War over Holland - May 1940: the Dutch struggle

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  • General information
  • 2.2: Dutch army strategy and armament in WWII
  • 2.3: Dutch army unit organisation
  • 2.4: German strategy 10 May 1940
  • 2.6: Field of Honour

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  • Putting things into perspective
  • 2.19: Holland: 1813-1914
  • 2.20: Holland: 1914-1918
  • 2.21: Holland: 1918-1940
  • 2.22: Holland: The army and the interbellum
  • 2.23: Rearmament
  • 2.24: On the eve of war

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  • Aftermath
  • 2.27: The typicals of the Dutch Five Days' War...
  • 2.28: The French
  • 2.29: Famous last words

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  • German and Allied airforces
  • 2.32: Registered Allied/German aircraft losses over Holland
  • 2.33: British and French Airforce operations over Holland 10-17 May

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  • Dutch armament
  • 2.36: Military airplanes
  • 2.37: Artillery
  • 2.38: Infantry weapons
  • 2.39: Miscellaneous

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  • German armament
  • 2.42: German tanks and armoured cars
  • 2.43: Armament comparison

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  • Miscellaneous
  • 2.48: Movie about the German invasion of Holland
  • 2.50: DVD 'The Attack'

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Registered Allied/German aircraft losses over Holland

Allied aircraft losses due to Allied planes over Holland 11-18 May 1940

The German fighter kills over Western Europe during the May War have been listed in the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe Fighter Claims list.

The registered claims are not all 100% certain. It is clear that some claims are attached to wrong plane types. Moreover, twin engine planes like the Fokker T-V, Blenheim, Amiot 143 and Potez-63 - although quite different in shape - appeared to have been mixed up on a number of occasions. Also we know for certain that occasionally the Spitfire and the Defiant were mixed up [13 May - Dordrecht]. Reason for this may have been that the majority of air-to-air kills were achieved from the rear and consequently the gun-film of observer (e.g. pilot) did often not reveal the international identification marks or specific features of a plane. Still we felt that for your information we should produce the list of lost Allied planes over Holland during the period 10-18 May.

As always claims do not match the actual scores. That is why the German claims have been compared with the actually registered crashes on Dutch soil.

Sometimes the nationality of planes is certain, but on many occasions it isn't. The Gloster Gladiator (fighter) and the Fairley Battle (light bomber) for example were flown by both the British and the Belgian airforce, and so was the Hawker Hurricane. In regard to the latter we are quite positive that the few Hurricanes of the Belgian airforce were all put out of action at 10 May by Luftwaffe doing. Hurricanes can therefore be connected to the RAF exclusively.

The time listed is the Dutch local time, which was 1 hour and 40 minutes earlier than the German time. Time-indications given below proof often wrong.

10 May

11 May

Only four of the six claimed Hurricanes I of 17 Squadron were confirmed kills. It appears impossible to asses which claims were right. Certain are the following Allied crashes:

12 May

These German claims do not match the confirmed air-kills on Allied planes over Holland. The following list gives the confirmed claims:

13 May

(*) These claims are all related to the same engagement between twelve British planes and the Stuka's of IV/LG1 and the Bf-109E's of 5/JG26. The subject mission was flown by six Defiant [264 Sq] and six Spitfire [66 Sq] fighters. It is certain that five Bolton Paul Defiant fighters were shot down. Their crash sites are all registered. All Spitfires returned home safely, and one of the six Defiants too. Obviously three of the eight claims can be explained as "double-claims", and all claims involve Defiants [and not Spitfires]. The Germans lost four Ju-87 Stuka's and one Bf-109E. Crash sites of four Ju-87 and one Bf-109E are known.

British airmen involved were:

(+) KIA, (r) returned to UK by boat May 1940, (POW) Prisoner of War

Defiant 264 Squadron:
- F/Lt G. Skelton (+) and P/O J. Hatfield (returned)
- P/O S. Thomas (returned) and LAc J. Bromley (+)
- P/O G. Chandler (+) and LAc D. McLeish (+)
- P/O P. Greenhous (POW) and Sgt F. Greenhalg (POW)
- P/O E. McLeod and LAc W. Cox (both returned) 
- P/O D. Kay and LAc E. Jones (both unknown)

(**) This Bf-109E and the Morane 406 [Capitaine Trouillard - 3rd Esc Dyon] collided in mid-air and both planes crashed. Both pilots perished.

(***) All three on board perished.

14  May

15 May

17 May

The above claims do not match the actually registered crashes, which were:

18 May

No registry

German aircraft losses due to Allied planes over Holland 10-18 May 1940

Below listed kills are confirmed kills by Allied planes. All crash sites are acknowledged. Possibly more Luftwaffe planes were shot down by Allied planes but not positively registered as such. The below listing is mainly an extract from an inventory of Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) E.H. Brongers.

10 May

11 May

12 May

13 May

14 May

(*) On return-flight from bombardment of Rotterdam

16 May

No confirmed kills have been registered on 15 and 17 May 1940.

Registered Allied/German aircraft losses over Holland