A listening post deep in Japanese-held territory near Palembang had informed them that the Japanese were going to launch the largest air raid against the Dutch defenses in Lembang, where ABDACOM headquarters were located and holed up. It was their last and final message:
JAPANESE COMBINED FORCE FIGHTERS ATTACKERS BOMBERS HEADED TO LMBG BDG LP OVERRUN SAMPAI DJOEMPA LONG LIVE THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES
2nd Squadron, consisting of three pilots now, Lieutenant Bruggink, Lieutenant Scheffer, and himself, headed on a northwesterly course. 150 kilometers out, the Japanese appeared; black dots aplenty in the sky in various sizes, ready to strike at any moment, flying at a malicious, murderous pace, the same airmen that had razed the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, and Sumatra in a trail of fire, painting it with the Rising Sun. Van Helsdingen raised his men through the radio: "Gentlemen... this is it... It's been a great honor to be fighting with you. Godspeed, Good Hunting. Attack. Follow me."
The three Buffaloes, with little to no hesitation, drove into the Japanese formation, and did all they could. Van Helsdingen took one bomber down, but the Japanese fighters overwhelmed him, blowing his fuel tank, and killing him as his plane disintegrated into several burnt pieces onto the ground. His body was never recovered.
Lieutenant Bruggink's plane was shot up, and fuel tank depleted, he crash landed amidst some rice paddies, only to be surrounded by Japanese infantrymen with raised bayonets. He would spend the rest of World War II in places he thought he would never see: camps in Singapore, railway projects in Burma, hard labor in Japanese mines... One thing he kept was his tireless humor.
Newly-promoted Lieutenant Scheffer, the youngest and fresh out of the military academy, having witnessed the death of his comrades and seeing no possibility of winning, took down one Japanese attacker and rammed himself into another, ruining his propeller and breaking his own wing. Before he could eject from his aircraft, two Hayabusas went by him, and shot him right through the cockpit. He died before his plane reached the ground.
No longer would the Buffaloes watch over Java.
For the Last Flight of the Buffaloes was complete.
Major John F. Merlin, USAAC, looked at the setting sun ahead. It had been over 5 hours since the 77th Provisional Bomber Squadron received the call, but there was much to be prepared: intelligence reports were destroyed, offices ransacked, ground radios fragged, spare parts and unserviceable bombers destroyed by demolition charges. He had five good B-17D bombers left, and he ordered that all ground crew were to be fit in one of them, to be flown off on a far eastern course to find Port Moseby, Papua New Guinea. The other four, each able to bring 20-30 passengers each, were told to fill up with whatever fuel they had left, and launch West, to Lembang.
At dusk, Major Merlin sat on the controls of the lead B-17, 'Emily Steele', and signaled his men to launch. The airlift mission had begun.
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Last Flight of the Buffaloes - a World War II Story on the Fall of Java
Roman HistoriqueMarch, 1942. The Japanese have conquered most if not all of Southeast Asia - save for one island, Java, in the Dutch East Indies. As the Allies scramble all resources to hold this vital and final stronghold, Lieutenant Francis Drebbel, a mixed-race...
