the defenders of bouillon were driven out by rifle regiment 1 on the early morning of may 12. bouillon was the last major settlement before sedan in france and thus the crossing of the meuse river, the operation's early objective. the 1st panzer division attempted to bypass sedan by crossing part of its units over the river outside of the town. for that purpose, pontoon bridged were erected over the course of may 12, drawing the attention of allied air units. although the 1st panzer divisions was bombed from the air, the pontoon bridge stayed intact. 10th panzer division was fighting on the other side of the forest between cugnon and herbeumont, attacking allied forest fortifications. these were captured over the course of 12 may and 10th panzer was free to continue towards bazeilles. at this point, xix army corps had become a prime target for allied bombardment, as its crossing of the meuse river would establish a deadly bridgehead for german reinforcements to quickly overrun the belgian defenses. guderian moved his staff's headquarters twice on 12 may alone because of allied bombings, first from "hotel panorama" in the semois river valley to a smaller hotel north of bouillon, then from that hotel to the village bellevaux-noirefontaine. it was in bellevaux that guderian received word from von kleist to prepare for a major meuse crossing for 16:00 the following day, 13 may 1940. although 2nd panzer division wasn't in an ideal position to attack yet, the attack commenced in accordance to the planned timeframe.