March 12th, 1942
The forces of the Dutch East Indies after the fall of Batavia
In the course of 1941, the government of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), based in Batavia, had approached the French government in Algiers for advice on how a weaker partner could continue to make its voice heard and not be reduced to playing the role of utility in an alliance of more powerful countries. The talks led to regula collaboration. The two main pieces of advice from France were to ensure economic and fiscal capacity and, above all, a military instrument.
The Royal Dutch government, in exile in London, joined in these conversations, but it was bluntly advised by Algiers - through the mouth of General de Gaulle - to dissolve itself or to merge with the surviving Dutch power center in Batavia. After an internal controversy, the Dutch in London had no choice but to follow this advice and join forces with their compatriots in Indonesia.
Building up economic and financial reserves
Arrangements were made to transfer the entire banking system of Indonesia to Australia and India. The gold, silver and diamond reserves were secretly taken from Batavia to Bombay in November 1941. They totaled about one hundred million pounds sterling.
Moreover, Batavia accepted the same removal of its natural resources that the French and British had applied to their colonies in Southeast Asia.
By December 31st, 1941, the Dutch had exported enough oil to fill all available between Cape Town and Tahiti, gaining in the process about fifty million pounds in credit reserves. This operation was made possible by the end of sales to Japan (due to the embargo decided to punish this country for its aggression in China) and to the presence of additional tanker tonnage available in the region. A large part of the credit reserves was made up of high value-added petroleum products, such as oils and other lubricants, stored cheaply in 5-, 20- and 44-gallon drums.
Large tonnages of ores such as wolfram (tungsten ore), crude rubber, indigo, spices, precious woods and edible oils were also stockpiled outside the Dutch Indies in December, again using the merchant tonnage made available (notably in KPM ships, but also in French and English ships) by the collapse of trade with Japan.
Finally, plans were conceived - and then implemented, sometimes under the bombs - to evacuate as many civilian personnel as possible. These decisions raised real opposition from those involved, as many Dutch civilians were convinced that, in areas eventually occupied by the Japanese, even if they had to be closely controlled and monitored, normal life would continue, more or less as in German-occupied Holland. In total, 120,000 civilians (more than half of them Chinese and Indonesian notables who had no illusions about what life would be like under Japanese occupation) could be evacuated. The others soon realized that the Japanese occupiers were much less "korrect" than the Germans, even and especially with good Dutchmen.
The transfer of military schools
The flow of military equipment planned for the Dutch forces in 1942 appeared to be impossible to manage with Indonesia's resources. The nearest training facilities were in Australia. In October 1941, the following schools had been transferred to the Brisbane area, apart from some local branches. Some new services had also been developed, including technical and tactical training services for both the Army and the Air Force, in order to bring the performance of the personnel up to Australian standards. All the schools were placed under the command of Major General Cox (previously commander of the 2nd Division KNIL).
On December 8th, 1941, he had under his command in the Brisbane area about 4,000 men (not counting an infantry company of the Militia, in training with the Australian army).
- Schools of the Dutch East Indies Air Force
ML-KNIL Technical Training School (Andir airfield, Bandœng, Java) and ML-KNIL Basic Flying School (Kalidjati airfield, near Soebang, Java): 20 Koolhoven FK-51 and 40 Ryan STM-2 trainers.
ML-KNIL Operational Transformation School (Singosari airfield, Malang, Java): 6 Martin 139, 2 Hudson.
The establishment in Australia of new training cadres was adopted to ensure that it would be possible to call upon Australian resources to support the implementation of new American-made equipment. These arrangements greatly increased the traffic density between Brisbane and Java (Kalidjati airfield). To cope with this, a Transport and Training group was established near Brisbane, the Verkenningsafdeling 4 (VkA-4), with 16 Lockheed 212 Lodestar (training and transport) and 8 DC-3 (transport).
A depot of air equipment was also set up.
- Royal Netherlands Navy Air Force Schools
MLD Flying School (from Sœrabaya to Brisbane River): 2 Dornier Do 24K-1 (used for advanced training), 1 Fokker T-IVa (for training), 3 Fokker C-XIVW (training), 40 Ryan STMs (training), 40 Ryan STM (training seaplanes), 3 PBY Catalina.
- Schools of the KNIL (Dutch East Indies Army)
The Army was also ordered to establish facilities in Australia to ensure the implementation of new equipment (especially armor) coming from the United States. These facilities were established in Brisbane as army units (reporting directly to General Ter Poorten) in the form of three new depot battalions (for armor, artillery and infantry). A training and transformation school was also created, with a technical and a tactical service.
The relocation of the KPM shipping company
The major shipping line KPM was run from Batavia and had important offices in Durban. KPM was ordered to establish a "mirror" of its headquarters in Batavia in Sydney, in order to allow for a more efficient transition of the administration and management of the company in the event of war. This measure was to give the government of the Netherlands control of its naval supply lines and a guarantee of their proper administration during the war.
The Royal Netherlands Army (KNIL)
On December 8, 1941, the KNIL troops totaled 1,000 officers and 34,000 men, including 25,000 "natives".
The rapid fall of the eastern part of Indonesia was accompanied by the evacuation of a number of men to the important logistical structures in Brisbane. Each of these surviving groups were small in number, but together they represented a sizeable force. Few of them had been able to do much against the Navy or Japanese Army troops, but they had only a greater desire for revenge. In total, it is estimated that at the fall of Indonesia, 12,000 to 20,000 men (Dutch and Indonesian), most of them poorly trained conscripts, had been transferred to Australia.
In December 1941, 400 men of the Marine Infantry were in Sœrabaya, in the barracks. On January 21, they left Java. The idea was to send 1,200 men to the United States, to follow a training with the American Marines and to form an armored battalion with 74 tanks, to serve with the US Marine Corps in the Pacific. This project didn't result in anything but six hundred men were eventually regrouped in Brisbane where they formed a Colonial Marine Infantry Battalion after brief training with instructors from the USMC.
About forty various aircraft, including a single Glenn Martin, made it to Australia, where a substantial number of other recently purchased Dutch aircraft were already located. About 1,500 air force personnel were able to do the same.
The Royal Netherlands Navy
After the end of the Indonesian campaign, the Dutch navy had only a few ships.
Two light cruisers: Tromp and Sumatra (the latter under reconstruction in the United States).
Four destroyers: Evertsen, Van Ghent, Van Nes, Witte de With.
The heavy gunboats Flores and Soemba.
The minelayer Prins van Oranje, undergoing repairs in Sydney after being hit by a bomb.
The minesweeper Eland Dubois (whose boiler is in urgent need of repair).
The seaplane supply ship Poolster.
The old battleship Soerabaja*, modified as a training ship and carrying the Royal Dutch Navy's officer training school and cadets.
The former KPM Swartenhondt (1924, 4661 GRT, 12.5 knots), converted into a training ship and transporting the Schools of the Goebeng (Sœrabaya) barracks.
The former mixed liner of the KPM Nieuw Holland (1928, 10,903 GRT, 15 knots), which, after having brought the personnel of the air force schools from Bandoeng, will be used as a troop transport**.
Four TM-4 class speedboats. These are very small vessels (59 feet long - 19.20 meters - and 18 tons), lightly armed (two light machine guns), but they are fast (36 knots) and carry two 450 mm torpedoes.
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A small convoy of unfinished ships had been evacuated from Sœrabaya before the arrival of the Japanese. The Castor (a small repair ship) had towed the minelayer / gunboat Ram, loaded with the components necessary for her completion, while the small Fakfak, Grissee and Garoet, although incomplete, were able to make their way by their own means.
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In the course of 1942, these units were joined by the aviso Van Kinsbergen (1,700 t, 25 knots), which served in the Caribbean, and by the minesweeper Willem van der Zaan (1,250 t, 15.5 knots), which was in the Indian Ocean.
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The whole thing was a minor force, but not a ridiculous one if it was concentrated. The small ships formed a light escort and minelaying/sweeping force based in Brisbane, much to the satisfaction of the Australian government, desperately short of such ships. The two cruisers and the four destroyers, after repairs and modernization, formed a small squadron based in Sydney. These units were later reinforced by various ships (notably destroyers) transferred by the British or the Americans and armed by the survivors of the ships sunk during the Japanese invasion.
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On February 1st, 1942, the Dutch submarine force in the Far East had only five operational submarines (plus three complete crews, which waited for long months for ships and their supply ship Zuiderkruis. The four most modern submarines (K-XI, K-XII, K-XV and O-19) joined more or less quickly - directly or after a detour via Australia - to the new British base in Colombo/Port Blair, where they were temporarily integrated into the reconstituted 4th Flotilla. Deemed too old, the K-X remained in Australia: transferred to Sydney, it played the modest but useful role of a training unit for the Royal Australian Navy's anti-submarine forces. The base ship Zuiderkruis also remained in Australia: loaded with equipment brought back from Sœrabaya, it supported British or American submarines operating from the ports of the eastern coast, Brisbane or Cairns.
The submarines attached to the 4th British Flotilla were to receive successively, between May and October 1942, the reinforcement of three modern units transferred from European waters, the O-23, O-24 and O-21. This contribution allowed them to regain their autonomy by setting up an East India Submarine Flotilla, or 2nd Dutch Flotilla (the 1st, based in Great Britain, operated in Europe). This flotilla comprised two divisions: the 1st Division comprised the three Ks, the 2nd Division the four Os. The Dutch Flotilla was to operate in the Indian Ocean alongside the 4th and 10th British Flotillas within a Joint British-Dutch Submarine Force inspired by the example of the Joint British-French Submarine Force set up in Malta at the end of July 1941.
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Let us recall here the fate of the other Dutch submarines based in Indonesia on December 8th, 1941.
K-VII, K-VIII, K-IX, K-XIII: lost by bombing at Sœrabaya.
K-XIV: torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off Sœrabaya.
K-XVI, K-XVII: sunk off Kuching.
K-XVIII: grounded off Singapore.
O-16: destroyed by a mine off Singapore.
O-20: sunk in the South China Sea.
* If the name of the city has been modernized, the spelling of the old ship was official until 1947.
** From May 1940, the two ships of the KPM were used as troop transports by the Royal Navy. As the Japanese threat became clearer, they were put at the disposal of the Royal Netherlands Navy in September 1941.
