Dutch and Indonesian involvement in Allied special operations, 1942–1945
Research by Peter Dunn OAM
Following the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, Australia became a base for clandestine intelligence and special operations into Japanese-occupied territory.
These operations involved a complex and changing network of Australian, Dutch and Indonesian personnel and organisations. What began with the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) Section of Australia’s Inter-Allied Services Department developed into cooperation between Australian special-operations organisations and the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS). As Allied forces returned to the Netherlands East Indies in 1944–45, the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) also became increasingly involved.
Australian military historian and researcher Peter Dunn OAM has examined this development using the official wartime history of Australia’s Special Operations organisation, preserved in the National Archives of Australia.
His research brings together the Dutch and NEI references scattered throughout that extensive operational history and shows that Dutch and Indonesian participation was much more substantial than is sometimes recognised. Personnel from the Netherlands East Indies participated in clandestine missions, intelligence gathering and guerrilla operations, while Dutch submarines and aircraft helped insert and retrieve agents operating behind Japanese lines.
The history was also one of changing responsibilities. The early mixed Australian–Dutch–Indonesian NEI Section was followed by a growing NEFIS operational capability and cooperation with Australian intelligence organisations. By 1945, special operations increasingly intersected with NICA’s preparations for the restoration of Netherlands Indies civil administration.
Peter Dunn’s research provides an important chronological overview of this development and a framework for the more detailed articles on NEFIS, training establishments, communications networks, individual agents and clandestine missions brought together in this DACC Research Portal.
Read the complete research paper
Peter Dunn OAM, Dutch Involvement in Special Operations
Principal archival source
The Official History of the Operations and Administration of Special Operations – Australia (SOA), also known as the Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD) and Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), Volume 2 – Operations, National Archives of Australia.
