Mauritz Christiaan Kokkelink was one of the leading figures in an extraordinary resistance story in Dutch New Guinea during the Second World War. After Japanese forces occupied Manokwari in April 1942, a mixed group of KNIL military personnel and civilians withdrew into the interior and continued resistance for more than two years.
Kokkelink eventually assumed command of the surviving group. In October 1944, contact was finally established with a NEFIS party sent from Australia, allowing the survivors to be evacuated. Kokkelink subsequently came to Australia, where his courage and leadership were formally recognised at Camp Columbia in Brisbane.
From the KNIL to resistance in New Guinea
Mauritz Christiaan Kokkelink was born on 17 June 1913 at Fort Willem I in Ambarawa, Netherlands East Indies. He joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) on 26 March 1931 as a fusilier and subsequently became a militia sergeant.
Following the Japanese advance into Dutch New Guinea, a resistance group of approximately sixty military personnel and civilians withdrew from the Manokwari area into the jungle on 12 April 1942. The group was initially commanded by KNIL Captain J.B.W. Geeroms.
Among those who accompanied the military personnel were civilians, including the sixteen-year-old Coosje Ayal, her uncle Seth Nahuwae and her aunt.
The group established itself in the difficult terrain of the Vogelkop and attempted to continue resistance against the Japanese. Its members gathered intelligence, conducted patrols and raids, and relied heavily on hidden stores and assistance from local Papuan communities.
Survival in the jungle
Conditions steadily deteriorated. Japanese forces searched for the resistance group while illness, hunger and the physical demands of moving through mountainous tropical terrain took their toll.
By late 1943 the group had divided in an attempt to reduce the danger of discovery.
On 18 April 1944 Japanese forces attacked one of the resistance camps. Captain Geeroms and others were captured, while a number of members were killed. Geeroms was subsequently executed by the Japanese.
The surviving resistance fighters regrouped under Sergeant Kokkelink.
Despite exhaustion, hunger and greatly reduced numbers, Kokkelink and his companions continued their resistance during the following months.
NEFIS Party RADISH finds the survivors
By 1944 reports had reached the Dutch authorities in Australia that a resistance group might still be operating in the interior of Dutch New Guinea.
In September, the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service sent Party RADISH to establish contact.
The mission initially encountered difficulties when members of the NEFIS party were injured during their landing and were unable to penetrate far enough into the jungle to reach Kokkelink themselves. Two Papuan scouts therefore carried a message inland.
On 22 September 1944 they reached Kokkelink’s group. The message informed the survivors that arrangements were being made to evacuate them to Australia.
After more than two years isolated behind Japanese lines, the guerrillas were understandably suspicious. Nevertheless, they followed the Papuan scouts and on 4 October made contact with Party RADISH.
The surviving members of the resistance group were subsequently evacuated and eventually brought to Australia.
Their rescue provides an important link between the resistance inside Dutch New Guinea and the Dutch and Indonesian intelligence organisation operating from wartime Australia.
From New Guinea to Camp Columbia
Kokkelink and the other survivors arrived in an Australia that had become the principal base for Dutch and Netherlands East Indies military and administrative operations.
Camp Columbia at Wacol in Brisbane was by then the main centre for many of these organisations.
Kokkelink’s courage and leadership during the resistance in Dutch New Guinea resulted in his appointment as a Knight 4th Class of the Military Order of William, the Netherlands’ highest military decoration for courage, leadership and loyalty. His appointment was made by Royal Decree No. 17 of 12 April 1945.
The decoration itself was formally presented at Camp Columbia on 6 August 1945 by Lieutenant-General Ludolph van Oyen, commander of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.
A remarkable series of photographs records the ceremony and parade at Camp Columbia. They show Kokkelink with senior Dutch and Netherlands Indies officials, including Van Oyen and Lieutenant Governor-General Hubertus van Mook, as well as members of the KNIL Women’s Corps and other military personnel.
The Camp Columbia ceremony thus provides a direct link between the resistance maintained for more than two years in the jungles of Dutch New Guinea and the Dutch and Netherlands East Indies wartime community established in Brisbane.
From left to right: Nahuwae, soldier Sagrang, soldier Soeha (Soendan), soldier Guus de Mey, sergeant M.Ch. Kokkelink, soldier P.P. de Kock, Coosje Ayal-Nahuwae, fourier A.J.C. Beaufort, Private R. Jaquard, Private L. Attinger and Private Sandiman.
Dutch flag of the Manokwari resistance group, 1942–1945
One of the remarkable surviving objects associated with the Manokwari resistance is a Dutch tricolour carried by the group. The flag consists of red and blue woollen strips and a white cotton strip on which the names of the seventeen surviving members of the resistance group were recorded.
The flag became closely associated with Kokkelink and the survivors of the long guerrilla campaign in Dutch New Guinea. It was later sent to Queen Wilhelmina and is now preserved in the collection of Museum Bronbeek in Arnhem, where it forms part of the history of the Netherlands East Indies during the Second World War.
Military Order of William ceremony at Camp Columbia – 6 August 1945
The following pictures are from the archives of the Royal Netherlands Army.
Translation of the Royal Degree
Wij vochten in het bos – We fought in the jungle
Kokkelink later recorded his experiences in Wij vochten in het bos, published in 1956. The book provides a first-hand account of the resistance group’s struggle for survival in Dutch New Guinea during the Japanese occupation.
A Dutch-Australian connection was added many years later when Henri Licht translated Kokkelink’s account into English as We fought in the jungle: My guerrilla struggle in New Guinea in the Second World War.
As Kokkelink’s own account, the book is an important primary source for the history of the Manokwari resistance. It should nevertheless be read alongside later historical research and archival records, which provide additional perspectives on the roles of the other members of the group, the Papuan population and the NEFIS operation that eventually established contact with the survivors. See: We fought in the jungle
Sources and further reading
Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie (NIMH), “De Groep van 17” – detailed account of the Manokwari resistance group and its survival until contact with Allied forces.
Twan van den Brand, “Guerrilla in de jungle”, Historisch Nieuwsblad – useful reconstruction of the resistance and Kokkelink’s subsequent decoration in Brisbane on 6 August 1945.
DutchCulture, “Camp Columbia: a project connecting shared WWII and colonial histories of Australia, the US and the Netherlands” – identifies the Camp Columbia parade of 6 August 1945 at which Kokkelink received the Military Order of William.
Mauritz Christiaan Kokkelink, Wij vochten in het bos (1956) – Kokkelink’s own account of the resistance in Dutch New Guinea.
Java Post, “Guerrillagroep overleefde 2,5 jaar in de jungle” – secondary account of the Manokwari resistance group.
Further DACC research
For related articles and research on NEFIS, Camp Columbia, the Indonesian presence in wartime Australia, and the activities of Dutch and Netherlands Indies organisations in New Guinea, Morotai and Borneo, see the DACC Research Portal – Dutch and Indonesian Intelligence and Special Operations from Australia during WWII.
