Is it true? TBD-1 in ML-KNIL

[PacificWind]

Few minutes ago I came across this. I've never heard about any other users of Devastators than United States. Is this one in attachment real? I did a quick look for the informations but no results.

[MichaelS]

Well if you saw it on the internet is has to be true!


In all my years of TBD related stuff I have never seen that it was used by anyone other then the USN. I think you found someone's whiffer.

[PacificWind]

I thought the same, it's whiffer but there's a problem. It's identified. Tiny writing above says:
"Douglas TBD-1 Devastator serial D-104/D No.120 Squadron(Netherlands East Indies), ML-KNIL under RAAF command; Merauke/New Guinea, early 1944"

This must be some kind of an unknown fact or a perfectly done whiffer. I have no idea...

[Texman]

I concur with Michael. I spent an hour scouring the 'net and my references, and cannot find anything.

[MichaelS]

Originally Posted by PacificWind

I thought the same, it's whiffer but there's a problem. It's identified. Tiny writing above says:
"Douglas TBD-1 Devastator serial D-104/D No.120 Squadron(Netherlands East Indies), ML-KNIL under RAAF command; Merauke/New Guinea, early 1944"

This must be some kind of an unknown fact or a perfectly done whiffer. I have no idea...

I would hope our resident historian will check in here and set this right. These "whiffer" people are very talented. They can weave a pretty believable tale. In any case I doubt ANY TBD's were flying by 1944. By then the US industrial machine was in full production and there were much better aircraft available in all theaters by then.

[CMDRTED]

I'm guessing that they used the old Brewster buffalo why not the odd tbd that wandered into their hands

[Vinalssergio155]

I do not find anything either. Maybe some of the Dutch guys have information.

[Don Boose]

Just checked in on this thread (I was preparing for and delivering my USAWC film lecture on Pork Chop Hill).

A quick review of the printed sources on the Douglas TBD in my possession turned up no mention of a TBD flown by the MLD, the ML-KNIL or any other Dutch entity.

Nothing shows up in Jim Baugher's list: US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos--Second Series (0001 to 5029)

Nothing shows up in the very thoroughly researched Stockholm IPMS documents:
Camouflage & Markings: Colours of the Dutch Air Force (Part II)
Camouflage & Markings: Colours of the Dutch Air Force (Part I)

Nothing at this very good Australian site: ADF Serials

Nothing at these MLD sites:
Netherlands Naval Aviation Service
http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/neth...d_all-time.htm

This Wiki article on 120 Squadron ML-KNIL does not mention a TBD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._12..._Squadron_RAAF

I have reviewed the relevant volume of the official Australian history: George Odgers, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 3 – Air, Volume 2, Air War Against Japan, Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957, reprinted 1968 (available at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070210/). Dutch No. 120 Squadron was under Australian operational control during the war. This work indicates that 120 Squadron flew Curtiss Kittyhawks throughout the war and makes no mention of a TBD. This does not rule out the possibility that a surviving TBD was used as a 120 Squadron hack.

One other resource I do not have on my shelf, but I will try to get on inter-library loan: Tom Womack, The Dutch Naval Air Force against Japan; The Defense of the Netherlands East Indies, 1941–1941, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006.

Based on this (admittedly hasty) research, I cannot confirm or deny that there was a TBD-1 in Dutch markings, but it seems unlikely.

I hope that some one, perhaps a Dutch member of the Forum, can weigh inwith plausible evidence supporting the existence of the aircraft or definitive information that serial D-104/D of No.120 Squadron ML-KNIL was a what-if illustration.

Don

Added later - The national insignia in all the images I have seen of Dutch aircraft after the fall of the Netherlands East Indies are either a red-white-blue rectangle, the Australian roundel, or a U.S. star. My impression (subject to refutation by evidence) is that the orange triangle was not used after early 1942.

[Butelczynski]

Could have been used as training aircraft for bombing and gunnery.I doubt anyone would be crazy enough to take it into combat in 1944 after so much use.

[Wyvern]

In my years of studying the TBD and it’s service record, I’ve never seen any reference to it being used by anyone other than the USN, in any role.

Wyvern