"Fokker D.XXI"

By Serge Stone

Number219, flown by Lt. H.J. van Overvest of the 1st Ja. V.A., is outturning a Bf 109W-4 of 4/JG 186, which he then managed to shoot down over "De Kooy" airfield during the first hours of the German campain in the Low Countries on may 10, 1940. After five days of combat The Netherlands capitulated. The dutch airforce had lost 94 airplanes of which most were destroyed on the ground during the first hour of the conflict, but the remaining D-21s, G-1s and AA-guns managed, while being greatly outnumbered, to shoot down 350 german planes. The bulk (224) being Junkers Ju 52. This large number probably influenced the german plans to invade Great Brittain.