The Navy Vol_49_Part1 1987 - Navy League of Australia

Hansa Brandenburg W12. a twin-float biplane ll was built undei licencein Holland by the Van Berkel firm, designated the Van Berkel WAProduction of an eventual 40 of these began in 1919. 20 of them servedin home waters and 20 in the Dutch East IndiesDespite the predominance of the WA. the first maiii Dutchwarships to carry aircraft, the light cruisers JAVA and SUMATRA, eachoperated a pair of Brittsh Fairey HID floatplanes acquired in 1924 Theirfloats were too fragile, however, to stand the heavy swells of the Indies,and after 1926 they were replaced on the cruisers by Fokker CVIIWfloatplanes, the first 12 of which were ordered that year Thereafter theCVIIW began to replace the WA. although the last Van Berkel was notphased out until 1932From the early 1920s to the late 1930s a number of Dutch warshipsearned seaplanes — either WAs. CVIIWs or both in succession — fromtime to time These vessels included (with the number of aircraft carriedin parentheses) the coast defence ship JACOB VAN HEEMSKERCK(two) training ship HERTOG HENDRIK (two), submarine depot shipPELIKAAN (two to four), minelayer SERDANG (two to three),gunboats FLORA and SOEMBA (one each) minelayers RIGEL andWILLEN VAN DER ZAAN (one each) and supply ship ZUIDERKRUIS(one) The SERDANG s sisters. ASSAHAN and SIBOGA. occasionallyserved as seaplane tenders before they were stricken prior to World WarIIThe great connection with: ,-Dutch gunboat FLORES or SOEMBA 'Ph.*.RNN>major nrtu.'- in number or aircraft (in fact, in number of shipboardaircraft during this period it far exceeded the Soviet Union)The MLP was officiate established in 1917. but the Dutch Navy hadbegun acquiring aircraft and naming aviators some years earlier One ofthe first four Dutch naval officers to obtain a pilot's licence In 191S wasKarel Doorman, later the tragic hero of the Battle of the Java SeaUnlike most other smaller navies that of the Netherlands waseventually able to operate almost entirely indigenous aircraft, thanksto the return to hts native land after World War 1 of aeronauticalengineer designer Anthony Fokker The FokkeT firm reestablished inHolland after turning out great numbers of aircraft lor Germany duringthe war soon became one of the world's great aviation companiesThe first seaplane to be operated by the MLD in quantity, however,was not a Fokker but another of Ernst Hemkel's wartime designs, theFokker C VIIW aboard DE RUYTER. the onlv Dutch cruiser fitted with acatapult (ph.*> RNVDutch training $h