Douglas 8A-3N
The Netherlands were the third export customer for the Douglas (Northrop) 8A divebomber.
As a part of their rearmament programme, the Netherlands purchased 18 8A-3N aircraft in 1939. Although the "DB-" managed to stick to the Northrop Model 7 when it became the DB-7, it doesn't seem like the Model 8 was often referred to as the "DB-8".
The aircraft were all test flown at the factory in Dutch colours, with the pre-war Dutch roundels. As typical for Dutch aircraft of the period they came in two differing camouflage schemes, differing in the allocation of the sand and green colours depending on whether the airframe was in the first half or second half of the batch. Once completed they were disassembled and crated, and shipped to Europe. By the end of December 1939 all aircraft had been delivered.
On delivery with Europe now in the Phoney War, the Dutch neutrality markings were applied. As the Netherlands had entered a pre-war state of mobilisation and disruption, the final erection of all the aircraft had not been completed, even radio equipment had only been fitted in March, by the time that the Germans invaded. In the end all flying aircraft were destroyed during the invasion, but the Germans captured the final four aircraft that were still in reassembly.
Much comment is made of the Dutch, in desperation, using these divebombers as fighters - losing all aircraft to shoot down one Ju52. However of note is the serial numbers allocated to them were in the 300-series, used by the Dutch for 2-seat fighters, so potentially the misuse of the aircraft may have stemmed from a misallocation before they even entered service.