On 10 May 1940 the German armies marched into Holland and Belgium and started the penetration through the Ardennes that would lead to their decisive breakthrough at Sedan four days later, and their subsequent sweep behind the Allied troops massed in Belgium.
At dawn on the 10th the Luftwaffe tried to pull off a major coup by attacking the main French airfields. This proved to be unsuccessful in the main, for despite German propaganda announcing triumphant results for the attacking bombers, few aircraft were actually destroyed on the ground. Indeed, most of the Allied fighter force remained unscathed. GC III/2, however, suffered heavy losses at Cambrai, with six Moranes being destroyed.
Having had a quiet ‘Phoney War’ at Luxeuil, Sgt Pierre Boillot of GC II/7 found himself in the thick of the action in his underpowered MS406 from the very start of the campaign. “Our Moranes, after spending the harsh winter of 1939-40 in the open, were hard put to exceed 260mph [418km/h], and on the morning of 10 May 1940 we were to be faced with the unpalatable fact that the intruding He 111 bombers that we endeavoured to intercept were almost as fast as our fighters when flying in formation, and faster when flying si…
