the british airfields at berbera and [[laferug]] had only small arms for defence, the two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns being reserved for the defence of the port. the landing grounds had been quickly made untenable by "regia aeronautica" bombing, two [[no. 94 squadron raf|94 squadron]] [[gloster gladiator]] fighters being destroyed on the ground. bombers were withdrawn to aden, which meant a round-trip without fighter escort. it was most difficult to influence the tactical situation but the bombers attacked troops and their transport, bases and addis ababa, to try to divert italian fighters. blenheim mk is of 8, 11 and 39 squadrons and 203 squadron with blenheim ivf fighters and 223 squadron from sudan, which arrived at aden on 14 august and a flight of 84 squadron from iraq with blenheim mk is flew standing patrols over berbera for thirteen days, which limited the ability of the "regia aeronautica" to interfere with the evacuation. blenheims from 11 squadron left aden at on 18 august and carried out a high-level bombing attack on italian vehicles near laferug but lost a bomber to cr.42s from 410a "squadriglia", one crewman surviving. while the italian fighters were attacking the 11 squadron aircraft, wellesley bombers from 223 squadron took off from [[perim island]] to attack the airfield at [[addis ababa]] and destroyed aosta's personal aircraft. one sm.79, a [[savoia-marchetti sm.75]] and three ca.133 aircraft were destroyed according to italian records and a sm.79 and sm.81 were badly damaged.