Brewster Buffalo in Dutch Service
The Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger (“Military Air Service of the Royal Netherlands East Indian Army”, ML-KNIL) ordered 144 Brewster B-339C and 339D models. At the outbreak of war, only 71 had arrived in the Dutch East Indies, and not all were in service. A small number served briefly at Singapore before being withdrawn for the defense of Borneo and Java.
The last Buffalo sortie was made on 7 March 1942. The Dutch suffered 17 ML-KNIL pilots killed, 30 aircraft shot down with a further 15 destroyed on the ground. Others were lost to misadventure. Several were captured by Japanese forces and evaluated.
