Van Ghent grounded and was scuttled on 15 February 1942 while serving under Doorman in the East Indies. Evertsen was lost to Japanese action on 1 March 1942, and Kortenaer was torpedoed by Haguro at the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February. Japanese destroyers sank Piet Hein at Badung Strait on 19 February 1942. Van Galen suffered severe German bomb damage during the defence of Rotterdam and sank on 10 May 1940; the Germans later salvaged and scrapped the wreck. Witte de With was scuttled on 2 March 1942 after damage at the Battle of the Java Sea. Bankert was scuttled at Surabaya after Japanese bombing and later salvaged by Japan without returning to useful service; the Dutch eventually sank her as a target in 1949. Japanese aircraft sank Van Nes and the evacuation ship she was escorting on 17 February 1942. None of the eight destroyers remained operational after mid-1942. Their loss exposed a shortage of destroyers, cruisers, aircraft, and other supporting forces around otherwise capable ships.
Notable Point · 24:13-27:28
Wartime losses reveal the force-depth problem
The eight destroyers' losses, including Bankert's later salvage, show how good individual ships could be overwhelmed without sufficient supporting forces.