Dutch air war 1940

10 may 1940, Germany invades the Netherlands as part of the second world war. Starting with the bombing of different airfields, the first airborne assault on different bridges and airfields. And a mass bombardement on the city of Rotterdam, which did force the Netherlands to surrender after 5 days.

Alltough the Netherlands is quite a small piece of land, and did have a small army, it did put up quite a resistance which did have impact on the complete war. Germany did lose a lot of air transport capabilities, hindering further invasion plans of England.

A lot of stories can be told about this short period of 5 days. And a lot of different scenarios are possible. Therefore as a Dutch citizen, a very interesting period to model and turn in to a wargaming subject. For this period I hope to create two armies. The first one is the Dutch airforce, mostly consisting out of fighters, Fokker DXXI and Fokker G1, to create some interception and scramble scenarios. I also have some reconnaissance planes in the form of some Fokker CV. The second force is the German invasion force. Some fighters, Bf109 and bf110, different bomber fleets, do17, ju88, ju87 and he111. And as last some transport planes for dropping parachutes and landing on airfield or beaches to deploy troops.

This leads to the following lists (Number in brackets are already in lead pile):

Luchtstrijdkrachten

  • Fokker D.XXI (4)
  • Fokker G.1 (4)
  • Fokker C.V (4)
  • Fokker T.V
  • Dornier Do24

Luftwaffe

  • Messerschmitt bf-109 (4)
  • Messerschmitt bf-110 (2)
  • Junker ju-87
  • Junker ju-88
  • Heinkel he-111
  • Dornier do-17 (3)
  • Junker ju-52
  • Heinkel he-59

I have included some additional planes, in the form of Dutch bomber to recreate some other odd scenarios of this short war. There are enough plane have to be ordered, but my first aim is to finish the planes I already have. Therefore I need to first order some decals, as it is not doable for me to paint all the roundels and have seen that the roundels finish planes.

After that I probably want to create some terrain features in the form of different targets. (Bridges, airfield and Cities)

In the next update for this project I hope to show the different planes in their current state.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *