The Fokker D.XXI was a Dutch fighter, designed in 1935 for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force. As such, it was designed as a cheap and small, but rugged aircraft, which had respectable performance for its time. It was also one of the few aircraft that could follow a Stuka into its dive. Entering operational use in the early years of World War II, it provided yeoman service for both the Luchtvaartafdeling (Dutch Army Aviation Group) and the Finnish Air Force, and a few were built by the Carmoli factory before the factory fell into Nationalist hands during the Spanish Civil War.
Fokker D.XXI in "No Period"[]
As a Jewish-American writer contemplated his failed marriage to his first wife, he remembered that her Finnish father had flown a Fokker D.XXI against the Soviets during World War II. The writer had associated the Fokker with World War I, but his former father-in-law confirmed that Fokker had been in business for longer. His father-in-law had also confirmed that Finland had been Germany's co-belligerent during the war.[1]
Fokker D.XXI in The War That Came Early[]
The Fokker was the only fighter of the Dutch to give the Luftwaffe a challenge during the German invasion of the Netherlands in the final weeks of 1938. Although still able the to put up a decent fight, there just weren't enough available to the Dutch in order to mount a proper defense.
They were still in service in early 1941, when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies. Seeing one in Surabaya, Pete McGill thought is looked hotter than the US P-26 Peashooter, but not by much. Still, he was happier to see it than a Japanese Zero.
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