Between the devil and the deep blue sea - University of Canterbury

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established part of its military services. In a little over four years the Air Branch had its own
commander, its own medical staff and technical service. The war saw the advent of three
flying schools (at Soesterberg, Schiphol and Gilze-Rijen), a photo-reconnaissance section, a
radio service, and a weapons department. 189 The creation of a marineluchtvaartdienst
(Naval Air Service) in 1917 with six sea-planes bought from the United States and two
flying schools, indicates the Navy realised that air power had a significant role to play in sea
operations as well. 190 By the end of 1918, the East Indies Annies ordered six Foldcer aircraft
for service in the colonies. 191 After the war, in 1919, a new aeroplane fleet for the colonial
and home fronts was designed and built with mainly Folcker craft, supplied by a newly-built
facility in the Netherlands. In
CONCLUSION
Although the Netherlands' Army, Navy and Air Branch were improved and
modernised in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Great War, all faced serious
problems, which would become only too apparent during the mobilisation in August 1914.
Colijn's army reforms had come too late to be fully effective, many fortifications were
incomplete and short of heavy artillery, the Navy was too small to be able to carry out its
obligations at home and abroad, and the Air Branch had a mere four aeroplanes to tinker
around with. On land, at sea and in the air, the anned forces would come under extreme
pressure during the war to fulfil an ever-increasing workload. They could not possibly
compete with the improvements and resources available to the armed forces of the warring
nations. The Dutch Army and Navy simply did not have the available resources to preserve
some fonn of parity with the belligerents. Above all else, the political will and industrial
resources to indefinitely fund the military was lacking. Unlike the populations in warring
states, whose survival in the conflict hinged on supplying and maintaining their armed
189 Graphic representation of Air Branch (1920), in ARA, "Archieven van de Generale Staf" entry no. 2.13.70,
inventory no. 927.
190 A. R. Bauwens, C. Devroe, G. A. C. van Vooren, A. C. J. Willeboordse, In Staat van Beleg. West Zeeuws­
Vlaanderen en de Eerste Wereldoorlog. [In State of Siege. West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and the First World War]
Aardenburg: Gemeentelijk Archeologisch Museum, 1993, p. 60; Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede
Wereldoorlog. Dee! I p. 40; Baetens et. aI., Maritieme geschiedenis der Nederlandell. 4 p. 338; Bles, "Modernisering
en professionalisering" p. 71. For a more detailed history ofthe Naval Air Service see: Geldhof, 70 Jaar
Marineluchtvaartdienst.
191 Frits Gerdessen, "Netherlands' Fokker D. VII's" Cross & Cockade Journal. 22, no. 4, winter 1981, p. 350.
192 Bart van der Klaauw, "Unexpected windfalls. Accidentally or deliberately, more than 100 aircraft 'arrived' in
Dutch territory during the Great War" Air Enthusiast. no. 80, March/Aprill999, p. 59.