Second World War aviation art prints of the Do24 aircraft. Our collection of prints and original paintings of the Do24 aircraft of World War Two.
The Dutch Navy required a replacement aircraft for their ageing Dornier Wals and Dornier Flugzeugwerke designed the Do24 flying boat. It was an all-metal monoplane with a broad-beamed hull and stabilising sponsons. The aircraft was powered by three wing-mounted radial engines. The first six Do24s were built in Germany with one other being built under licence in the Netherlands by Aviolanda. Aviolanda only completed 25 aircraft before the German occupation. The Luftwaffe were interested in the aircraft and the company produced a further 11 aircraft powered by Wright Cyclone engines, but later models used the BMW Bramo 323R-2. A further 159 Do24s were built in the Netherlands during the occupation, most under the designation Do24T-1. According to Dornier records, some 12,000 people were rescued by Do24s during its flying career. A total of 279 were built among several factories from 1937-1945.
Chance Encounter by Robert Taylor.
December 7, 1941 was, said President Roosevelt a day of infamy. The surprise attack by Japanese aircraft on that fateful day, brought America into a war that was to become global. The Japanese airstrike was the first of many attacks that day against America and other Allied Forces in the Pacific. Within a few days the British capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk, the Japanese had landed on the coast of Malaya, Guam was seized, Hong Kong taken, and landings were made in the American held Philippines. In those first grim days of the Pacific War one territory after another quickly fell to the Japanese onrush - resistance, though heroic, was almost futile as the unprepared Allies were simply overwhelmed. Retaliating as best they could, Allied Forces hit back wherever possible and one of the first successes was by Dutch Forces on 23 December, just 16 days after Pearl Harbor. A Japanese invasion fleet had been spotted steaming south towards British Borneo. Royal Netherland.........
Paul Kommer joined the R.NI.N. in August 1940 as Teerling Onderofficier Mieger. In December 1941 he was Korporaal Mieger, flying the Dornier 24 as co-pilot on the Chance Encounter operation, one of his 50 war time combat patrols. After the eventual capitulation of the Netherlands East ladies, he became a prisoner of war and was sent to work in the coal mines in Japan. When war was over he had somehow survived, but he weighed just 94lbs, nearly half of his normal body weight. After the war he flew PBYs with the R.NI.N. and later became an instructor.
