Today 80 years ago, on March 30, 1939, the Aviation Division of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army was renamed Weapon of Military Aviation of the KNIL. This underlined the increasingly prominent position of the air force within the KNIL. In the early 1930s there was a growing conviction in the Dutch East Indies that the island kingdom could be defended more effectively with airplanes than with ships. When the new superpower Japan started to behave more aggressively in the mid-1930s, more money became available for defense. In India, the rapid build-up of the so-called "battle air force" of the KNIL was then preferred to the much more time-consuming construction of cruisers for the navy, which were also much more expensive. 118 Glenn Martin medium-sized bombers, among others, were purchased in America. This device can be seen on the film footage. In the end, the bombers were not too successful. In a Japanese attack, they had to take out the enemy ships before they could reach the archipelago. But when the war with Japan broke out, the Glenn Martins were outdated again and were no match against the Japanese fighter aircraft.
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By: 1batfastard - 11th April 2019 at 19:13 - Edited 11th April 2019 at 19:42
Hi All,
Thought some of you may like to view the following short video courtesy of our very own Ronnie http://www.facebook.com/AviationArt.Aero via http://Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie ......:eagerness:
Below via Google translation.
Today 80 years ago, on March 30, 1939, the Aviation Division of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army was renamed Weapon of Military Aviation of the KNIL. This underlined the increasingly prominent position of the air force within the KNIL. In the early 1930s there was a growing conviction in the Dutch East Indies that the island kingdom could be defended more effectively with airplanes than with ships. When the new superpower Japan started to behave more aggressively in the mid-1930s, more money became available for defense. In India, the rapid build-up of the so-called "battle air force" of the KNIL was then preferred to the much more time-consuming construction of cruisers for the navy, which were also much more expensive. 118 Glenn Martin medium-sized bombers, among others, were purchased in America. This device can be seen on the film footage. In the end, the bombers were not too successful. In a Japanese attack, they had to take out the enemy ships before they could reach the archipelago. But when the war with Japan broke out, the Glenn Martins were outdated again and were no match against the Japanese fighter aircraft.
Geoff.