Reserve 1st Lieutenant Pilot A.H. Bodaan was a student at the Technical University in Delft.
He was trained as pilot of the Luchtvaart Afdeeling (LuVA) at Soesterberg Airbase.
During this education he nearly survived from a crash with a Fokker D-VI. In a stuntflight his upper wing was broken and he broke his right arm. He succeeded in jumping off the plane, but was not able to open his parachute, as the handle was at his left shoulder. Grabbing his right arm with his left hand, he could bring his right hand at the handle and doing this he fortunately could open his chute and reached the ground safely.As he should be examined for the Engineers diploma, he was called into service during mobilisation of the army in 1939.
He was killed in action on the first war day.
On the 10th of May 1940 he took off from Schiphol Airport in a D-21 fighter amidst a rain of bombs and bullets.
To get his plane ready and armed he had his ground crew ordered for assistance with his enormous voice. It was said that he could start an engine only by using his big mouth.He performed several dogfights with attacking German aircraft; in the mean time he landed two times under heavy machine gun fire, to reload fuel and arms.
At his third flight that day, performed to protect our T-5 bombers that attacked Waalhaven airport at Rotterdam (trying to destroy German Junkers Transport planes and equipment) his plane was shot in fighting the enemy superiority and Bodaan died.
After the war, he was posthumous decorated with the "Militaire Willems Orde", the highest Nederlands Military Order.