Rob Hees and the first intelligence mission from Australia
Robbert Theophile “Rob” Hees was a civil engineer, KNIL reserve officer and leader of Party LION, one of the earliest Netherlands East Indies intelligence parties dispatched from Australia into Japanese-occupied territory.
Hees and his companions volunteered for an extraordinarily dangerous mission from Darwin to Celebes in June 1942. After being betrayed by local contacts, they were captured, interrogated and tortured by the Japanese military police. Hees and the other two members of Party LION were publicly beheaded at Makassar on 14 September 1942.
Engineer and public servant
Rob Hees was born at Gending near Probolinggo, Java, on 13 June 1901. He studied at the Technische Hogeschool in Bandung as a member of its first generation of engineering students and qualified in 1924.
He subsequently worked on irrigation and public-works projects across Java and Celebes. His appointments included work with the Serayu irrigation division, the Solo Valley works, the Brantas irrigation division and the major Sadang irrigation works in Celebes.
Hees also became involved in local government and served on representative bodies in Kediri. By the beginning of the Pacific War, his engineering and administrative career had given him extensive knowledge of Celebes, its infrastructure and local communities.
He had married Erna Petronella Jasper in 1928. They had two children, Johan Theophile and Mathilde Alida. His wife died in 1931 and his daughter died in the Netherlands in 1940.
Escape to Australia
After the Japanese invasion, Hees sought permission from the military authorities to escape rather than become a prisoner of war.
On 25 March 1942, Hees, Sergeant Gerritsen and KNIL Brigadier Verbraak obtained a small diesel vessel at Malili through the local civil administrator, J.T.K. Poll. Accompanied by an Indonesian crew, they sailed from Celebes and reached Darwin in early April 1942.
Hees subsequently travelled to Melbourne and reported on conditions in Celebes. He believed that resistance could be organised with the cooperation of a substantial part of the local population.
From 1 May 1942, he held the rank of reserve first lieutenant of engineers in the KNIL.
Formation of Party LION
In June 1942, Australian and Dutch authorities received radio messages from First Lieutenant J.A. de Jong, who was leading a resistance group of approximately 150 men near Lake Poso and Kolonodale in Central Celebes.
The reports suggested that an organised guerrilla force remained active and might provide the basis for an intelligence network behind Japanese lines.
Lieutenant-Commander J.J. Quéré assembled a small reconnaissance party composed entirely of volunteers:
- Reserve First Lieutenant Robbert Theophile Hees, leader;
- Telegraphist First Class Bernard Belloni; and
- Naval Militiaman J.A. “Hans” Brandon.
Hees was selected partly because of his detailed knowledge of Central and Southeast Celebes.
The party’s principal assignment was to gather intelligence about Japanese activities in Southeast Celebes, particularly around the important airfield at Kendari. Its secondary task was to establish contact with the resistance forces led by De Jong and Van Daalen.
The men carried a portable radio and trade goods intended to support their cover as itinerant traders.
Voyage from Darwin
The original plan was to transport Party LION by submarine. When the submarine was unavailable because of repairs, the party was assigned the Samoa, a fourteen-metre motorised sailing prau.
Party LION departed Darwin on 24 June 1942 for a voyage of approximately 1,700 kilometres through waters controlled by Japanese naval and air forces.
Hees and his men went ashore near Wotoe on the Gulf of Bone. Australia received weak radio signals from the party on 11 July, but the message could not be deciphered. Nothing further was received.
Betrayal and capture
Near Wotoe, Hees contacted Madoesa, one of his former overseers, and asked for assistance obtaining transport towards Poso. Madoesa became frightened and informed a local official, who notified the Japanese.
Realising that their presence had been betrayed, Party LION hurriedly left Wotoe aboard the Samoa and sailed towards Kolonodale.
After anchoring south of the town, several members of the prau’s crew received permission to go ashore for supplies but did not return. Another local contact, Aboebakar, offered to carry a message to the resistance fighters but also disappeared.
One or more of these contacts disclosed the party’s position to the Japanese. On 12 or 13 July, Japanese forces attacked the Samoa. Hees and his companions initially resisted with machine-gun fire, but the arrival of a Japanese gunboat made further resistance impossible.
The members of Party LION were captured and taken to Menado, where they were interrogated and tortured by the Kempeitai. They were subsequently transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp at Makassar.
Hees’s final account
Before being placed in a cell at Makassar, Hees was briefly able to move through the camp and recount what had happened.
Among those who heard his account were public-works official O.M. Bakhoven, civil administrator J.T.K. Poll and medical officer H.J.B.J. Lubbers. Their testimony later enabled the fate of Party LION to be reconstructed.
On 14 September 1942, Hees, Belloni and Brandon were publicly beheaded together with three other servicemen accused of attempting to escape.
Their remains were initially buried at Makassar and were later reinterred at the Netherlands Field of Honour Ancol in Jakarta.
Posthumous recognition
By Royal Decree of 1 April 1947, Rob Hees was posthumously awarded the Bronze Lion for his courage and conduct during Party LION.
His mission demonstrated both the determination of the first intelligence volunteers operating from Australia and the severe limitations under which the early parties were organised. Information about occupied territory was fragmentary, training and transport were inadequate, and the agents depended upon local contacts whose loyalties and circumstances could not be assessed safely.
Party LION consequently became the first of several intelligence missions from Australia that ended in betrayal, capture and execution.
The Dutch-language document
The following Dutch-language document contains a much more extensive account of Rob Hees and Party LION. It incorporates research undertaken by genealogist H. Hees in cooperation with Hees’s son, Johan Theophile Hees.
The document includes information about Hees’s family and engineering career, his escape to Australia, the preparation and fate of Party LION and other NEFIS operations in the occupied Netherlands East Indies. It also records the names of numerous Dutch, Indonesian, Australian and other Allied personnel who participated in these missions.
Reference guide to the Dutch-language document
The following reference guide records the people, operations, vessels, organisations and locations mentioned in the document. It has been retained to assist family researchers and historians in identifying individuals and connecting Party LION with the wider history of intelligence operations from Australia.
1. People
- Rob Hees (1901–1942) – Leader of Party Lion, reserve 1st lieutenant KNIL, civil engineer.
- Bernard Belloni – KNIL telegraphist, Party Lion member.
- Hans (J.A.) Brandon – Naval militia member, Party Lion.
- J.A. de Jong – Guerrilla leader in Central Celebes.
- Van Daalen – Guerrilla leader operating with de Jong.
- Adjutant Sakai – Japanese Kempeitai officer involved in execution of Goldfish I personnel.
- J.J. Quéré – Lieutenant at sea, organiser of NEFIS parties.
- O.M. ir. Bakhoven – Public Works official in Makassar, recipient of Hees’ last account.
- J.T.K. Poll – Binnenlands Bestuur (BB) official who provided the boat for escape from Celebes.
- H.J.B.J. Lubbers – Medical officer who spoke to Hees in captivity.
- H.M. Staverman – Sergeant ARO, executed in Whiting mission.
- L.G. Sifflet – Australian sergeant, executed in Whiting mission.
- Raden Wirjomihardjo Iswahjoedi – Sergeant, Tiger II.
- Sadimoen – Sailor 1st class, Tiger II.
- H.P. Nijgh – Lieutenant at sea 2nd class, Flounder.
- Malauw – Sergeant, Flounder.
- Hetharia – Corporal, Flounder.
- Pattiwael – Soldier 1st class, Flounder/Whiting.
- Pangariboen – Soldier 1st class, Flounder.
- Rering – Fusilier, Flounder.
- Laratmasehen – Fusilier, Flounder.
- Matratan – Fusilier, Flounder.
- W. Bergsma – Lieutenant at sea 2nd class, Tiger I.
- J. Tapilatoe – Sailor 1st class, Tiger I.
- Soetarno – Naval telegraphist, Tiger I.
- B. Brocx – Lieutenant at sea 3rd class, Tiger II.
- D. Lapod – Sergeant ARO, Tiger III.
- Raden Mas Soejitno – Corporal, Tiger IV.
- Oentoeng – Sailor 2nd class, Tiger V.
- Sri Nojo Papilaja – Corporal, Tiger VI.
- C.R. Sheldon – Major, Australia, Walnut I.
- N.P. Monsted – Danish reserve 1st lieutenant, Walnut II.
- J.A. Blok – Sergeant, Walnut II.
- Plumridge – Australian telegraphist, Walnut II.
- J.H. Dahlberg – Australian sergeant, Walnut II.
- G.W. Mitchell – British India personnel, Walnut II.
- Clements – Prau crew member, Walnut II.
- Christoffel Tifents – Prau crew, Walnut II.
- Simon Paitkain – Prau crew, Walnut II.
- Achmed Leksailaisa – Prau crew, Walnut II.
- Salmon Farsin – Prau crew, Walnut II.
- Manoppo – Sergeant (KM), Apricot.
- H.J. de Haas – Second lieutenant, Goldfish I.
- Soeprapto – Sergeant, Goldfish I.
- H. Brouwer – Sergeant, Potato.
- J.H.M. Arroo – Sergeant, Potato.
- J.M.R. van der Bijl – Sergeant, Potato.
Bernard Belloni – listed above – is mentioned in the book about his nephew Claude Belloni .
2. Operations / Missions
- Party Lion (Central Celebes, 1942)
- Tiger I – VI (East Java, various years)
- Flounder (Ceram, South Moluccas)
- Walnut I & II (Aroe Islands)
- Whiting (New Guinea, Hollandia)
- Apricot (North Celebes)
- Goldfish I (Sumbawa)
- Potato (Kemirian)
See: NEFIS III and Dutch special operations from Australia during WWII
3. Ships / Vessels
- Samoa – Prau used in Party Lion.
- KXII – Dutch submarine.
- Searaven – US submarine.
- Urania – Japanese gunboat.
4. Organisations / Units
- NEFIS – Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service.
- NEFIS-III – Section responsible for field parties.
- KNIL – Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.
- Binnenlands Bestuur (BB) – Dutch colonial civil administration.
- Kempeitai – Japanese military police.
- ARO – abbreviation appearing in the original source in connection with several military personnel; its precise expansion requires further verification.
5. Places
- Darwin (Australia)
- Melbourne (Australia)
- Sydney (Australia)
- Fremantle (Australia)
- Wotoe (Central Celebes/Sulawesi)
- Kolonedale (Central Celebes)
- Menado (North Celebes)
- Makassar (South Celebes)
- Ereveld Antjol (Jakarta)
- Sadangwerken (Celebes irrigation works)
- Poso / Posomeer (Central Celebes)
- Ceram (South Moluccas)
- Hollandia (New Guinea)
- Tami (New Guinea)
- Bena Bena (New Guinea)
- Aitape (New Guinea)
- Woma (New Guinea)
- Nemo (New Guinea)
- Djiko Dodapbaai (North Celebes)
- Sumbawa (Lesser Sunda Islands)
- Kemirian (location unclear, in Indonesia)
Sources and further reading
H. Hees, Geschiedenis van vijf generaties Hees, 2011, pp. 93–100, prepared in cooperation with Johan Theophile Hees.
J.J. Nortier, Acties in de Archipel: de intelligence-operaties van NEFIS III in de Pacific-oorlog, 1985.
L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, vol. 11b, Nederlands-Indië II, 1985.
Mars et Historia, vol. 15, no. 5, September–October 1981.
NEFIS III: Dutch and Indonesian Special Operations from Australia during WWII
