The Dutch military leadership, having lost the bulk of their air force, realized they could not stop the German bombers, but managed to negotiate a tactical capitulation instead of a national one, as would be the case with France a few weeks later. As a result, the Dutch State, unlike the French State, remained at war with Germany and the Germans authorities had to ask every individual Dutch soldier to desist from further hostilities as a condition for their release from detention as a prisoner of war. The first act of resistance was therefore the refusal by members of the Dutch forces to sign any document to that effect.[10]