It looks like I’m not as well informed as I thought.
There is a reference here http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/timor/transcript.asp to Dutch troops landing at Dili in December 1941, so your grandfather might indeed have been stationed there.
Brad Manera has left the AWM, but the AWM is usually very helpful to people who want information.
You might find that the Australia-Japan Research Project part of the AWM can help you. http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/
Found some old pictures dating back to the late 1930’s. one has a scribble on the back referring to “15 battalion, 2nd company”.
Will go do some research but if you have any info re this unit let me know please.
Mobilized Order of Battle
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/_knil_army.html
Mobilized Order of Battle
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
Territorial Command – Timor and Dependencies
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/tc_timor.html
Mobilized Order of Battle
Netherlands East Indies Army
Java
1st Military Department and Ist Division
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/01-afd.htm
Mobilized Order of Battle
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
Java
2nd Military Department and IInd Division
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/02-afd.htm
Mobilized Order of Battle
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
Java
3rd Military Department and IIIrd Division
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/03-afd.htm
Mobilized Order of Battle
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
Java
Army Aviation
12 December 1941
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/016_netherlands/41-12-08/army_air.html
He lives!!!
thx for the information !!
The saddest thing about the Dutch experience in Indonesia is that they were unable to inspire the loyalty of the native Indonesian population. The Indos - or mixed Dutch/Indonesian/Chinese - population was much more loyal but few in number, comparatively. The British by contrast were able to avail themselves of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops who fought well and hard for them in North Africa and Burma and even served as occupation troops for a while in Indonesia after the war, although they did not like this service. In the Phillipines the locals infuriated the Japanese by remaining loyal to the Americans who had promised them independence after the war. There were by some accounts, roughly 100,000 guerrillas operating in the Phillipines when the Americans returned. A little told but interesting story concerns the continued success and determination of the Dutch u-boat (onderzee booten, or duikbooten) service in the Pacific during the war. I wish the Dutch had been more aware of the fact that despite their hundreds-of-years of colonization of Indonesia, they forged few lasting bonds with the Indonesian population. When the chips were down, they were betrayed at every turn.
Generaal TerPoorten’s son, Ari Terpoorten, his wife and his children - Ari Junior, Hein and Martinike - were life-long friends of mine/ours in Houston. The general’s son and his family spent the war imprisoned in camps in Indonesia. Ari, the general’s son, was an engineer who worked postwar for Brown and Root in Houston (now KBR) until he retired from the company. I’m not clear on what the General’s son did during the war because he was of military age at the time. My parents would visit nearly every Sunday. Both my parents were of mixed Dutch-Indonesian descent (Indos). But my parents spent the war in Holland. They would speak Dutch and occasionally throw in a smattering of Malay words which they had all picked up in Indonesia. There were a lot of Dutch in Houston who came from Indonesia and who preferred the outrageous heat and humidity of that Texas city.
Hi there,
I have in the Netherlands a similar topic going about the KNIL.
I will be posting some video’s en photo’s in the near future.
The Uniform is from after 1942, before that time they wore the green ( Garoet ) you can see on the first page.
These are some video’s from YouTube:
Queensday parade 1941
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fro5Jw9Ztlw
Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger - Propagandafilm 1941
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUX34BYRXZg
Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ) 1942 battle against Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWY7XMkXuFI
Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger - Propagandafilm 1942
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNIMPzoaUGo
Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger - In Australia 1943
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8OXCHq6CW8
George,. you still there?
there is one unit that might interest you,. Legiun Mankunegaran,. established BY daendels,. Napoleon’s general,… and incorporated to KNIL soon after that.
wow, this threa is a great info for my collection of WW2, nice images !!!
Any truth in this?
I read recently in “Prisoners of the Japanese” by Gavan Daws that after WWII the Dutch government took the position that after the NEI surrendered the KNIL ceased to exist and that therefore the Dutch government had no responsibility to compensate those who suffered as POWs, although ultimately a settlement of sorts was reached many decades later.
Separate point that comes out in Daws’ book is that KNIL had by far the highest survival rate of Allied POWs, much of it attributable to their tropical experience and especially tropical medical experience which in many cases was ignored by English speaking Allied POW doctors with no tropical experience.
Daws also notes that the Japanese rated the Dutch as the least productive POW workers, which he suspects might have reflected a conscious policy by the Dutch to present themselves as inefficient so that they weren’t expected to be as productive as other Allied prisoners and therefore weren’t worked as hard.
Overall impression is that Dutch were the best equipped to survive as POWs, and did better than other Allied prisoners because of that.
I did post some times back, that my uncle was part of KNIL in northern celebes, they’re local inhabitants, instead of surrendering to the Japanese, they simply blended to the forest.
KNIL recruited locals for their units and garrisoned them within their homes, so this also gained some respect from the local populations.
They will be sent away from their home only when reinforcement needed in some conflict areas.
A docu about the history of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2RYcv-yPQY
The Colonial Reserve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlKTVVjA4-0&hd=1
The battle of Java 1942
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScJKiU1jk4
The Aceh war 1873-1914
My great grandfather was a KNIL soldier. I’ve got great pictures of the fronts. A tank, armored cars in a village with on the background even a medical bay because you can see the redcross flag. But that will be posted at some later time.
Sorry it took so long to get back to you - the ship my father photographed around 1934 in Indonesia was the USS Astoria. The Astoria is permanently berthed, sadly, on the sea floor off Savo Island.