In December 1941, Air Force Lieutenant-General Ludolph H. van Oyen was in Pearl Harbor after he had visited the USA to speed up the delivery of American-built aicrafts. He witnessed the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor in the morning of December 7th, 1941, and flew back to the Netherlands East Indies with a chartered crew and plane. He took over command from ML-KNIL Colonel Kengen, who in his place has acted as Commander-in-Chief ML-KNIL. Lt-General van Oyen was acting commander of the ML-KNIL until the erection of ABDA-command, in which he apparently didn't have a large role. This changed after ABDA-command was dismantled. Van Oyen escaped to Australia in March 1942 where he left for the USA in April 1942. He became a commander of the Flying School in Jackson, USA until October 1943 when he left for Australia to become the overall Army Commander.
