Chart 3 is a breakdown showing the cause of individual front-line MLD aircraft losses during the NEI campaign. Air combat consists of air-to-air action with Japanese aircraft, including fighters, bombers and seaplanes. AA fire includes ground and shipboard return fire against the Dutch planes, while accidents include aircraft lost to non-combat causes during takeoff or landing. Destroyed is used to describe aircraft blown up or otherwise permanently disabled on the ground to prevent their capture by the Japanese. These were typically aircraft that had been previously damaged, although they might or might not have been repairable.
Clearly the most vivid figure shown by this chart is the extraordinary (just under half) number of all front-line MLD aircraft lost on the ground. This number would be well over 50 percent if one figured in the substantial number of second-line, training and auxiliary aircraft lost by the MLD during the sledgehammer air strikes on Morokrembangan throughout February and March. These losses can be directly attributed to overpowering Japanese air superiority combined with weak fighter cover, poor AA defenses and a near complete lack of radar on the part of ABDA.
In comparison, only 16 percent of all front-line MLD aircraft lost came in the form of air-to-air combat. In all but a few cases, these losses amounted to single aircraft that had the misfortune to encounter a flight of Japanese fighters alone and unescorted while on a long-range reconnaissance patrol. It should also be noted that these numbers are very comparable to those losses suffered by PatWing 10, which also faced a complete lack of fighter cover and weak AA defenses.
* Do. 24 and PBY figures only