[Juha]

Ruy
on the first day (May 10th) Battles attacked exclusively against German columns but lost 13 out of 32 attacking planes, all to ground fire. So that wasn't the answer. Battle was too big, slow, vulnerable and too lightly armed for daytime interdiction ops. Nick's proposition might be better but Battle crews were trained on daytime jobs and I don't know how good Battle was as night flying machine, Blenheim wasn't very good for night flying. With hindsight one can argue that RAF should have foreseen the effectiveness of German light Flak and troops ability to defence themselves with mgs and thought beforehand some antidoses to that.

Juha

Checked from Franks' Valiant Wings, the losses were 13 FTR plus a written off out of 32. And most of others were damaged, some to extent that they were declared written-offs later.