This is currently undergoing work
|Battle over Zeeland|
|Part of the German War|
A Dutch DXXI taking off to meet the British and Germans invading their airspace
|Date||March 23 1938|
The Battle over Zeeland was a military engagement between the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffte and later on, the Dutch Luchtmacht, fought over Zeeland province in the Netherlands on the 23rd of March, 1938.
Britain and Germany were at war, over the Treaty of Versailles, though really, neither side had fought in any real battles. Then on the 23 March, An RAF squadron spotted 10 Bf 109's and gave chase, with support from to Gladiators. The Luftwafftes Bf109s led the Hurricanes to Dutch airspace and then started fighting.
The British were doing well and had managed to shoot down 2 of the planes, but the Dutch air force had been informed of the "invasion" and sent up fifteen planes, outnumbering the sides. The Dutch planes were swift and fast and managed to shoot down 4 British and 6 German Planes, where as the German and British, confused on who to shoot, managed to hit two Dutch. The two remaining British planes quickly retreated back to base in Britain, and the German plane, which was badly damaged, managed to land in a field.
Main Article:March League Crisis
The League of Nations condemned the battle and demanded the British pay reparations for damaging Dutch property. The British Prime Minister replied by stating "The British forces were dealing with a German threat at the time and the Dutch decision to interfere was one they decided to do without any attempt to negotiate". Three hours later, an angry Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain were going to leave the League. Within the next few hours, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and India had followed suit.