of the Royal Artillery, who were dismounted. Whenever horses were needed for the rest of the Artillery (as they routinely were, to move field guns from place to place) they had to be hired along with civilian drivers. This was problematic, so in 1794 a separate Corps of Royal Artillery Drivers was raised (which did not affect the self-contained Royal Horse Artillery but provided ready teams of draught horses and drivers for the field artillery units). After Waterloo, the Corps of Drivers was disbanded and instead, artillerymen were trained as drivers, which gave the field artillery mounted status. When the Royal Artillery split into separate units in 1899, the term 'Mounted Branch' was used to refer collectively to the Royal Horse Artillery and the Royal Field Artillery, while 'Dismounted Branch' referred to the Royal Garrison Artillery.

The regiment wore light cavalry uniforms of blue with gold lace and red facings. Their overalls were grey with a red stripe and on their heads they wore the distinctive Tarleton helmets. If needed, they carried 1796 light-cavalry sabres or their own semi-official RHA 1796P sabre.

The RHA participated in the major wars of two centuries, including the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, the Indian Mutiny, the Crimean War, the Peninsular War, the Anglo-Zulu War, the Boer War, World War I and World War II.

25/01/2025

The new Bespoke Tour page is on our website

Classic Battlefield Tours is experienced in creating expert-led tours exploring conflicts throughout the world. Through our many years of running these tours, we have amassed a wealth of experience, knowledge, and an incredible network of guides to deliver on your needs. Whether you are after a private version of one of our previously-run tours or are looking to follow in the footsteps of a family member, Classic Battlefield Tours will work with you to create the perfect trip for you.

We provide:

The same, dedicated consultant who will work with you from planning your trip, all the way through to your return from it.

A network of the best battlefield guides available and access to the best available transfer and accommodation rates

Access to unique experiences, locations, and stories that you will find nowhere else

All are backed by best-in-class insurance and customer protection.

To find out more follow this link:

Our bespoke tours are specially designed for a client and focuses on unique, highly local experiences. Every aspect of our bespoke tours is meticulously planned to give the traveller the most educational, individual experience possible. These bespoke tours can range from the individual traveller, to...

24/01/2025

Chieu Hoi

The Chiêu Hồi program loosely translated as "Open Arms" was an initiative by the United States and South Vietnam to encourage defection by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong (VC) and their supporters to the side of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Defection was urged using a propaganda campaign, usually leaflets delivered by artillery shells or dropped over enemy-controlled areas by aircraft or messages broadcast over areas of South Vietnam. Several incentives were offered to those who chose to cooperate, along with psychological warfare to break enemy morale.

To further this aim, invitations to defect, which also acted as safe conduct passes, were printed on clear plastic waterproof bags used to carry ammunition for the U.S. soldiers' M16 rifle. Each bag held one magazine and was sealed to prevent moisture from the jungle's humid climate from damaging the contents. When the magazine was needed during a firefight with the enemy, the bag would be torn open and discarded, in the hope that it would later be discovered by enemy troops who would read the text and consider defection.

By 1967, approximately 75,000 defections had been recorded, but analysts speculate that less than 25% of those were genuine. The program had some difficulty catching on, due in part to culture gap—errors, such as misspellings and unintentionally offensive statements—and worsened by communist reprisals against defectors and their families. To make matters worse, as testified by Sergeant Scott Camil during the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, the passes were sometimes ignored by U.S. forces, and their holders shot while surrendering.

Overall, however, the Chieu Hoi program was considered successful. Those who surrendered were known as "Hoi Chanh" and were often integrated into allied units as Kit Carson Scouts, operating in the same area where they had defected. Many made great contributions to the effectiveness of U.S. units, and often distinguished themselves, earning decorations as high as the Silver Star. The program was relatively inexpensive and removed over 100,000 combatants from the field (assuming the accuracy of the numbers recorded and the sincerity of the defections).

23/01/2025

Lords Appellant

The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach five of the King's favourites to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word appellant — still used in modern English by attorneys — means '[one who is] appealing'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verb appeler, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the "Lords Appellant" because its members invoked a legal procedure called an "appeal" to begin prosecution: the favourites were charged under an "appeal of treason", a device borrowed from English civil law, which led to some procedural complications.

Upon the successful conviction of the King's favourites at trial, the Lords Appellant formed themselves into an extralegal "Commission" starting on 19 November 1386 to check Richard II's power. The following year, 1387, an attempt by Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford to overthrow the Commission and reestablish Richard as sole ruler ended in a royal defeat at the skirmish of Radcot Bridge, outside Oxford. Richard was thus reduced to a figurehead; he had no real power and was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of the Commission.

The Lords Appellant punished the King's disgraced favourites by calling the "Merciless Parliament" of 1388 to pass judgement. The nominal governor of Ireland, de Vere, and Richard's Lord Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had fled abroad, were sentenced to death in absentia. Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York, had his estate confiscated. The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Tresilian, was executed, as were Sir Nicholas Brembre, the Lord Mayor of London.

In 1389, Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt, returned from campaigning in Spain. His influence enabled Richard to slowly rebuild his power until 1397, when he reasserted his authority and destroyed the principal three among the Lords Appellant. However, in 1399 Richard was deposed by Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, partly as a result of the royal confiscation of Gaunt's estate on his death. Bolingbroke succeeded him as Henry IV.

Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant. His uncle Gloucester was murdered in captivity in Calais; it was (and remains) widely believed that he was killed on Richard's orders. The Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Warwick lost his title and his lands and was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Henry Bolingbroke overthrew Richard. The behaviour of the two junior Lords Appellant, Bolingbroke and Mowbray, probably influenced Richard's decision in 1398 to exile them both, and to revoke the permission he had given them to sue for any inheritance which fell due, as it did concerning Mowbray's grandmother and, more significantly, of Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt.

22/01/2025

Celebrating Colin Bell's BEM at the RAF Club.

Flt/Lt (Ret'd) Colin S Bell DFC who is 103 and flew Mosquito pathfinder aircraft during WW2, was awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year's honours list.

22/01/2025

Reverse slope defence

A reverse slope defence is a military tactic where a defending force is positioned on the slope of an elevated terrain feature such as a hill, ridge, or mountain, on the side opposite from the attacking force. This tactic both hinders the attacker's ability to observe the defender's positions and reduces the effectiveness of the attacker's long-range weapons such as artillery.

A defending unit usually does not conduct a reverse-slope defence along its entire front, as positioning troops on the forward slope is necessary to control the region in front of the hill. However, when enemy forces are known to have superior long-range direct-fire or indirect-fire weapons, the majority of the defending force can use the hill to limit enemy observation and reduce the effectiveness of the long-range enemy fire. This tactic may even succeed in deceiving the enemy as to the true location and organisation of the main defensive positions. Typically, a smaller unit is still posted on the forward slope to perform observation and delay attackers if the defending force needs to relocate its main body onto the forward slope.

The best-known proponent of the tactic was the Duke of Wellington, who used it repeatedly during the Napoleonic Wars to defeat French infantry, such as at the Battle of Waterloo. By placing a ridge between his own army and his opponent's, and having his troops lie down, Wellington was able both to better protect his troops from French artillery fire and to strike the attacking French infantry by having his troops stand up at the last moment and deliver volleys of musketry at close range. At Waterloo, the last major military engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, Wellington utilized this tactic to drive away a last-minute infantry attack by the French in a final attempt to gain victory by Napoleon. The French infantry had climbed a ridge only to find it seemingly abandoned and covered with bodies. Suddenly, 1,500 British Foot Guards under Maitland who had been lying down under the ridge rose and unleashed upon them close-range, point-blank volleys, killing 300 with the very first volley alone, resulting in the decimation of a large part of Napoleon's elite infantry reserve, the hitherto undefeated Imperial Guard, followed by a British charge which resulted in the retreat and collapse of the French lines, turning the tide of the Battle into a decisive Anglo-Prussian victory and marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

21/01/2025

Mossies silence Göering & Goebbels

30th January 1943 was the tenth anniversary of Hi**er’s rise to power.
To coincide with the commemorative rallies, the first daylight raids over Berlin took place on that day when Mosquitoes carried out two attacks timed to disrupt speeches being delivered by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göering and Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich’s Propaganda Minister, at the main broadcasting station.

The first, in the morning, comprised three Mosquito B Mk. IVs from 105 Squadron, which carried out a low-level attack on the Haus des Rundfunks, headquarters of the German State broadcasting company, at 11:00, when Göering was due to address a parade commemorating the 10th anniversary of the N**is’ gaining power. It was an hour before Göering could finally take to the lectern, reportedly “boiling with rage and humiliation”. The mission gave the lie to Göering’s claim that enemy aircraft would never fly over the Reich. In the afternoon of the same day, three Mosquitoes from 139 (Jamaica) Squadron went to Berlin to attempt to interrupt a speech by Goebbels. They once again bombed at the exact time he was meant to start speaking, 16.00, although this attack was not quite as disruptive as the earlier one.

Only one aircraft was lost during these raids. Mosquito DZ367 GB-J, of 105 Sqn, flown by Squadron Leader D.F. Darling was shot down near Altengrabow, with both Darling and his navigator, Flying Officer William Wright, being killed.

Göering was not amused:
“ In 1940 I could at least fly as far as Glasgow in most of my aircraft, but not now! It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy.
The British, who can afford aluminum better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again.”
— Hermann Göering, January 1943

20/01/2025

RAF Advanced Air Striking Force

The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) comprised the light bombers of 1 Group RAF Bomber Command, which took part in the Battle of France in 1940. Before hostilities began, it had been agreed between the United Kingdom and France that in case of war, the short-range aircraft of Bomber Command would move to French airfields to operate against targets in N**i Germany. The AASF was formed on 24 August 1939 from the ten squadrons of Fairey Battle light bombers of 1 Group under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Patrick Playfair and was dispatched to airfields in the Rheims area on 2 September 1939.

The AASF was answerable to the Air Ministry and independent of the British Expeditionary Force. For unity of command, the AASF and the Air Component of the BEF (Air Vice-Marshal Charles Blount), came under the command of British Air Forces in France (Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Barratt) on 15 January 1940. Using the bombers for attacks on strategic targets in Germany was set aside, due to Anglo-French reluctance to provoke German retaliation; attacks on German military forces and their communications were substituted.

The Battle of France began with the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940. The Battle squadrons suffered 40 percent losses on 10 May, 100 percent on 11 May, and 63 percent on 12 May. In 48 hours the number of operational AASF bombers fell from 135 to 72. On 14 May the AASF made a maximum effort, 63 Battles and eight Bristol Blenheims attacked targets near Sedan. Over half the bombers were lost, bringing AASF losses to 75 percent. The remaining bombers began to operate at night and periodically by day, sometimes with fighter escorts.

From 10 May to the end of the month, the AASF lost 119 Battle crews killed and 100 aircraft. Experience, better tactics, and periods of bad weather from 15 May to 5 June led to losses of 0.5 percent, albeit with a similar reduction in effectiveness. On 14 June, the remaining Battles returned to Britain; the Hurricane squadrons returned on 18 June and rejoined Fighter Command.

The AASF was dissolved on 26 June, the Battles returning to 1 Group, Bomber Command, to prepare for operations against a German invasion, along with the rest of the Royal Air Force.